Trump says Ukraine needs new president, blames Zelenskyy for diesel prices

US President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky take part in a bilateral meeting in the Oval office of the White House in Washington, DC on August 18, 2025. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)

US President Donald Trump has called for Ukraine to elect a new president, accusing Volodymyr Zelenskyy of failing to negotiate an end to the war with Russia and contributing to rising diesel prices in the United States, the Associated Press reports.

Trump made the remarks on Saturday, a day after announcing a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the supply of diesel to US and global markets in a bid to ease rising fuel costs ahead of the November midterm elections.

“I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal because he could have made many deals and for some reason he never does,” Trump said.

He accused Zelenskyy of worsening global economic problems by continuing Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, arguing that the attacks were affecting American farmers and ranchers through higher diesel prices.

“He wants to make problems for the world. He wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers, with diesel fuel,” he said.

Trump also said the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, would not have started if he had been US president at the time.

“There was no reason that that war with Ukraine and Russia started. It started due to incompetence.

“That’s a war that should have never started. And I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president,” Trump said.

Trump further claimed that Ukraine had lost 30 per cent of its territory and that more than two million people had been killed in the conflict.

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However, the report noted that independent estimates put the proportion of Ukrainian territory under Russian control at about 20 per cent, while reliable recent figures for Ukrainian military and civilian deaths remain unavailable.

The remarks came after Russian strikes killed at least 20 people in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region on Saturday, according to Ukrainian officials.

Three children were among those killed when Russian aerial bombs hit residential buildings, while at least 18 people were wounded, the country’s State Emergency Service said.

Zelenskyy condemned the US-Russia diesel agreement, arguing that easing restrictions on Russian energy exports would provide Moscow with additional revenue to sustain its war effort.

“Russia’s choice is war,” he wrote in a Telegram post, urging Washington and other partners to limit Russia’s ability to finance its military operations.

The Ukrainian leader also accused Moscow of interpreting the easing of sanctions as permission to continue its attacks on Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure.

Trump announced on Friday that Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel, followed by 500,000 tonnes in November and a further one million tonnes thereafter. He said another three million tonnes would be delivered within a short period.

The US Treasury Department also issued a temporary licence permitting Russian diesel exports to the global market, marking a reversal of Washington’s previous efforts to restrict Moscow’s energy revenues over the invasion of Ukraine.