Trump pushing Kyiv to yield: Zelenskiy

‘DANGEROUS MOVES’: Zelenskiy offered not to target Russian energy in exchange for US missiles, while Putin called for a meeting with Trump and Xi on ending the war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused US President Donald Trump of trying to pressure Kyiv into surrendering to Russia, escalating a week-long row with Trump.

In an interview with Bloomberg in Kyiv, Zelenskiy also offered a new proposal to accede to Trump’s request to stop targeting Russian refineries, which was aimed at combating high diesel prices, in exchange for deliveries of more Patriot air-defense missiles.

“Now, we have dangerous days ahead of the elections,” Zelenskiy said on Sunday, referring to the Nov. 3 midterms in the US. “My latest model was: We don’t target Russian diesel, you give us missiles for Patriot systems to protect our facilities. But they just want us to stop attacking diesel. And if we strike that, they will disconnect us from something.”

People carry their belongings as they leave their office following a Russian air attack in Kyiv yesterday.

Photo: AP

While offering an off-ramp from the escalating row, Kyiv is likely to be unsettled by a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report that Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a meeting with Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) next month to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

As relations between the US and Ukraine reached a new low, Zelenskiy laid out what he said were a series of unfriendly moves by Washington toward Kyiv.

Those include the deliberate slowing of Starlink Internet speeds, which are crucial for Ukrainian troops fighting Russia, and delaying already scarce deliveries of Patriot interceptors for ballistic missiles, which have become a nightmare for Ukrainian cities, he said.

“I believe steps have been taken to convince Ukraine to capitulate,” Zelenskiy said. “I am not saying that this is the goal our partners are pursuing. I don’t want to think that our American partners believe the war” against Russia “could be ended sooner at Ukraine’s expense. But that’s how it looks.”

Kyiv came under a Russian ballistic missile attack late on Sunday that killed at least one person, local authorities said.

Preliminary information indicated that a missile hit a medical center, they said.

Once again, the US did not share any early warning with Ukraine about the launch, said a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing security issues. Without that warning, it was harder for Ukraine to repel the attack, as well as to alert civilians with enough time for them to proceed to shelters.

Tensions between Ukraine and the US reached a nadir after Trump struck a deal with Putin under which Washington would refrain from further tightening sanctions on Russia in exchange for Moscow supplying limited volumes of diesel to the global market to curb rising prices.

Trump sparked blowback from members of his own party when he said late on Friday he would waive part of a new Russia sanctions law named after the late US senator Lindsey Graham.

Trump said later on Sunday that he went ahead with the diesel export deal and sanctions waiver, because he did not want to drive Putin away from peace talks, while asserting that Zelenskiy wanted to prolong the war.

“He doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did,” Trump wrote of Zelenskiy. “He could have made a better deal two years ago than he can now. His country is in shambles, a large portion of his land is lost, his oceans and seas are gone, and his male population is low, wounded, and/or dead. I WANT THIS WAR END!”

Asked about the WSJ’s report of a trilateral meeting among Putin, Xi and Trump, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: “I think there’s been talks of a meeting,” but nothing has been finalized.

The US president is open to anything he can do to bring an end to the conflict and wants diplomatic efforts involving Russia and Ukraine to advance, he said.

“No one is winning that war,” Rubio told reporters during a visit to Uzbekistan.

When asked at a regular press briefing in Beijing about the report, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mao Ning (毛寧) said she had no information to share.

“I think that the president of the United States does have a good relationship with Putin,” Zelenskiy said, speaking before the WSJ story was published. “But one thing doesn’t work here. Currently, Trump can’t force Putin to end the war.”

Zelenskiy said that relations with Washington might improve after the US midterm elections.

“Politics is very aggressive during election time,” he said. “I think it is agony now, but after elections, life will continue and I believe it will be calmer.”