Trump calls for replacing Zelenskyy in tussle over diesel deal with Russia

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a Republican campaign rally in Clarksville, Tennessee, on Saturday. | REUTERS

Reuters

Oct 11, 2026

U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday called for Ukraine to replace its leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy and railed against Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, a day after announcing a diesel supply deal with Russia that drew a sharp rebuke from Zelenskyy.

“I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal because he could have made many deals, but for some reason he never does,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.”

Zelenskyy, in some of his sharpest criticism yet of the White House, blasted Trump’s deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to lift sanctions on Russian diesel, which comes as soaring energy prices have become a political liability for Trump’s Republican Party ahead of next month’s midterm elections. The Russian government said on Saturday it had partially lifted a ban on diesel exports with immediate effect.

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