US President Donald Trump has accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of never having wanted to end the war with Russia, in a weekend post that marks a further deterioration in relations between Washington and Kyiv.
Writing on his Truth Social platform on October 18, Trump said that given the money Europe was supplying and the funds provided earlier by former president Joe Biden, Zelensky “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did”.
The Ukrainian leader could have obtained better terms two years ago, he argued. Ukraine was in ruins, Trump added, with much of its territory lost, its access to the sea gone and its male population depleted.
The post defended the executive order Trump signed late on October 16, waiving almost all the sanctions and tariffs set out in the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act two days before they were due to take effect.
Enforcing the measures now would drive Russia away from the negotiating table, he said, adding that he could apply them whenever he chose. Trump signed the legislation into law in September, weeks after it cleared the US House of Representatives with bipartisan support.
The waiver follows the diesel agreement announced on October 9, under which Russia is to supply hundreds of thousands of tonnes of fuel to American and world markets. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has warned that the arrangement grants Moscow legitimacy and weakens the effect of Western sanctions.
Trump also blamed Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries for higher fuel prices, saying American farmers, ranchers and businesses were suffering while Russia continued to ship cheap diesel.
Zelensky told NBC’s Meet the Press the same day that it would be a “historic mistake” for Washington to side with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He said he had spoken to US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and thanked Washington for restoring intelligence sharing after a three-day interruption. Restrictions remained on the military version of the Starlink satellite service used by Ukrainian forces, he added, a decision the Trump administration denies having taken.
The European Union has been moving the other way. Member states adopted a 22nd package of sanctions on October 12, which the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas described as the largest single expansion of its listings since the invasion began.
European capitals backed Zelensky over the diesel deal at their summit on October 15-16, though they committed no new money. Putin has proposed meeting Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping next month to discuss the war, according to The Wall Street Journal, in talks that would not include Ukraine.
