US President Donald Trump has said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is “not a good guy for us to deal with” and that any settlement ending the Ukraine War would not be reached with him.
Trump made the remarks in an interview with the US network Newsmax broadcast on October 15, after being asked about Ukraine’s resumption of strikes on Russian energy facilities.
Pressed on whether he had lost faith in the Ukrainian leader, Trump said he was not a big fan of Zelensky and accused him of claiming to want a settlement while refusing one. He also said Ukraine’s leadership had destroyed the country.
The US President traced the war back to the administration of Barack Obama, saying Kyiv had been made to give up Crimea, the most valuable part of Ukraine. Russia annexed the peninsula in February and March 2014 and no US administration required Ukraine to hand it over.
Trump said he found Zelensky harder to deal with than Russian President Vladimir Putin, while adding that both men would like to see the fighting stop. He had told reporters on October 12 that Putin wanted a deal more than Zelensky did.
Relations between Washington and Kyiv have deteriorated since October 9, when Trump announced an agreement for Russia to supply diesel to American and global markets. He declared an energy ceasefire two days later, a step Ukrainian officials said had taken them by surprise.
Kyiv suspended its refinery strikes after the announcement, though Russian attacks on the Ukrainian power grid continued. Zelensky told British presenter Piers Morgan on October 14 that he felt betrayed and that Ukraine was losing a strong partner.
Trump returned to his claim that the 2020 US presidential election had been rigged, saying the war would never have happened otherwise. Courts and official investigations have repeatedly rejected the allegation.
He also revisited the opening weeks of the invasion, when a Russian armoured column advancing on Kyiv stalled amid mechanical failures, fuel shortages and thawing ground. Trump said he did not know whether to call the outcome luck or bad luck, adding that Ukraine had lost very large numbers of men and that Russia could absorb its own losses.
Zelensky and Putin have met in person only once, at the Normandy format summit in Paris in December 2019.
For the European Union, the diesel deal raises the prospect of Russian fuel returning to Western markets at a moment when member states still take Russian-origin diesel routed through third countries. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has warned the arrangement risks legitimising Moscow, and a cross-party group of US senators has described it as a betrayal of Ukraine.
