US President Donald Trump said on Saturday, October 10, that Ukraine should replace its president, a day after he announced a deal with Moscow to suspend sanctions on Russian diesel exports. “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, according to the Guardian. The BBC reports that he told reporters outside the White House he thinks “it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.”
The remarks answered Volodymyr Zelensky’s public anger over the deal. The Ukrainian president called the agreement a “gift” to Russia’s Vladimir Putin and said “any easing of sanctions” would play into Russia’s hands, “allowing it to kill more, wage war for longer,” the Guardian reports. The Guardian says the announcement appeared to blindside Kyiv, since it came while Ukrainian negotiators sat in Miami for peace talks.
Trump framed the dispute around fuel. He said Zelensky “wants to make problems for the world” by continuing to authorise attacks on Russian refineries, and added: “He’d better damn well stop,” according to the BBC. “We said, ‘you can do whatever you want to Russia, don’t hit the refineries’, because that’s a world problem that’s caused,” Trump continued, the BBC reports. The Guardian adds that Trump blamed Zelensky for high diesel prices in the US.
The deal itself, as Trump described it, suspends sanctions on Russian diesel exports until April 7, the BBC reports. Under the plan, Russia would release an initial 300,000 tonnes of diesel followed by another 500,000 tonnes in November, then a further million and later 3 million tonnes, a final delivery Trump said would depend “on the condition of their diesel refineries,” according to the BBC, citing his Truth Social post. The BBC cites AAA figures putting the average US diesel price at $6.28 a gallon, up from $5.94 last month and $3.68 a year ago, and ties the spike to the US-Israeli war on Iran and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Moscow welcomed the remarks. Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev called Trump’s intervention “iconic and historic” and said Ukraine “needs leadership actually focused on peace,” the BBC reports. The Guardian reports that a Kremlin readout of Friday’s Trump-Putin call described it as “very substantive and friendly,” quoting aide Yuri Ushakov via Interfax: “Neither wanted to be the first to hang up.”
Kyiv tied the deal to new bloodshed. Ukrainian officials said Russian strikes on the south-east early on Saturday killed 20 people, including three children, the Guardian reports. “Today, Russia expressed its thanks for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia,” Zelensky said on social media, according to the Guardian.
European governments pushed back. Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, said the deal “provides Moscow with more revenues to wage war” and that EU foreign ministers intend on Monday to approve the biggest set of sanctions listings since the start of the war, according to the Guardian, which says the plan would add 1,600 individuals and entities. A Downing Street spokesperson said UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham offered Zelensky his “complete solidarity,” the BBC reports. Germany’s government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said Berlin “remains committed to the sanctions imposed on Russia,” and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson expressed “regret,” the Guardian reports.
The call for new leadership revives an older Trump theme. The BBC notes that Trump already called for new Ukrainian elections last December. Ukraine has stayed under martial law since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, which suspends elections, the BBC reports, so any vote would require the end of martial law first.
Open questions this desk will watch: whether Kyiv formally responds to the call for a new president; whether the Miami talks continue; whether the EU approves its new sanctions listings on Monday; and whether the first 300,000 tonnes of Russian diesel actually move to market.
