President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Donald Trump of attempting to pressure Ukraine to surrender to Russia, after the US president described the country as a "shambles" in a fresh social media post. Tensions between the two leaders have escalated following Trump's controversial deal with Moscow to import diesel and his branding of the Ukrainian president as "more difficult to deal with than Putin".
Trump's Truth Social post
Trump took to Truth Social to claim that the US is "in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine". His post defended his decision to prevent new sanctions from being placed on Moscow despite criticism, saying: "I can sign it later, or any time that I want!"
The post also launched a further attack on Zelensky, who Trump claimed "doesn't want to end this war", adding that "Zelensky doesn't care" and "his country is in shambles". Trump wrote that he does not "want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table".
Zelensky's response
Zelensky told NBC on Sunday that waiving sanctions against Russia would strengthen Putin's war effort and mark a "historic mistake" for Washington. He said: "People want to forget what's going on. But we can't give this possibility to forget, or to change reality, or to change the truth."
He added: "We can't compare me and Putin. He's aggressor. He occupied us. He killed adults and children, his soldiers. He's a terrorist. And that's why I hope that President Trump will be very clear with this position."
Strikes and diplomacy
This week Ukraine launched a new wave of strikes on Russian oil refineries, which Zelensky has claimed is standing up to the diesel deal he cannot accept. On Sunday, an oil export terminal and a depot were alight in St Petersburg as Kyiv launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia. Russia's defence ministry said it had destroyed 1,015 Ukrainian drones over 15 Russian regions, the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the Black Sea.
Ukraine did pause attacks on Russian oil facilities, but Zelensky said Russia had attacked Ukraine's energy, oil and gas sectors 76 times in the week since Trump's announcement, hence why it had resumed strikes. Later on Sunday, Zelensky posted on social media that he had spoken with US presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner following a meeting between US and Ukrainian negotiating teams in Miami on October 9, as well as "next steps in diplomacy". Trump concluded his post on Sunday with "I WANT THIS WAR END!"
