‘Time for Ukraine to get new president,’ says Trump after Zelensky condemns diesel deal

US President Donald Trump has said he thinks “it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president” as he responded to Volodymyr Zelensky’s criticism of the US diesel deal with Russia.

Zelensky warned a new deal to release millions of tonnes of Russian diesel into the US would provide Moscow with money to continue its war in Ukraine, calling it a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Speaking as he left the White House on Saturday, Trump said the Ukrainian president “wants to make problems for the world” by continuing to authorise attacks on Russian refineries.

“He’d better damn well stop,” Trump said before suggesting Ukraine should “get a new leader who can make a deal”.

Russia and Ukraine have recently intensified their strikes, targeting energy-generating and transport facilities, as well as major logistics hubs.

“We said, ‘you can do whatever you want to Russia, don’t hit the refineries’, because that’s a world problem that’s caused,” he said.

“He could have made many deals and for some reason, he never does.”

The US president confirmed on Friday that an agreement had been reached with Moscow to suspend sanctions on Russian diesel exports until 7 April.

Zelensky reacted by saying it would allow Moscow to raise new funds to source new military equipment to continue the war.

He also accused Moscow of taking the deal “to mean they can keep fighting, to mean they keep dropping bombs on cities” following deadly new strikes on Zaporizhzhia.