Donald Trump accuses Volodymyr Zelensky of "not wanting to end" the war with Russia

Donald Trump accused his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday October 19 of "not wanting to end" the war with Russia, against a backdrop of recent renewed tensions between Washington and kyiv. “He does not want to end this war and probably never wanted to,” attacked the American president on his Truth Social platform. Conversely, “I WANT THIS WAR TO END”, he wrote, in a message justifying his recent decisions favorable to Moscow.

A presidential executive order from Donald Trump exempted Russia from new US sanctions on Friday and an agreement between Washington and Moscow allowing the United States to import Russian diesel was announced a few days earlier. “I am negotiating peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine and I do not want to do anything that would stupidly remove Russia from the negotiating table,” Donald Trump further defends, affirming that “great progress is being made”.

Attempt to appease the Ukrainian president

The Republican president also repeats the link he makes between the Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries and the surge in diesel prices at the pump - one of the major issues of the imminent American mid-term legislative elections. Prices of refined petroleum products, particularly diesel, have surged since the first Israeli-US strikes on Iran in late February. Ukrainian strikes on Russian infrastructure have also fueled the rise in prices by depriving the market of many barrels of diesel.

In an attempt at appeasement, Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier in the day that he was "grateful" for Washington's resumption of intelligence sharing making it possible to alert kyiv of Russian ballistic attacks, after an interruption of "three days". On Thursday, Donald Trump described kyiv's resumption of strikes on Russian refineries as a "shame". “I think it is more difficult to work with Zelensky than with [Vladimir] Putin,” said the American president.