Trump Calls For New President In Ukraine, Blames Zelenskyy For Prolonging Russian War
Trump Calls For New President In Ukraine, Blames Zelenskyy For Prolonging Russian War
Trump made the remarks on Saturday, October 10, while leaving for Tennessee, where he was scheduled to campaign for Republican candidates ahead of the US midterm elections.
The United States President, Donald Trump, has called for Ukraine to replace President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accusing the Ukrainian leader of failing to reach a peace agreement with Russia and contributing to problems over rising fuel prices in the United States.
Trump made the remarks on Saturday, October 10, while leaving for Tennessee, where he was scheduled to campaign for Republican candidates ahead of the US midterm elections.
According to Trump, Zelenskyy had opportunities to negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war but repeatedly failed to take them.
“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 AP.
Trump has increasingly criticised Zelenskyy in recent weeks as he pushes for an end to the war, while also urging Ukraine to halt attacks on Russian energy infrastructure.
The US president has also linked Ukraine’s military operations to rising diesel prices in the United States, despite the broader impact of global energy disruptions, including the US-led war in Iran, on fuel markets.
“He wants to make problems for the world. He wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers, with diesel fuel,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments came a day after he said he had reached an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin to purchase diesel from Russia as his administration seeks to ease fuel-price pressures ahead of the November midterm elections.
The president has repeatedly argued that the Russia-Ukraine war could have been prevented had he been in the White House when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
“If I had been president, that war would have never started,” Trump said. “There was no reason that that war with Ukraine and Russia started. It started due to incompetence.”
Trump also blamed Zelenskyy for the scale of the devastation caused by the conflict, claiming that Ukraine had lost a significant portion of its territory and that millions of people had been killed or displaced.
“Zelenskyy has lost 30% of your country and you’ve had over a million people go between the two of them, over 2 million people killed,” Trump said.
“That is a war that should have never started. And I think it is time for Ukraine to get a new president.”
However, independent assessments put the portion of Ukrainian territory currently under Russian control at about 20%, rather than the 30% claimed by Trump.
British defence officials have also estimated that roughly 500,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the conflict, although there is no reliable recent figure for Ukrainian military deaths.
Trump’s renewed attack on Zelenskyy comes amid mounting pressure from Washington on Kyiv to accept negotiations with Moscow and reduce military action against Russian energy targets.
Meanwhile, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in September and published on October 1 showed that Americans largely disapproved of Trump’s handling of the conflict in Iran and were more likely to blame his administration for rising prices.
Trump’s comments further highlight the growing tension between Trump and Zelenskyy as Washington seeks to broker an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year.
