Donald Trump has claimed that Volodymyr Zelensky “never wanted to end” the war with Russia as he escalated his attacks on the Ukrainian president.
Over the past few weeks, the relationship between the US and Ukraine has rapidly declined after Washington announced it would pause sanctions on Moscow and import fuel.
The rift between the two powers deepened on Sunday when Trump posted on Truth Social that Zelensky “doesn’t want to end this war”.
He said: “Frankly, with all of the money that Europe is famously giving him, and that crooked Joe Biden gave him in the past, he doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did.”
The recent feud began when the US agreed to import Russian diesel in a bid to reduce spiralling fuel costs. Diesel now costs $6.51 per gallon in the US, compared to $3.89 per gallon last year.
Trump said Zelensky was “using Diesel refineries in Russia as a target, knowing that these attacks are seriously hurting the world diesel markets”.
On Friday night, Trump U-turned on sanctions he had agreed to place on Russia when he signed them into law in September.
The satellite internet network Starlink was also purposefully slowed down above Ukraine, Kyiv said. The US secretary of state Marco Rubio denied the claims, telling The Telegraph Washington had “nothing to do” with the satellite’s slowing speed, which “just sort of happened”.
The Telegraph had previously reported that Musk proposed slowing down the satellite – which helps Kyiv intercept Russia’s drones - to Trump.
Ukraine struck key infrastructure in Russia with more than 1,000 drones on Sunday, killing one person. The drones hit an oil export terminal in St Petersburg, as well as a logistics centre owned by the retailer Ozon, and a data centre, run by VK.
Keir Giles, associate fellow of the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House, told The Independent that Ukraine would not pander to Trump’s demands.
He said: “The dependency of Ukraine on United States support is far less than it was in, for example, 2022. It's still plainly highly damaging if the Trump group or Elon Musk decide that they wish to exert punitive measures against Kyiv, but Kyiv has made the assessment that this is a cost that has to be borne for continuing to fight the war.”
Russia retaliated on Monday, firing 16 ballistic missiles at Kyiv and the surrounding region and more than 200 drones across the country, killing three people and damaging 10 energy facilities.
Zelensky said he received no warning from its partners, writing on Telegram: “When deliveries of missiles for Ukraine's air defence are blocked while Russia is granted relief or delays in sanctions, this is, unfortunately, a denial of reality on the part of our partners.”
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