spoiler
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.
Speaking to the media 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.”
Trump 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 the relaxation of the penalties will 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.
On Saturday the EU’s foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas echoed Zelensky’s criticism, saying suspending sanctions “provides Moscow with more revenues to wage war”, adding: “This is not the time to ease pressure on Russia, and Europe won’t.”
She said European foreign ministers intended to approve the biggest set of sanctions on Russia since the start of its full-scale invasion on Monday.
The deal with Russia is the latest effort from Trump to lower fuel prices in the US ahead of the midterm elections, after months spent grappling with the political consequences of the Iran war.
That conflict, which began in February, has sent the cost of petrol and in particular diesel skyrocketing, which has soured his standing with the American public who have been stung by the higher pump prices and knock-on effects that led to across-the-board inflation.
“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.
I eagerly await the day that I will never have to think of Trump again, but I will miss his absolute disregard/inability to maintain neoliberal masks
It really is hilarious. He doesn’t give a shit about maintaining the façades and says all the quiet parts out loud.
CIA has a long history of disregarding presidents
It’s finally time for the prophecy
This headline makes me realize how confusing this war must be for liberals outside of hexbear.
They’re forced to conclude that Trump is a Russian asset otherwise the world would make absolutely no sense at all to them.
Will there be another attempt at Trump, this time by a Ukrainian neo Nazi for “betraying” Ukraine or will it be another zealous Slava Ukraini lib. Is polymarket taking bets?
There was already a Ukrainian neo-nazi attempt on Trump, except the teenager groomed to do it by Ukrainian nazis got caught after murdering his parents. The plan was apparently to use a drone and then blame it on Russia.
Lol it’s so over for Ukraine
As Sun Tzu said, “let your haters be your waiters at the table of success”. This guarantees success because their biggest ally is now their biggest hater.
Is this the closest a US politician has come to asking Ukraine to hold elections?
I know Trump has been ignoring Zelensky since he first returned to office and it seems like the US will completely abandon Ukraine, but what if the next two years are more of the same. Ukraine can’t continue the war without the US so I’m thinking we’ll continue the status quo where Trump plays both sides.
Yeah on some level I think this may just be to troll the libs in order to distract them with russiagate bullshit
three different rivals would beat [Zelensky] in a second-round election, each by a landslide margin of around two-to-one.
https://spectator.com/article/ukraine-is-losing-the-war-kushner-witkoff/
Mr Servant of the Nation learning “It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.”
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You guys just beat the Russians into submission and are now going to extract all their resources at a discount. The Americans and the EU just won this conflict. Cheap gas is back on the menu.
Not following this part. How have the Russians been beat into submission? They’re getting sanctions removed, selling not just to the US but on the global market, during historically high fuel prices due to the war on Iran.
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The point is that it isn’t at a discount, it’s far more expensive than what it was prior to the Ukraine/Russia war. And the war isn’t over, Russia is still occupying and taking Ukrainian territory.
This isn’t a ‘We stop the war if you sell us cheap gas.’ this is a ‘We will lift sanctions if you release gas to stabilize the fuel market. Otherwise, do what you want.’
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The high prices of fuel benefits some of the rich, not the bourgeois class as a whole. The issue lies more in the fact that the oil and gas industries and the state intelligence apparatuses are essentially one in the same. You can maintain some level of high prices, but eventually enough of the other bourgeois will not put up with that crap and will figure out a way to coup you.
Again, this isn’t evidence of Russia getting stomped on, it’s evidence of their bourgeois being able to place pressure on the U.S. state apparatus to get what they want without having to give up military ops. We can tell it is that because Ukraine is fucking pissed about it.
It isn’t a transfer of wealth from the civilians if the civilians never had access to the wealth in the first place. Russia is still a bourgeois state, even if they are winning the war.
Investment in Venezuela will take a literal decade to realize, most of these companies do not plan past quarters.
“We said, ‘you can do whatever you want to Russia, don’t hit the refineries’, because that’s a world problem that’s caused,”
It would be fun if Russia just show him middle finger
Time for conservatives to be rounded up and given to Russia as a gift.
