BRUSSELS — U.S. President Donald Trump called Ukraine’s renewed strikes on Russian oil refineries “a disgrace” and said Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “more difficult to deal with than Putin,” as European Union leaders gathered around the Ukrainian president at a summit in Brussels on Friday, BBC News, The Guardian and DW reported.
“All he’s doing is making the world oil price higher,” Trump told Newsmax in an interview aired Thursday. “There are a lot of targets you can hit, but when you shoot at diesel refineries … then he’s not doing a good service for the world.” Trump also said he is “not a big fan of Zelenskyy.”
Kyiv had paused attacks on Russian energy sites for three days at Trump’s request, but resumed them after saying Moscow never stopped hitting Ukraine’s power grid. The rift has deepened over a U.S. deal to import 300,000 tonnes of Russian diesel and over restrictions on Ukraine’s battlefield satellite links, the BBC said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia “did not respect” the energy ceasefire “not a single minute” and that sanctions “have to increase.” European Council President António Costa said it was “no time to withdraw support” or “relieve Russian sanctions.” Zelenskyy said a winter package “is not only energy, it’s also defence and funding.” Asked whether he was a scapegoat for Trump’s troubles, he smiled and said, “This is my answer,” DW reported.
Zelenskyy also held his first bilateral meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar on the summit’s sidelines; Magyar said the two countries had agreed to put relations on a new footing, according to DW.
Overnight, Russian strikes killed three people in Kharkiv and cut power to hundreds of thousands in the western Volyn region, prompting Poland to scramble fighter jets, while Russia said it downed 644 Ukrainian drones, 94 of them headed for Moscow, Al Jazeera reported.
Sources: BBC News, The Guardian, DW, Al Jazeera
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