President Donald Trump said on Sunday afternoon he believes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “doesn’t want to end” the Russia-Ukraine war as tensions between the two world leaders continue to escalate.
“My decision on Russia is a simple one,” Trump said after signing an executive order on Friday that waives sweeping sanctions and tariffs levied against Russia, though Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent framed the development as a “60-day period so we can examine what’s going on” and said “the only thing that has been lifted is the diesel embargo” on Sunday.
Trump has largely turned on Zelensky in recent weeks as he looks to negotiate an end to the conflict and simultaneously bring down domestic energy prices ahead of November’s midterm elections. He has repeatedly rebuked the wartime leader for striking Russian oil sites, arguing such targeting is to blame for high gas prices. Trump’s recent decision to sign a deal with Russia to import hundreds of thousands of tons of diesel into the U.S., along with disputes over Ukraine’s access to Starshield military technology, further strained the pair’s relationship last week.
“I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table. Great progress is being made, and that includes current hostage negotiations! Signing that document at this time will do that, and I can sign it later, or at any time that I want! Perhaps more importantly, Russia is doing very little, if anything, to help the Islamic Republic of Iran, compared to what they could be doing, and I want to keep it that way, and will, unless stupid people get in the way.”
“[Zelensky] could have made a better deal two years ago than he can now. His country is in shambles, a large portion of his land is lost, his oceans and seas are gone, and his male population is lost, wounded, and/or dead. I WANT THIS WAR END!” Trump concluded.
TRUMP WAIVES RUSSIA SANCTIONS ORDERED BY LAW NAMED FOR LINDSEY GRAHAM
Trump said American businesses are “suffering greatly” and Zelensky knows targeting Russian oil refineries is “seriously hurting world markets.” A drone attack that was described by Russian state media as “one of the biggest” of the year was launched by Ukraine on Sunday morning in St. Petersburg, striking a major oil terminal and a data center. Bessent separately knocked the Ukrainian president on Sunday morning, saying he thinks Zelensky was “reckless” for alleging the Trump administration halted Ukraine’s access to Starshield last week.
“Zelensky doesn’t care, and frankly, with all of the money that Europe is famously giving him, he doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did,” Trump also said in the lengthy statement.