Zelenskyy offers to halt refinery strikes after Trump attack

Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Ukraine would stop hitting Russian refineries if Moscow spared its power grid, a day after Trump urged a new leader.

In a post on X, the Ukrainian president also insisted that Russia alone bore the blame for the war. “It is possible to stop strikes on energy infrastructure as early as today,” he wrote. However, he added, “Putin does not want to do so.”

According to Zelenskyy, any pause must work both ways and come with real guarantees. His offer followed a sharp attack from US President Donald Trump, who blamed him for high diesel prices in America.

Trump says Zelenskyy should go

Speaking at the White House on Saturday, Trump said the time had come for Ukraine to choose a new president. “I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal,” he told reporters.

In his view, Zelenskyy could have made many deals but “for some reason he never does.” Trump also claimed that Ukraine had lost 30% of its territory and that more than 2 million people had died.

Independent estimates, however, put the share of Ukrainian land under Russian control at about 20%. Meanwhile, British defence officials recently estimated that roughly half a million Russian soldiers have died, while no reliable recent figure exists for Ukrainian deaths.

Trump also repeated his warning over strikes on Russian oil plants. He said he had told the Ukrainian leader to “do what you want” against Russia, but not to hit refineries. “He better damn well stop,” Trump added.

For weeks, the US president has blamed Kyiv for record diesel prices in the United States. Energy experts, however, say the shortage stems from the Iran conflict as well as the fighting in Ukraine.

Only a day earlier, Trump had reached a deal with Vladimir Putin for US imports of Russian diesel. Ukrainian and European officials reacted with dismay, saying the money would help fund the Russian war effort.

Kyiv rejects Trump’s call

Ukrainian officials pushed back quickly. Late on Saturday, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha posted on X that the president was steering the country through a fight for independence.

Sybiha wrote that Zelenskyy “has the support of the Ukrainian people,” who alone had the right to decide. In addition, he said foreign criticism only showed that Zelenskyy was doing his job well.

Opposition lawmaker Kira Rudik also rejected the idea. She said Ukraine acted under its own constitution, and only Ukrainians could decide whom to elect and when.

Moscow, on the other hand, welcomed Trump’s words. Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev wrote on X that Trump had joined many who believed Ukraine needed leaders “focused on peace.”

Separately, Zelenskyy has defended the refinery strikes, arguing that Russian oil money pays for the war. He earlier called the diesel deal a weak decision that would only embolden Moscow.

Meanwhile, the war’s toll keeps rising. Zelenskyy said on Sunday that a Russian bombing of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday killed 23 people, among them four children, and rescuers have now ended their search.

More than 30 people suffered injuries in that attack, and eight remain in hospital, according to regional official Ivan Fedorov. On the ground, the front line has barely moved, while both sides trade long-range air strikes.