President Trump declared it is time for Ukraine to replace Volodymyr Zelensky, tying the demand to a new Russian diesel supply deal and soaring U.S. fuel costs that he says Kyiv’s refinery strikes are making worse.
Speaking to reporters Saturday afternoon as he left the White House for a rally in Tennessee, Trump said Ukraine has lost too much ground and too many lives to keep fighting under the same leadership. He pointed directly at Zelensky’s continued attacks on Russian oil infrastructure and said those strikes are driving up diesel prices worldwide.
The New York Post reported that the Trump administration had just announced a deal for Russia to supply 300,000 metric tons of diesel to the United States and global energy markets. Average U.S. diesel prices have already topped $6 a gallon. Trump framed the arrangement as a direct response to Zelensky’s targeting of Russian refineries.
Trump told reporters he had already warned the Ukrainian leader. “I said to him: ‘do what you want, don’t hit refineries,’” he said. He added that Zelensky “could have settled this war many times, many many times. And he chooses not to.”
"You’ve lost 30% of your country and you’ve had over a million people killed.... I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president."
Trump pressed the point further, saying Kyiv should “get a new leader who can make a deal.” He accused Zelensky of creating “a world problem” and warned, “He’d better d***ed well stop.”
Hours after the supply arrangement became public, Zelensky posted on X that Russia had answered the easing of diesel export sanctions by hitting civilian targets. He wrote that Moscow dropped five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia.
"Today, Russia expressed its thanks for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia."
Zelensky followed with a second post: “Last night confirmed once again that in Russia, they take any easing of pressure to mean they can keep fighting, to mean they can keep dropping bombs on cities.” A massive Russian air campaign overnight into Saturday killed at least 17 Ukrainians, including three children.
Trump has long argued the war should never have started and that endless fighting only multiplies the human and economic cost. His midterm travel schedule kept rolling the same day, with the Tennessee stop underscoring that domestic price pressures remain front and center for voters.
Not every Republican cheered the diesel arrangement. Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas posted Friday that lower pump prices are welcome but warned the policy could backfire.
"Unfortunately, while I understand the desire to bring down diesel prices, I am concerned the lifting of sanctions on Russian oil will only fund the Kremlin’s war machine, emboldening more violence and destruction, as we have seen in recent days."
McCaul’s caution landed against the backdrop of the overnight strikes and Zelensky’s public protest. Trump’s new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, appeared on Fox & Friends Weekend the same Saturday and cast the president’s moves as practical relief for American families.
“President Trump has heard people have been frustrated with the gas prices. People are frustrated with the increasing grocery prices,” Zacharia said. “And he is delivering what he always does, which are solutions.”
Party operatives have already linked high fuel costs to tight races in agricultural states such as Iowa and Kansas, where diesel hits farm budgets hard. Trump’s team is treating those pocketbook complaints as urgent, not theoretical.
The Washington Examiner noted that Trump’s Saturday call for new leadership marks a dramatic shift in the U.S. relationship with Zelensky. The war has now stretched more than four-and-a-half years and produced at least two million military casualties.
Vice President JD Vance had already torn into the Ukrainian leader during a tense Oval Office meeting in February 2025. Trump’s latest remarks build on that earlier confrontation and put the demand for a deal-making replacement in plain language.
Breitbart reported additional detail on the president’s critique. Trump suggested Ukraine install “a new leader who can make a deal,” adding that “for some reason (Zelensky) never does.” He also called Zelensky a dictator for failing to hold elections under martial law.
The pattern is consistent: Trump wants the fighting stopped, the refinery attacks halted, and a negotiator in Kyiv who will close an agreement rather than prolong the bloodshed. His record of selective restraint toward political opponents at home does not extend to foreign leaders he views as obstacles to peace.
Diesel above $6 a gallon is not an abstraction for truckers, harvest crews, or families buying groceries. Trump’s diesel supply deal with Russia is an attempt to pull those prices down by adding volume to the market after Ukrainian strikes tightened supply.
Zelensky’s government sees any sanctions relief as a gift to Moscow’s war effort. Trump sees continued refinery attacks as a gift to global inflation. Those two positions cannot both guide U.S. policy at the same time.
The president has now said out loud what many in his circle have argued privately: Ukraine needs a leader willing to settle. He repeated that Zelensky has had repeated chances to end the war and has refused them. Security threats and political attacks around the Trump family have not slowed the administration’s focus on the price of fuel at home.
Russian forces launched their full-scale invasion in February 2022. Four years later the map, the death toll, and the energy shock all look worse. Trump’s message is that the same leadership that presided over those losses is not the leadership that will reverse them.
Voters who want lower diesel prices and an end to open-ended foreign wars just heard the president draw a hard line. A peace deal requires a partner who will sign one.
Kyiv can keep the current course or choose a negotiator. Trump has made clear which option he believes serves both Ukraine and the Americans paying the bill.