“Hours after President Trump said the United States would buy Russian diesel, the Kremlin said there would be no immediate resumption of discussions to end the conflict.
President Trump on Saturday accused Ukraine of causing a “world problem” with Russian refinery attacks and said it should “get a new president,” further undermining Kyiv a day after saying he would open U.S. markets to Russian diesel.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Saturday, he said the United States had told Ukraine, “you can do whatever you want to Russia. Don’t hit the refineries because that’s a world problem that’s caused.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, he said, “wants to make problems for the world.” He added, “I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.”
Over four years since the start of Ukraine events, Ukraine has pursued a strategy of mid- and long-range strikes that have battered Russian supply lines and oil infrastructure
“He wants to make problems for the world,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Zelensky. “He wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers with diesel fuel because Russia supplies a large portion of the diesel fuel throughout the world.”
Mr. Trump’s announcement on Friday came despite a Russian ban on exporting fuel and was followed by the lifting of U.S. sanctions on Russian diesel exports until April. The Kremlin apparently offered no concessions in return.
Hours later, Russian officials said peace talks would not resume immediately.
“We will think about when these negotiations might be resumed,” Yuri Ushakov, President Vladimir V. Putin’s foreign policy adviser, said in a statement Friday night.
The diplomatic efforts fizzled shortly after Ukrainian negotiators arrived in Miami to meet with Mr. Trump’s top envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. As those talks were about to begin, Mr. Trump spoke at length with Mr. Putin over the phone.
Ukrainian officials said on Saturday that the talks in Miami had ended without a breakthrough.
In an online chat with reporters on Friday evening, Mr. Zelensky did not hide his sense of betrayal.
“I believe our team is simply being used as a smoke screen, and that is certainly not fair,” Mr. Zelensky said. He has worked hard to maintain a stable relationship with the White House as Mr. Trump has steered America closer to Russia and away from traditional allies.
“It is certainly not how partners should treat each other,” Mr. Zelensky added, calling Mr. Trump’s diesel announcement a “weak decision.”
For Kyiv and its European allies, the short-lived talks in Miami laid bare how U.S. diplomacy has drifted from pursuing a durable peace settlement to hunting for business deals with Russia. The Trump administration has placed the burden of compromise almost entirely on Ukraine and put little pressure on Moscow to stop its campaign.
On Saturday, Mr. Trump similarly did not suggest that Mr. Putin should make compromises. The U.S. president said that Mr. Zelensky, though, “could have settled this conflict many times, many many times, and he chooses not to.”
It is unclear whether Mr. Trump’s move to import Russian diesel will have much immediate impact on prices before the U.S. midterm elections.
In a statement after his call with Mr. Trump on Friday evening, Mr. Putin said that Russia had “confirmed its willingness to supply oil and petroleum products to the U.S. market and global markets at large,” but he did not specify any amounts.
Mr. Trump’s end run around Ukraine continued a pattern that had been playing out since he started his second term claiming he could end the war in 24 hours.
Since then, ambitions of forging a lasting peace have largely evaporated. Instead, only a handful of hastily announced tactical pauses and holiday truces have emerged.
Still, when the Trump administration opened the latest diplomatic track on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in late September, Ukrainian officials were startled by how far Mr. Kushner and Mr. Witkoff went in their offerings to Russia.
According to officials familiar with the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential diplomatic talks, the Americans put three lucrative economic incentives on the table to coax Moscow into a limited cease-fire, either on energy infrastructure or at sea.
Washington floated releasing billions of Russian sovereign assets immobilized in the West. The money, the officials said, was viewed as an upfront incentive for partial truces, not a reward for their enactment. This revived a proposal from last year to release funds to Russia. Then, the suggestion was to release up to $100 billion.
The Americans also revisited a plan to sell off parts of the Russian oil giant Lukoil in a multibillion-dollar deal that would go to a group of Middle Eastern investors, including some with business ties to U.S. negotiators.
And Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner revived a U.S. proposal that would allow Belarus, the Kremlin’s ally and neighbor, to export potash, according to officials familiar with the talks.
Kyiv has avoided rejecting any proposal outright but has demanded guardrails. For instance, it has suggested dollar-for-dollar mirror payments of frozen assets to Ukraine or guarantees of additional military aid upon any truce breach.” [1]
1. Rebuking Ukraine Over Oil Strikes, Trump Says It Should ‘Get a New President’. Santora, Marc; Kramer, Andrew E. New York Times (Online) New York Times Company. Oct 10, 2026.
Komentarų nėra:
Rašyti komentarą