President Donald Trump drew backlash from U.S. lawmakers, including some Republicans, for lashing out at Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and for making a deal with Moscow to allow it to sell oil to global markets.
As Trump faced U.S. pressure, American allies abroad underscored their support for Zelensky. The leaders of the European Union, France, the United Kingdom, Poland, Finland and Norway spoke by telephone with Zelensky over the weekend to emphasize their backing for him and for Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
“I am absolutely certain that nothing and no one will break Ukraine and its President in their fight against Russian aggression,” Poland Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote in a post on X following a call with Zelensky on Sunday.
“I assured him that he can count on the full solidarity of Poland and Europe with the Ukrainian people,” Tusk said.
Responding to Trump’s call for his ouster, Zelensky said in an interview with ABC News on Sunday that it was up to the Ukrainian people to choose a leader but added that he was ready to hold elections if Russia agreed to a total ceasefire for 60 days. “Of course, we will be ready for any choice of our people,” he said.
Back in Washington, some Republican lawmakers objected to Trump’s diesel deal and expressed support for Zelensky.
“The president needs to realize that tens of thousands of people have died over this [Russia’s] illegal invasion,” Sen. Thom Tillis (North Carolina) said on the NBC News program “Meet the Press.”
“And I get it that he may be frustrated, but he needs to understand who the good guys are in this agreement and who the bad guys are, and it’s not even close.”
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pennsylvania), said on Saturday that he would force a vote on bipartisan legislation to block the purchase of any Russian oil.
The sanctions waiver effectively aligns Washington with Moscow and against the bombing Kyiv has carried out against Russian energy infrastructure. The strikes have damaged Russia’s energy industry, wiping out 1 percent of the country’s GDP.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) accused Trump of “doing a deal with the devil” to “help his flailing political fortunes.”
“This filthy deal will only aid and abet the same Putin who is helping the Iranians to target and try to kill American troops in the Middle East and who illegally and viciously invaded our ally Ukraine,” Schumer said.
Ukraine and its allies in Europe were reeling after the latest twist in the Trump administration’s often-stormy relations with the Ukrainian president.
Zelensky had seemed to recover his standing with the U.S. president following an acrimonious standoff in the Oval Office early in Trump’s second term.
But critics of the American president’s latest apparent shift to Moscow’s side said the deal to import an initial 300,000 tons of Russian diesel fuel to U.S. and global markets smacked of desperation as Trump struggles to shift the blame for skyrocketing fuel prices onto Ukraine and away from his military standoff with Iran.
“Trump is obviously desperate about high diesel prices coming out of his [Iran] war influencing the midterm election,” Sweden’s former foreign minister, Carl Bildt, said. “His deal with Putin is deplorable, but is highly unlikely to have any effect on prices, the volume reflecting 0.03% of global consumption.”
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, slammed the deal as providing Moscow with “more revenues to wage war.”
But Trump’s broadside against Zelensky was welcomed in Moscow, with Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev calling it “iconic and historic.”
On Sunday, Trump claimed for the second time in a month that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to an energy ceasefire.
“Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it! ” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Kremlin. Zelensky said Ukraine supported Trump’s proposed energy ceasefire, but added that it was important any such deal was also supported by Russia. “We are awaiting details from the American side,” he said in a post on X following telephone calls with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Finland President Alexander Stubb and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. “For our part, Ukraine always FULLY supports steps toward de-escalation, the protection of lives, and the decisions needed to end the war and guarantee lasting peace.”
A spokesperson for the Ukrainian president’s office added that news of the deal had come as a surprise and said that even though Kyiv supports it, Russian missiles struck energy infrastructure in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine soon after Trump’s latest announcement.
Serhiy Morgunov in Kyiv contributed reporting.
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