Zelensky accuses Trump of blaming Ukraine for US diesel prices

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Donald Trump is shifting the blame for high diesel prices in the US onto Kyiv, even though he failed to persuade Vladimir Putin to agree to an energy ceasefire. He said this in a podcast that Bartlett published on Thursday.

According to Zelensky, he has always asked Trump to secure at least an energy ceasefire so that people would have electricity. In his view, it would benefit Russia too: it would keep trading oil. But Trump, Zelensky claims, cannot strike a deal with Putin because Putin refuses. So the American president decided to blame Zelensky rather than Putin for the problem, and tells his voters that fuel is getting more expensive in America because of Ukraine. Zelensky called this an outright lie.

The cause is the war with Iran, Zelensky says

Zelensky stressed that diesel prices in the US have nothing to do with Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries. In his words, the cause is the American war against Iran, which experts agree with. Because of that war, the Strait of Hormuz is blocked, and a huge volume of oil products passed through it before the war. By blaming Ukraine, Zelensky believes, Trump is trying to divert attention from the Iran war.

For Ukraine, he added, it makes no sense to hit Russian energy, and it does so only because Russia hits Ukrainian energy. The difference is that Moscow is left without oil products and the revenue from selling them, while Ukrainians lose electricity and heat. Zelensky said he does not understand what is happening: he has a good relationship with Trump, and he considers it wrong and unacceptable that the American president shifts Russian aggression and killings onto him and distorts the context.

A request for Patriot missiles

Zelensky said he proposed to Trump that if an energy ceasefire cannot be agreed, the US should give Ukraine missiles for Patriot air defense systems to protect energy infrastructure. Not for free, he said: Europe would pay for them as part of a deal. In return, Ukraine would stop hitting Russian refineries. However, Zelensky claims, the US does not give Ukraine missiles, but sends them to the Middle East and makes an oil deal with Russia. “That is simply unfair,” he said.

In October, Trump announced an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, which he said both countries had agreed to. But neither of them knew about it. Zelensky then ordered the army to stop strikes on Russian oil refineries as part of the ceasefire, but Russia immediately violated the agreement. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later said that Trump had not specified the terms of the ceasefire, so Moscow had nothing to violate.

Later the US stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine, which, according to Zelensky, is flowing again. In addition, at the instruction of billionaire Elon Musk, the American side restricted Starlink for Ukraine so that the country cannot use its military version, Starshield.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz