Zelensky Accuses Trump of Pressuring Kyiv to Surrender to Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Donald Trump of attempting to pressure Kyiv into surrendering to Russia, escalating a dispute that has persisted for a week with the US president.

Zelensky also proposed a new response to Trump’s demand to halt attacks on Russian oil refineries, in an effort to counter rising diesel prices, in exchange for additional Patriot air-defense missiles, according to Bloomberg News.

Zelensky said, referring to the US midterm elections scheduled for November 3, “We now face dangerous days before the elections. My last proposal was that we would not target Russian diesel facilities, in exchange for supplying us with missiles for Patriot systems to protect our own facilities. But they only want us to stop targeting diesel. If we stop, they will deprive us of something.”

As relations between the United States and Ukraine reach a new low, Zelensky outlined what he described as a series of unfriendly steps taken by Washington toward Kyiv. In an interview with Bloomberg on Sunday, he said these steps include the deliberate slowdown of Starlink internet speeds, despite their critical importance to Ukrainian forces fighting Russia, and delays in shipments of Patriot anti-ballistic missile systems, which Ukraine is already short of and which have become a nightmare for Ukrainian cities.