Trump and Zelenskyy clash over diesel deal as Russian attacks kill 21

US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy traded barbs after Washington moved to ease sanctions on Russian diesel and Moscow’s continued strikes on Ukraine killed at least 21 people, including four children.

Trump, whose party faces dim prospects in next month’s midterm elections - partly over soaring US fuel prices - announced on Friday that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin and agreed to allow Moscow to release large amounts of diesel onto global markets.

Ukraine and its European allies expressed dismay at the move, with Zelenskyy telling reporters it was a “weak decision”.

Asked about the criticism on Saturday, Trump told reporters that Zelenskyy had defied his orders not to strike Russian refineries. Trump said the strikes risked worsening global fuel shortages caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Referring to Zelenskyy’s disobedience, Trump said: “He better damn well stop... I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal, because he could have made many deals that, for some reason, he never does.”

Moscow has intensified its deadly bombardment of Ukraine in recent months, sending civilian casualties soaring, while US-led efforts to broker an end to the more than four-and-a-half-year conflict remain deadlocked.

Early on Saturday, a Russian glide bomb attack on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed 20 people, including three children, according to Ukraine’s state rescue service.

In response Zelenskyy said: “Today, Russia expressed its thanks for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia.”

A Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region killed an 11-year-old boy, the region’s governor said.

Russian strikes also triggered large-scale power outages in the capital Kyiv, Ukraine’s DTEK energy provider said, as the city’s mayor reported a strike on a restaurant.

The Russian defence ministry said it had hit a “data centre” used by Ukraine’s military.

The announcement of the diesel deal came as US, Ukrainian and European officials were meeting in Miami, in a renewed diplomatic push to end the war.

Trump, who has repeatedly touted his credentials as a peacemaker, has long sought to broker a deal since taking office last January.

US envoy Steve Witkoff posted to X after the meeting that the “constructive discussions” tackled “potential avenues to de-escalate and conclude the war with Russia ahead of winter and advance efforts toward a durable and lasting peace”.

Witkoff said the meeting included “the E3, the European Commission, Ukraine and Nato”.

The Kremlin said Saturday that Trump had conveyed his ideas about how to de-escalate the war to Putin during a phone call on Friday.

Putin received the proposals “with understanding”, the Kremlin said, without elaborating on what the proposals were or the Russian president’s response.

Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, now occupies roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.

- AFP