Trump Calls Ukraine’s Refinery Strikes “a Disgrace” After Zelensky Says “We’re Done”
Trump called Ukraine’s renewed refinery strikes a disgrace on Newsmax after Zelensky said ‘we’re done.’ What each said, and how the Russian diesel deal fits.
In this article
Context
Donald Trump answered Ukraine’s return to refinery strikes on Thursday in an interview with Newsmax at the White House. “I think that’s a disgrace,” he said. “There’s plenty of other targets.” Earlier that day Volodymyr Zelensky had told the Financial Times that Kyiv would stop holding back, and a drone attack set fire to the Ryazan refinery southeast of Moscow, Reuters reported.
The first hours of Ukraine’s decision are in Why Is Ukraine Resuming Refinery Strikes on Russia?. Here is Trump’s Thursday answer set beside his diesel agreement with Vladimir Putin.
Key takeaways
Trump told Newsmax the strikes raise fuel prices. He also said Newsmax that Zelensky is harder to deal with than Putin and that Ukraine needs an election. Zelensky had already told Piers Morgan that Trump “chooses one side, not our side.” The diesel agreement Trump announced on 9 October sits under both men’s remarks.
What Trump and Zelensky said
Asked by Newsmax’s Rob Finnerty on 15 October about the renewed strikes, Trump said Zelensky was “making the world oil price higher.” He continued: “When you shoot at diesel refineries where you make, you know, diesel oil and we need that and the world needs that.” Anadolu Agency and Yahoo News carried the exchange.
On Zelensky he said: “No, I’m not a big fan of Zelenskyy.” He also said: “I find Zelenskyy to be more difficult to deal with than Putin.” Asked whether the war would end before he leaves office, he answered: “I think you need an election.” Yahoo noted that Ukraine has been under martial law since February 2022, which bars national elections under Ukrainian law.
Zelensky told the Financial Times, in the words Reuters reported: “The block (on attacking refineries) is out. We’re done.” Reuters said Ukraine had paused the strikes after Trump announced an energy ceasefire on Sunday 11 October. In a Piers Morgan interview on 14 October, summarised by PBS, he said: “It’s painful when President Trump chooses one side, not our side.” He added: “But we are OK that he’s in the middle.”
On Thursday he wrote on X that Russia had escalated “after receiving sanctions relief.” He also wrote: “Russia is dragging out the war, so our long-range operations will continue.”
Analysis
The diesel agreement behind both answers
On 9 October Trump posted that Russia would supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel “immediately,” 500,000 tons in November and one million tons “immediately thereafter,” reaching three million. He wrote that diesel prices “will be COMING DOWN, IN RECORD NUMBERS, AND FAST!” Fox News reproduced the post on 12 October.
Senators Thom Tillis, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and John Curtis signed a bipartisan statement with Democrats: “The Administration must immediately reverse course.” Representative Don Bacon wrote: “Propping up Putin’s war economy is morally wrong as he uses that money to bomb cities.” Former Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said, in Fox’s report: “We’re moving the barrels from one customer to another customer.” He doubted the deal would cut prices much. The Senate letter is covered in Is the US Still Sharing Intelligence With Ukraine?.
Reuters noted that Trump’s Republicans face midterm elections on 3 November, less than three weeks away.
How the statements connect
On 9 October, Russian diesel was going to “the American and Global Marketplace.” On 15 October, Ukraine was “making the world oil price higher.” The same barrels sit in both sentences. Zelensky’s reply reverses the order: sanctions relief came first, he wrote, and Russian escalation followed. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in the account PBS carried, called the announcement a “direct and crude challenge to President Trump.” Trump told Newsmax that “Putin hates Zelenskyy, and Zelenskyy hates Putin.”
Ukrainian officials told Reuters that they had not received the usual missile warnings from Western allies for several days. Trump denied withholding intelligence.
Analysis
Why does Trump want Ukraine to stop hitting Russian refineries?
His stated reason is fuel prices. “Diesel Prices for Americans and, indeed, the World, will be COMING DOWN,” he wrote on 9 October, and on 15 October he said the strikes make “the world oil price higher.” The Fox report gives the political setting: Republican lawmakers had already broken with him over the diesel purchase, with the midterms on 3 November.
Brouillette doubts the price effect: the barrels only move “from one customer to another customer,” he said. Zelensky’s case is that the refineries pay for the war. Kaja Kallas told Euronews, as quoted in our earlier piece: “the majority of the financing for this war comes from oil.”
What to watch
France 24 reported that Zelensky, in Brussels, asked the United States not to stand with Moscow.
Three markers matter: whether Washington changes the diesel volumes after the Senate letter, how Russia answers Ryazan (nearly 5 per cent of its refinery throughput, per Reuters), and the 3 November midterms.
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