On October 9th, local time, U.S. President Donald Trump announced after a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia would supply diesel to the United States and global markets “immediately”. At the same time, the U.S. Treasury Department relaxed its sanctions against Russia, allowing the import of Russian diesel until April of next year.
Later that day, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy expressed his disappointment in an interview with the American news website Axios. He said that Trump's decision to lift sanctions against Russia and allow Russian diesel exports was "both unfair and dishonest."
Zelenskyy said disappointedly: 'Do you realize that this looks like a birthday gift for Putin? It looks terrible.'
According to reports, Trump’s announcement after his conversation with Putin shocked the governments of Ukraine and many European countries, and sparked a new crisis between the United States and its Western allies.
In a 15-minute interview with Axios, Zelenskyy sounded both annoyed and frustrated, even revealing a sense of betrayal.
The report indicates that when Trump announced the agreement with Putin, his envoy Steve Witzke and son-in-law Jared Kushner were meeting with a Ukrainian negotiating delegation in Miami. Senior diplomats from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and NATO also participated in the talks, discussing the new plan proposed by the United States to end the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Zelenskyy said that a few days ago, he had a conversation with Vitkov, discussing the need to continue making progress in diplomacy before the winter and the arrival of the U.S. midterm elections.
Steve suggested a meeting in Florida. Of course, I agreed to go there to discuss the possibility of negotiations. The Americans said they had some ideas, and we agreed to go and discuss them.
Zelensky emphasized that during his contact with Vitkovskiy and Kushner, the US never implied that they were considering reaching a diesel agreement with Russia.
He said that based on the information he received from Vitkov, the US envoy originally planned to convey the details of the Florida talks to Russia. Subsequently, they might travel to Kiev in an attempt to reach a peace agreement.
Zelenskyy said that about an hour before Trump's statement, Ukrainian negotiators who were meeting with Kushner and Vitalkov in Florida reported to him that Trump planned to talk with Putin.
U-shaped negotiating delegation still claimed that the US might be about to announce news on sanctions against Russia soon but did not disclose further specifics.
"Honestly, this is not honest, because we have been trying to establish a good relationship between the two sides in the best way possible. It seems that on one hand, they are taking advantage of this opportunity to meet with us, and on the other hand, they are calling Putin to negotiate with him," said Zelenskyy.
He questioned, 'What did (Trump) gain? Is it that he can get more diesel? For whom? To let Americans use more Russian diesel? This exposes the weakness of the world.'
Despite being angry about the agreement reached between the US and Russia, Zelensky said, “We need Americans. We need Americans to help end this war.” However, he also questioned whether giving Moscow benefits without any concessions from Russia would make further diplomatic efforts more difficult.
Zelenskyy said that he plans to communicate with the Ukrainian negotiation team to fully understand the situation of their talks with Vitkovskiy and Kushner.
On the 9th, reporters repeatedly asked Trump about Zelensky’s criticism, but Trump refused to comment, stating that he was pleased with the agreement reached with Putin.
