Donald Trump has reportedly threatened Ukraine with a change of leadership after agreeing a deal with Vladimir Putin to allow almost two million tonnes of Russian oil to be imported into the United States.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Saturday, Mr Trump was said to have told Ukraine to “get a new leader” unless Volodymyr Zelensky halted attacks on Russian oil infrastructure.
The warning came hours after Ukrainian forces struck the Yug Rusi oil-loading terminal in Rostov-on-Don, a major facility handling petroleum products from the Novoshakhtinsk refinery.
The overnight attack reportedly involved a swarm of 50 drones. Fires were reported at the terminal, which has an annual capacity of 3.5 million tonnes, while a railway bridge in Rostov-on-Don was damaged and traffic suspended in both directions.
Two ships in the Sea of Azov were also reportedly attacked. Ukrainian officials have indicated that strikes on Russian oil facilities will continue.
Mr Trump is said to have told reporters: “He better damn well stop.” The reported remarks followed claims that he had made six requests for Mr Zelensky to halt attacks on Russian refineries.
A US official said Mr Zelensky was “misreading the room” and that continued attacks were damaging the goodwill he had built with Mr Trump over the previous six months.
The agreement with Moscow would suspend sanctions to enable the purchase of Russian diesel and oil, as the US president seeks to ease pressure from rising fuel costs before the midterm elections. Diesel prices were reported to have risen from 3.68 dollars per gallon a year ago to 6.28 dollars by Friday.
Mr Zelensky said he had been blindsided by the decision and accused Mr Trump of showing weakness by yielding to Mr Putin. He argued that Russian forces were weaker on the front lines than at any other point in the war and were therefore relying on terror and attempts to secure concessions through backroom agreements.
“Any weakening of sanctions against Russia without a clear and lasting de-escalation agreement with Russia is an obvious sign of weakness,” the Ukrainian president said.
The reported Trump-Putin agreement came as Ukraine’s campaign against Russia’s oil industry was said to be causing difficulties for the Kremlin, although Russia still has surplus diesel available for export.
Following a one-and-a-half-hour call between Mr Trump and Mr Putin, Kremlin foreign affairs aide Yury Ushakov said the conversation had been so friendly that “neither side wanted to hang up first”. Mr Trump said he was ready to continue speaking with the Russian president “this evening, through the night, and into the next day”.
In the immediate aftermath of the call, a Russian strike on sleeping civilians in Zaporizhzhia reportedly killed seven people, including at least three children, all girls. Ten others were wounded and 16 were reported missing, bringing the number of civilians killed by Russia over three days to almost 90.
