Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday praised Europe’s “true leaders” at a summit in Belgium and quietly criticized US President Donald Trump amid tense relations between Kiev and Washington.
European leaders have rallied around Zelenskiy as the White House increased pressure on Ukraine to halt attacks on Russian oil facilities amid continued Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Ukraine halted attacks on Russian oil refineries for three days after President Trump abruptly announced an “energy ceasefire” between the two countries on Sunday, but then resumed attacks after Russia failed to comply.
President Donald Trump, desperate for relief from soaring global diesel prices ahead of next month’s midterm elections, blindsided European leaders last week when he struck a deal to allow Russian diesel exports. President Zelenskiy said the action made President Trump feel betrayed.
The US president has blamed the Ukraine-Russia war for rising fuel prices, hoping to divert attention from the Iran war, which remains unpopular with voters.
On Thursday, Trump again slammed Zelensky in an interview with Newsmax, saying he found him “harder to deal with than President Putin.” The next day, he revisited his comments and said he had “good” relations with the Ukrainian side. “There’s one thing I want him to do,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Settle the war,” he said.
Mr Zelenskiy arrived at the Brussels summit on Friday and joined both leaders in making no mention of deteriorating relations with the US, but was keen to emphasize the strength of ties with the EU.
“We are very grateful to the Council of the European Union, the European Commission and the leaders – the real leaders – who have been with us from the beginning of this war, with great support,” Zelenskiy said while attending the summit.
Kiev has faced increasing challenges this week, with the country reporting restrictions on StarShield, the military version of Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service.
Zelenskiy said Friday that Starlink operations have improved but are not yet fully restored.
“They disrupted logistics and compromised the protection of civilians. That’s why this is so worrying,” Zelenskiy said, noting that the military relies on Starlink-powered drones that need to move at high speeds to deliver food and water to front-line troops.
“Have you fully regained your previous speed? No. Is your speed coming back? Yes,” he added.
President Trump on Friday said he was not involved in the Starlink mess, telling reporters at the White House: “I didn’t do that. No, we didn’t do that at all. We didn’t do that. We didn’t do that. We didn’t do that.”
“It wasn’t me, and I don’t think it was Elon (Musk). And as far as I understand it, it’s the same as always,” he said.
Trump added that he wasn’t sure if there was a speed limit on Ukraine’s use of StarShield, saying, “I don’t even think it slowed it down. But my understanding is… we didn’t slow it down at all. And I think it’s probably working.”
Musk said earlier this week that the decision to restrict StarShield is up to the US president. A senior U.S. official told CNN there was no such request from President Trump.
Ukraine’s government said Tuesday it did not receive the usual early warning from the United States before a Russian ballistic missile struck a major power plant in Kiev and damaged residential buildings.
But President Trump insisted that the United States had not stopped sharing information with Ukraine.
Amid a difficult week diplomatically, Ukraine also lacks missiles for the U.S. Patriot air defense system, people familiar with the situation told CNN on Thursday.
“It’s an open secret that our country is currently not the preferred destination for these missiles,” President Zelenskiy said at a press conference on Friday, noting that most Patriot interceptor missiles are currently being sent to the Middle East. But he added that Ukraine is grateful not only to NATO and the White House, but also to the European countries that “finance all this.”
When asked by a reporter whether he thought President Trump was treating Ukraine as a scapegoat for his own problems, given rising fuel prices and the ongoing war with Iran, Zelenskiy paused for 15 seconds. He said, smiling into the quiet room. “Here’s my answer.”
Earlier, Ukraine’s president said his team was in constant contact with U.S. negotiators and planned to meet in the coming days.
“We will continue to live, fight and, most importantly, live with dignity,” he added. “When the quality of life during wartime is so bad, maintaining dignity is very important.”
EU leaders said they were preparing a new sanctions package against Russia. This is the 22nd package since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In contrast to the Trump administration, they were keen to stress that unless Putin ended the war, sanctions against Russia would increase.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “We supported President Trump’s energy ceasefire, but we now know that Russia did not respect it even for a moment. Instead, Russia escalated. We therefore need to increase the pressure on Russia.”
President Trump announced on Friday that he would waive a number of Russia-related sanctions, days before they went into effect under a bill he signed last month.
The bill would, among other things, impose tariffs of up to 100% on all goods entering the United States from the five largest importers of Russian oil or gas, sales of which are essential to financing the Kremlin’s war machine.
They were included in the Graham Act, a law named after former Sen. Lindsey Graham, a prominent Russia hawk who died in July.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said early Friday that Zelenskyy “does not want” a peaceful solution, adding: “We are in complete agreement with President Trump on that point.”
President Putin visited military headquarters at an undisclosed location and vowed to continue the war.
“In response to the attacks by the Kiev authorities on our industrial facilities and facilities in the fuel and energy sector, Russian forces continue to carry out attacks on military-industrial complexes and infrastructure facilities in Ukraine,” Putin said in a video released by the Kremlin on Friday.
The video shows Putin, dressed in military uniform, greeting a senior Russian commander.
CNN’s Victoria Butenko, Anna Chernova and Kit Maher contributed to this report.
