US President Donald Trump has called for Zelenskiy’s removal from office, accusing the Ukrainian leader of soaring diesel prices that are putting pressure on Republicans ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Saturday’s criticism comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and Ukraine after President Trump announced a diesel supply deal with Russia.
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“I think it’s time for Ukraine to have a new president,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Saturday, citing Zelensky’s strike at a Russian refinery that damaged global diesel supplies.
“Russia supplies most of the world’s diesel fuel, so he’s trying to create problems for our farmers and ranchers with diesel fuel,” Trump added.
President Zelenskiy made this claim on Sunday, insisting that attacks on Russian oil refineries would continue. President Zelensky wrote to X: “If Russia stops attacking our energy infrastructure, Ukraine will be ready to stop attacking Russian refineries.”
“It is possible to call off the energy infrastructure strike as early as today, but (Russian President Vladimir) Putin does not want that to happen,” he said.
This is not the first time Trump has criticized Zelensky. Tensions between the two sides date back to Trump’s first term as president, when he pressured Zelensky to investigate rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
Below is a timeline of some of the moments in which President Trump criticized Zelensky.
October 2026: President Trump, speaking at the White House, criticizes President Zelensky for the lack of a peace agreement while calling for an end to Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy facilities.
“I told him, ‘Do whatever you want. Don’t attack the refineries. There are plenty of targets. Don’t attack the refineries.’ And he went out and struck,” Trump said. “He should stop now.”
“I suggest we get a new leader who can make deals, because he could have made a lot of deals, but for some reason he never does,” Trump added.
After weeks of urging President Zelenskiy to stop attacking Russia’s energy infrastructure, President Trump on Friday reached an agreement with President Putin to buy diesel from Russia to stem soaring fuel prices.
The agreement marked a stunning reversal of Washington’s years of pressure on Russia over a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, President Zelenskiy said that every additional $1 billion Russia receives from exports will go towards weapons parts, drone upgrades, missile production and the recruitment of mercenaries.
Moscow intends to stop only when combat capability is degraded, he added.
April 2025: On April 15, Trump criticizes Zelensky, saying the Ukrainian leader is “always trying to buy” U.S. missiles and hinting that Kiev has started a war against Russia. “You don’t go to war with someone 20 times bigger than you and expect people to give you missiles,” Trump said.
And on April 23, he criticized President Zelenskiy for making “very harmful” comments after the Ukrainian president opposed the idea of handing occupied Crimea to Russia in a potential peace deal.
President Zelenskiy had ruled out any possibility of ceding territory, declaring: “There is nothing to talk about. It is our land, the land of the Ukrainian people.”
In a post on social media platforms, Trump accused Zelenskiy of inciting tensions by “bragging” that he would not legally allow Kiev to hand over Crimea to Russia.
“This statement is extremely detrimental to peace negotiations with Russia,” Trump said, adding that Russia invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014 “without firing a shot.”
“Incendiary statements like President Zelensky’s are making it very difficult to resolve this war,” Trump said. “He can have peace, or he can fight for three more years until he loses his entire country.”
Despite the tensions, the two leaders held a closed-door meeting at the Vatican on April 26, 2025, during Pope Francis’ funeral.
February 28, 2025: During a heated Oval Office meeting, President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance clash with President Zelenskiy over rare earth mineral agreements, national security, and peace negotiations with Russia.
Trump warned Zelensky: “Either agree (to end the war with Russia) or we’ll leave,” and accused the Ukrainian leader of “disrespecting” the United States and “overreaching.”
The US president and Mr Vance also accused Mr Zelensky of being ungrateful and refusing to make compromises to end the war, with Mr Trump claiming that Mr Zelensky was not ready for peace.
The meeting turned into a shouting match, and Zelensky abruptly left the White House.
February 19, 2025: One month after returning to power for a second term, President Trump calls Ukraine’s president an “unelected dictator” and accuses him of wanting to continue the “gravy train” of U.S. military support while Washington seeks to end the war with Russia.
In a long and scathing post on his social media platform Truth Social, President Trump accused Zelensky of accepting U.S. funds and dragging the country into endless conflict.
He later doubled down on those remarks, telling an audience at an investment summit in Miami that Zelenskyy “did a terrible job. His country collapsed and millions of people died needlessly.”
President Trump said on stage at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute Summit: “He is an unelected dictator. Zelenskiy had better move quickly, or the country will disappear. He has to move. He has to move fast, because the war is going in the wrong direction.”
“Meanwhile, we have successfully negotiated an end to the war with Russia. I acknowledge that this is something only President Trump and his administration can do, but we can do it. I think President Putin has acknowledged that.”
“Biden never tried. Europe has failed to bring peace, and Zelenskiy probably wants peace and wants to keep the gravy train going. I don’t know what the problem is, but he could. He’s very upset,” he added.
Mr. Trump had criticized Mr. Biden’s financial and military aid to Ukraine during the war. He had vowed to end the war within 24 hours of taking office, but later said that was “ironic”.
2024 Campaign Trail: On the campaign trail for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Trump repeatedly criticized Zelensky for not doing enough to end Russia’s war with Ukraine. Speaking at a campaign rally in North Carolina in September, Trump lambasted Zelenskiy for refusing to negotiate, saying a “bad deal” and even giving up a small amount of territory would be better than continued death and destruction.
July 2019: During his first term, President Trump repeatedly asked Zelensky to work with Rudy Giuliani and the U.S. attorney general to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden. According to a five-page memo summarizing the July 25 telephone conversation, he said:
At the time of the call, the Trump administration was also withholding nearly $400 million in congressionally authorized security aid from Ukraine, fueling speculation that the U.S. president was trying to use that money as leverage to get the investigation he wanted.
Zelenskyy announced his intention to look into the new incident and cooperate with the U.S. investigation, but later claimed that he and Ukrainian officials did not feel any direct threat or pressure during the meeting itself.
