Trump says Zelensky is harder to deal with than Putin as energy truce collapses
The energy truce Donald Trump announced between Russia and Ukraine fell apart after only a few days. On Thursday, 15 October, he told Newsmax that negotiating with Volodymyr Zelensky was harder than with Vladimir Putin.
A truce that did not last
The energy truce that Donald Trump announced between Russia and Ukraine collapsed after only a few days. Its terms were unclear, and Volodymyr Zelensky said he had not been informed about it. For several days Ukraine refrained from attacking Russian refineries. After a Russian attack on Kyiv damaged a municipal combined heat and power plant, Ukraine struck the refinery in Ryazan. Axios had suggested the truce covered only refinery attacks, a reading that would be highly unfavourable to Ukraine, which now has just one partly working refinery while Russia operates a whole network.
Trump's criticism of Zelensky
Speaking to Newsmax on Thursday, 15 October, Trump said talks with Zelensky were harder than with Putin and that Zelensky was not a good man to negotiate with. He said that as long as Zelensky governs Ukraine, no agreement to end the war would be reached, and he again suggested that Ukraine should hold a presidential election. The reporting notes that Zelensky's term formally expired in May 2024 but was extended because of martial law, as was the term of the Supreme Rada, Ukraine's parliament. Asked whether the war would end before the end of his own term, Trump answered that it should end soon. He also said Zelensky claims to want a deal but does not really, and admitted he is not a big fan of Zelensky.
Refinery strikes and oil prices
Trump said that if Zelensky is attacking refineries again, the only thing it achieves is higher world oil prices, and he called this a disgrace while arguing that many other targets exist. He stressed that the diesel produced at refineries is needed by the United States and the whole world. Zelensky had announced in an interview with the Financial Times that Ukraine was resuming attacks on Russian refineries. Oil prices began rising after the war with Iran, which the United States and Israel started, with a barrel costing about $70 before the war and reaching nearly $120 after it broke out. Trump has argued for some time that Ukraine's refinery strikes are behind the increase.
Starshield and a sense of betrayal
Ukraine's intelligence lost use of the American Starshield satellite communications system, the military version of Starlink, which it had relied on for reconnaissance almost since the start of the war. The service stopped working on terminals moving faster than 160 km/h, which made it useless in those conditions. Elon Musk, first accused of switching it off, said he had nothing to do with it because the US government now operates Starshield. Zelensky, visiting the United Kingdom at the time, said Ukraine would suffer further losses and people would die, and when asked whether he felt betrayed by Trump he said yes. Starshield later resumed normal operation, and the disruption was officially explained as technical problems.
Diesel sanctions and the Lindsey Graham act
In the week before 15 October, Trump announced that he was lifting US sanctions on Russian diesel exports, a step expected to lower prices in the United States. Its impact on fuel prices is expected to be minimal, while the revenue from sales would significantly help Putin finance the war. The move conflicts with a 2022 Congress law banning fuel imports from Russia, and with a law known as the Lindsey Graham act, which the president signed a few weeks earlier and which provides for new sanctions.
