President Trump is trying to force Ukraine to surrender in the war, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in an interview published on Sunday, as a deepening feud between the two leaders drives their relations to new lows.
“I believe steps have been taken to convince Ukraine to capitulate,” Mr. Zelensky told Bloomberg News. He was referring to a string of measures in recent days by the Trump administration that could bolster Russia’s war machine while squeezing Ukraine’s ability to fight. Mr. Zelensky added that he did not want to believe that Washington was seeking a quicker end to the war at Ukraine’s expense. “But that’s how it looks,” he said.
His comments capped a week in which the leaders traded some of their harshest words yet. Mr. Zelensky said that Mr. Trump had an instinctive affinity for autocrats, a pointed allusion to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, while the U.S. leader urged Ukrainians to vote Mr. Zelensky out of office. Mr. Zelensky on Sunday appeared to tell the NBC show “Meet the Press” that he would run in a wartime presidential election, if one took place.
The war of words began on Oct. 9, when Mr. Trump announced that the United States would buy Russian diesel, a deal that could send billions of U.S. dollars into Russia’s economy. He then demanded that Kyiv stop striking Russian refineries, one of its main levers in the war. On Sunday night, Mr. Trump openly sided with Russia, saying Mr. Zelensky “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did.”
Ukraine has accused Washington of restricting access to a U.S.-provided secure satellite internet network important to frontline operations, and complained about lapses in U.S. intelligence sharing. Ukrainian officials said they received no warnings on two occasions last week before Russian ballistic missiles struck Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. U.S. officials have denied halting intelligence sharing.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing