Trump says Ukraine needs a new president after Zelensky attacks US deal for Russian diesel

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that it is time for Ukraine to get a new president, telling reporters that Volodymyr Zelensky had not done enough to end the war with Russia. "I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal," Trump said, CBS News reported.

The remarks came a day after Washington announced a deal for Russian diesel, which Zelensky had condemned. Trump blamed Ukraine's drone strikes on Russian oil refineries for high diesel prices in the US less than three weeks before the midterm elections, saying Zelensky "wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers, with diesel fuel".

The diesel deal in numbers

Announced on Friday 9 October, the arrangement as described by Trump and reported by CBS News:

To make it possible, the US Treasury said it would temporarily waive sanctions on Russia's energy sector so Russian diesel can be sold on world markets. That cuts against the broad Russia sanctions law Trump signed last month. No price for the fuel has been published.

What Zelensky and Kyiv said

Zelensky said Russia would repay the deal "with further terror and perfidy" and that it "plays into Russia's hands". On Saturday he wrote that Russia had answered the easing of sanctions by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia, adding that "different signals are needed".

Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said Zelensky has "the support of the Ukrainian people, and they have the right to decide". In the US, former Vice President Mike Pence said the deal "makes no sense" and urged Trump to rescind it.

Strikes on Saturday

Russian strikes killed at least 20 people, including three children, in the Zaporizhzhia region, regional military head Mykhailo Semikin said, and wounded at least 18. A daytime missile attack on Kyiv wounded four people, according to Mayor Vitalii Klitschko. Russian bombardment has killed more than 60 people in four days, CBS News said, and the front line, more than four and a half years into the war, is largely unchanged.

Why it matters in Pakistan

Diesel is the fuel that moves Pakistan's goods trucks, tractors and tube wells, and its price follows world markets. More Russian diesel on the market could ease the global price over the coming months, but nothing in the deal changes the price at Pakistani pumps by itself: that is set by the government's fortnightly review. PSO's ex-depot Karachi diesel price is Rs 396.24 a litre on 11 October; follow it, with the history, on our diesel price page, and work out a trip's cost with the fuel cost calculator.