President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is “only standing up for Ukraine’s interests” after scathing criticism from Donald Trump, who said Kyiv’s new wave of strikes on Russian oil refineries was a “disgrace”.
The US president, who recently made a controversial deal with Moscow to import diesel, also said Zelensky was “more difficult to deal with than [Russian President Vladimir] Putin”.
Zelensky, who has been angered by the diesel deal, said he could not accept it, because a gas agreement could come next. “If I don’t stand up to this… who else will?” he said at an EU summit in Brussels.
Tensions between Washington and Kyiv have escalated over the diesel deal and curbs on Ukraine’s battlefield satellite network.
Zelensky’s trip to Brussels, following a visit to London, has come at the end of a bruising week. As he arrived at the summit on Friday, where EU leaders rallied around him in support, Zelensky said it was good to be back among allies. “Leaders, real leaders,” he said, in a possible sleight to the US president.
At the summit, funding for Ukraine and helping it get through another freezing winter – its fifth since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 – topped the agenda.
The war will cost €155bn (£131bn; $174bn) next year, Zelensky told the European Council, with at least €70bn needed to come from the EU for defence and weapons.
Zelensky said that while Ukraine could produce up to three times more drones, it “simply [doesn’t] have enough money for that”.
A fundamental problem for Kyiv – which cannot be easily fixed – is the chronic lack of US-made Patriot missiles to defend its towns and cities.
Zelensky said he believed Europe did possess all the interceptors his country would need this winter but described them as being scooped up in a piecemeal fashion.
Zelensky also addressed Ukraine’s frayed relationship with the US, saying there are “many people with good hearts in America” who want “to be allies, not to divide or humiliate Europe”.
Trump has heavily criticised Zelensky for resuming strikes on Russian oil refineries earlier this week, because it could impact Moscow’s ability to complete its part of the diesel deal, which will see 300,000 tonnes of diesel sent to “the American and global marketplace”.
As both Russia and Ukraine continued attacking each other’s energy infrastructure, Trump suddenly announced a ceasefire on the facilities last week.
Kyiv said it would stop the strikes if Russia did the same, but Moscow said it had never agreed to the deal and continued its attacks. After three days, Kyiv resumed its strikes.
