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- October 17, 202613°
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- INTEREST37.00%-1.00
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- October 17, 202613°
Trump says Zelenskyy “should have an election,” insists Putin wants a deal
Back from a rally in Tennessee, President Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews that Russia wants to end the war but Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not, and that Ukraine’s president should face voters.
President Donald Trump kept up his pressure on Kyiv late Saturday, telling reporters at Joint Base Andrews that Russia is ready for a deal and that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the obstacle.
“I think that Russia would like to make a deal, and we’ve had it back and forth. But Russia would like to make a deal,” Trump said after returning from a campaign rally in Clarksville, Tennessee. “President Putin would like to see a settlement strongly.”
“Zelenskyy does not want to make a deal”
Trump said the war “could have been solved many times” and argued that Ukraine would be in a far stronger position had it reached an agreement two years ago. “I think he should have an election, and he could have settled this thing many times,” he said of Zelenskyy, adding: “This is a war that never should have happened. If I were president then it wouldn’t have happened.”
Referring to Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russian refineries, which the White House blames for higher diesel prices, Trump added: “He can’t raise the price of oil, he’s done enough.”
A weekend of escalating pressure
The comments capped a day in which Trump first said on the White House South Lawn that it was “time for Ukraine to get a new president,” a call quickly echoed by Elon Musk. They followed Friday’s phone call with Vladimir Putin, after which Trump announced Russian diesel would flow to global markets under a temporary U.S. sanctions waiver.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov gave no indication that Moscow was ready to restart negotiations with Ukraine immediately. Zelenskyy, whose term formally ended in May 2024, cannot call an election while martial law is in force under Ukraine’s constitution.
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