Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized the Trump administration’s recent decisions on Russia in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press that aired Sunday. “He feels victory — the sanctions, the diesel deal and Starlink between us. This strengthens Putin’s war against us because he feels success,” Zelensky said.
Referring to Starlink restrictions, he said: “We are always grateful for bipartisan support, but with Starlink this is not support. Today it is rather support for Russian aggression, especially their strikes on our civilians.” He also voiced concern that the issues of Russian gas and frozen Russian assets could be raised next.
‘A historic mistake’
“If these two countries are together, of course we will not win and will not be able to withstand. If the United States supports Putin, it is unbelievable, it is a tragedy, it is a historic mistake,” Zelensky said, adding that Kyiv hopes Trump and his team will be on Ukraine’s side, “or at least in the middle.”
“You cannot compare us with Russia. You cannot compare me with Putin. He is the aggressor. He occupied us,” he said, calling Washington’s latest decisions mistakes that “will not help us or the United States.” According to Bloomberg, Zelensky also said the U.S. had resumed intelligence sharing with Kyiv after it was blocked for a period, and that he hoped talks with the U.S. could take place this week.
What Washington decided
On Friday, Trump signed an executive order suspending sanctions and tariffs under Sen. Lindsey Graham’s Russia sanctions law that had been due to take effect on Sunday. On Oct. 17, Zelensky called the move a “sanctions blackout” that financially rewards Putin and said a Moscow-Washington arrangement on Russian diesel exports was only “the first step.” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said easing sanctions would give the Kremlin extra money for the war.
A week of strikes
In his Sunday address, Zelensky said Russia had launched nearly 2,700 attack drones, about 1,700 guided aerial bombs and 66 missiles, most of them ballistic, at Ukraine over the past week. He said Russia had attacked Ukraine’s energy and oil and gas infrastructure 76 times since Trump announced an “energy ceasefire,” hitting substations in the Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi and Odesa regions on the night of Oct. 17 and leaving tens of thousands of families without power.
Overnight into Oct. 18, Ukrainian drones struck St. Petersburg, setting the Petersburg Oil Terminal on fire, while Russia’s Defense Ministry said 1,015 drones were destroyed over several regions. The Russian military, in turn, struck a dry cargo ship off the port of Odesa.
