"It is up to the Ukrainians to choose their own leader."

Volodymyr Zelensky said this in an interview with ABC, responding to Donald Trump's statements that Ukraine should go to the polls. Ukraine, he added, "is counting on the support of the United States and Trump to stop Putin and the war."

"Prices are rising because of the war in the Middle East and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz; this is clear to everyone, and if we want to speak honestly to people, if we want to be clear and address our nations frankly, we must tell the truth. We are not playing games," he emphasized. He then reiterated his willingness to hold elections in Ukraine if there is a 60-day ceasefire with Russia. "With all due respect to Trump, it is up to our society, our people, to choose one leader or another," Zelensky said.

Yesterday, Trump, enraged by Volodymyr Zelensky's reactions to the US-Russia diesel deal and the failure to halt Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries, called for a change in Ukrainian leadership with unprecedented verbal violence. Zelensky "could have ended this war on many occasions. He wants to create problems for the world and for farmers. It's time for Ukraine to have a new president," the tycoon said before a campaign rally in Tennessee.

"I suggest that Ukraine find a new leader capable of reaching an agreement," he insisted, emphasizing that Zelensky "can do whatever he wants, but he can't hit the refineries." "Iconic and historic," Russian presidential envoy and negotiator Kirill Dmitriev exulted on X, publishing a Time cover with a photo of the Ukrainian president and the caption "The Endgame." Trump, according to consistent sources, demands that Ukraine unilaterally halt the attacks on Russian plants, convinced that they are driving up energy prices in the United States: an absolutely crucial issue for the tycoon in the final weeks of the midterm election campaign, which is clearly on the rise for Republicans according to polls. And Washington's new, perhaps decisive, U-turn in relations with Moscow came during the phone call between Trump and Vladimir Putin, "which lasted an hour and a half," "very intense and friendly," so much so that neither "wanted to be the first to hang up."

The White House's slap in the face to Zelensky, following his humiliation in the Oval Office, follows furious criticism from Kiev and Brussels of the diesel deal between Trump and Putin in exchange for a lifting of sanctions, a move they branded as a "green light" for the escalation of Russian missiles and drones in Ukraine. Washington was unhappy with this, threatening to halt intelligence-sharing with Kiev during negotiations with the Ukrainians and Europeans, which were underway at the same time in Miami. Zelensky, after accusing the US of showing its weakness, doubled down as the daily deluge of bombs claimed the lives of more civilians in Ukraine.

(Unioneonline)

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