Trump Calls Zelensky Harder to Deal With Than Putin as EU Pledges More Ukraine Aid

Today’s Focus

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is “more difficult to deal with than” Russian President Vladimir Putin, the BBC reported, escalating a public feud as Zelensky arrived in Brussels for an EU summit focused on sustaining Ukraine through the winter.

Trump also called Ukraine’s renewed strikes on Russian oil refineries a “disgrace,” according to the BBC. Zelensky had paused those attacks for three days at Trump’s request for an energy ceasefire, but said Thursday the strikes would resume because Moscow had never halted its own attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

Moscow said it never agreed to the ceasefire Trump announced last week, the BBC reported.

The friction follows a US-Russia agreement for American refiners to import 300,000 tonnes of Russian diesel, a deal that has drawn criticism from European officials who are trying to tighten, not loosen, sanctions on the Kremlin.

In Brussels, Zelensky was received by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa. He thanked “real leaders” for their support but did not respond directly to Trump’s remarks, the BBC reported.

Von der Leyen told reporters that the EU had backed Trump’s proposed energy ceasefire but that Russia “did not respect it, not a single minute,” and said sanctions “have to increase.” Costa said “this is no time to withdraw support” to Ukraine or “to relieve Russian sanctions.”

The Guardian reported that a Trump ally was fired from a special envoy role within hours of the Brussels meetings, part of a broader shake-up in the administration’s Ukraine portfolio. Tensions have also grown over new US restrictions on Ukrainian battlefield use of satellite communications.

The Debate

Supporters argue

Trump and his allies say the president is applying hard-nosed leverage to end a war that has killed hundreds of thousands and that Kyiv’s refinery strikes risk a wider energy shock. Trump described the attacks as a “disgrace” and framed Zelensky’s unwillingness to pause them as the main obstacle to a deal, according to the BBC.

Supporters of the US-Russia diesel arrangement argue it stabilizes global fuel prices while keeping diplomatic channels open to Moscow. Backers of Trump’s broader approach contend that previous open-ended Western support failed to produce either a battlefield victory or a negotiated settlement.

Trump’s team also points to Zelensky’s refusal to publicly accept the proposed ceasefire terms as evidence that Washington is doing the harder diplomatic work. “I think Zelensky is in some ways more difficult to deal with,” Trump said, as quoted by the BBC. Allies on Capitol Hill, including some Senate Republicans quoted by The Guardian, say pressure on both sides is the only realistic path to the table.

Critics argue

European leaders and Ukrainian officials counter that rewarding Moscow with sanctions relief and a diesel deal undercuts the leverage any negotiation would require. Von der Leyen told reporters that Russia violated the energy ceasefire immediately and that sanctions “have to increase,” per the BBC.

Costa said bluntly that “this is no time to withdraw support” to Ukraine, a statement widely read in Brussels as a rebuke of Washington. Zelensky, arriving at the summit, thanked “real leaders” for standing with Kyiv, an implicit contrast with Trump reported by the BBC.

Critics in Congress, cited by The Guardian, argue that restricting Ukraine’s satellite communications on the battlefield while importing Russian diesel sends Moscow a signal that Western resolve is cracking. They say Ukraine’s strikes on refineries are legitimate military targets under international law because those facilities fund and fuel Russia’s war effort.

What the experts say

The International Energy Agency reported in September 2026 that Ukrainian strikes have taken roughly 15 to 20 percent of Russia’s refining capacity offline at various points this year, pushing up Russian domestic fuel prices and straining Kremlin revenues. IEA analysts note that refined-product exports are a larger share of Russian federal revenue than crude.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has documented that European military aid commitments to Ukraine surpassed US commitments on a cumulative basis in 2025, a trend reflected in the Kiel Institute’s Ukraine Support Tracker. Kiel director Christoph Trebesch has said European states are now the “primary financiers” of Ukraine’s defense.

On the diesel arrangement, Edward Fishman, a former State Department sanctions official now at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, has written that reintroducing Russian refined products into Western markets weakens the price-cap regime the G7 built after 2022. The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) has similarly warned that selective sanctions relief tends to erode the broader compliance architecture.

By the Numbers

300,000 tonnes: volume of Russian diesel the US agreed to import under the recent deal, according to the BBC.

3 days: length of the pause Zelensky observed on strikes against Russian energy targets at Trump’s request, per the BBC.

15-20%: share of Russian refining capacity knocked offline at peak by Ukrainian strikes in 2026, according to the International Energy Agency.

$138 billion: total European Union financial and military aid committed to Ukraine since February 2022, per the Kiel Institute’s Ukraine Support Tracker.

$130 billion: total US aid committed over the same period, per the Kiel Institute, with new allocations slowing sharply in 2026.

27: number of EU member states whose leaders convened in Brussels Friday to discuss further Ukraine funding, per the European Council.

0: number of minutes Russia honored the proposed energy ceasefire, according to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.