US President Donald Trump has called on Ukraine to elect a new president and at the same time demanded a halt to Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded on Sunday with an offer: with a 60-day complete ceasefire, Ukraine would be ready to organise elections.
“Please tell (Russia’s President Vladimir) Putin: give us two months, 60 days of a complete ceasefire – 60 days – and we will organise elections,” Zelensky told the US broadcaster ABC, as reported by Handelsblatt and the Kyiv Independent. At the same time he stressed: “With all due respect to President Trump – it is up to our society, our people, to choose one leader or another.”
Trump had said on Saturday to journalists in Washington: “I think it is time that Ukraine gets a new president.” Ukrainians should find a leader who can conclude an agreement to end the war; Zelensky had “never done so for some reason”. Trump also demanded that Zelensky stop the attacks on Russian refineries “damn well”, as reported by Tagesspiegel.
Resistance in Kyiv, Berlin and Brussels
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha rejected the demand. Zelensky enjoys the support of the Ukrainian people, who have the right to decide for themselves, Sybiha wrote on the platform X. “Statements from abroad only confirm that he is doing his job well. He deserves support.”
The chair of the European Parliament’s defence committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), told Tagesspiegel: “If Trump calls on Zelensky to resign, he is unambiguously siding with the murderer.” The leadership of Ukraine is decided solely by Ukrainians in free elections, “not by the White House and certainly not by the Kremlin”. Europe must “stay on a clear course without wavering and stand by Ukraine; the US cannot be relied upon at the moment”.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (CDU) said on Sunday before the meeting of the CDU presidium in Berlin: “Europe needs stability and that means we must clearly continue to stand by Ukraine’s side, including by the side of the government, and fully support the president in the exercise of his difficult office.” There was a need for “more pressure on Putin so that he is ready to negotiate”.
Elections not possible under martial law
A change at the head of state is currently ruled out under constitutional law: because of martial law, elections are not possible in Ukraine, as reported by Tagesspiegel and the Kyiv Independent. Zelensky had already stated earlier that Ukraine was ready to stop its attacks on Russian refineries if Russia in return spared Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Any de-escalation must be reciprocal and come with real guarantees, he wrote on Telegram.
Trump meanwhile claims that both warring parties have agreed to an “energy ceasefire”. On Truth Social he wrote: “Effective immediately, there is an energy ceasefire in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Both sides have agreed to it. Do not break it!” Neither Kyiv nor Moscow has so far confirmed this, as reported by n-tv.de. A senior Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent that Ukraine had no information about such a ceasefire. Trump had already made a similar statement in mid-September; both sides continued their attacks afterwards.
Diesel deal and new attacks
Trump had previously said he had agreed extensive diesel supplies with Putin. Russia would immediately provide more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel for the US and global markets, with a further 500,000 tonnes to follow in November, and then another million tonnes. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended the agreement on Fox News: “It is good for Americans, to lower diesel prices.” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas criticised that suspending sanctions on Russian diesel supplies would give Moscow additional revenue to finance the war. According to Tagesspiegel, IW economist Samina Sultan does not expect permanently lower petrol station prices, as the delivery volumes are far below the usual Russian export level.
Meanwhile, Russian attacks continue. In the Kharkiv region, according to the regional prosecutor’s office, a lorry driver was killed when a Russian drone hit the vehicle near the village of Chornohlasivka; another man was injured. In Kharkiv itself, according to Mayor Ihor Terekhov, two glide bombs killed a 36-year-old woman and injured at least ten people, including a 7-year-old boy. More than 30 houses and about a dozen cars were damaged. In Sloviansk, according to the news outlet Ukrainska Pravda, at least four people were injured in an air strike on two high-rise buildings; Zelensky wrote on X that people might be trapped under rubble. In the Russian-controlled city of Lysychansk in the Luhansk region, the Russian-installed administrative chief Leonid Pasechnik reported two dead in a Ukrainian attack, according to the news agency RIA Novosti.
Zelensky stated that in this week alone Russia had used around 1,450 aerial bombs, 75 missiles of various types and more than 1,640 attack drones, about 60 per cent of them jet-powered. According to a report by Politico, the EU is meanwhile preparing to tighten visa rules for Russians; the Commission is to present the proposals at the beginning of next year.
Editor’s note: The assessment that Trump’s move weakens Western support for Ukraine comes from the politicians quoted, not from the editorial team.
