Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
After Donald Trump suggested Ukraine get a new leader to end the war, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov weighed in on the U.S. president’s demand.
On Saturday, outside the White House, President Donald Trump told reporters it was time for Kyiv to pick a new leader.
“I suggest they get a new leader who could make a deal,” he said, adding, “I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.”
By Monday morning, Moscow was ready with its answer.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Trump was right, accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of lacking the political will to end the war.
Peskov’s remarks on October 12 mark the Kremlin’s clearest public endorsement so far of the US president’s demand for a leadership change in Kyiv.
“Trump said that, in his opinion, it is time for a new president,” Peskov said. “The president of Ukraine must make very responsible and very difficult decisions to stop this war. Either Zelensky takes on that responsibility and demonstrates that political will, or he does not. So far, he has not.”
A diesel deal with Moscow set it off
The flashpoint was fuel.
On Friday, Washington announced it would waive sanctions on a large quantity of Russian diesel to help lower US pump prices ahead of the November midterms.
Zelensky rejected the arrangement, telling Meduza that Ukraine was “being used as a front” for the deal.
The next day, Trump lashed out at Kyiv over Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries, which he said had helped push diesel prices up, and called for Zelensky to be replaced.
Kyiv rejects the call
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, pushed back on October 11.
“President Zelensky leads our nation in a time of war, a war for independence, freedom, and dignity. He has the support of the Ukrainian people, and they have the right to decide,” he wrote on X.
Zelensky himself told ABC News on Sunday that Ukraine could organize elections if Russia agreed to a full 60-day ceasefire.
Energy truce broken Sunday night
On October 11, Trump posted on Truth Social that an “ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine” was in force and that “both parties have agreed.”
Shortly after, Russian forces struck Kharkiv’s CHP-5 combined heat and power plant at around 8 p.m. local time. A follow-up Russian missile strike hit a grocery store in the Kharkiv suburbs, killing three people and injuring at least 22, including two children, Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Ukraine’s Presidential Office said it had received no advance notice of any truce.
“Just now, there was a strike on CHP-5 in Kharkiv, on Kharkiv’s energy infrastructure,” Zelensky said after the attack.
Zelensky also said Russia had carried out more than 200 strikes on Ukraine’s electricity generation and transmission facilities over the past week, as well as 17 strikes on gas and oil facilities, with Russian attacks killing more than 150 people and wounding more than 700 during that period.
