Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that US President Donald Trump's decision to lift sanctions on Russia and allow it to export diesel was "not fair and not honest."
In an interview with Axios, Zelenskyy said the deal "looks like a happy birthday present for Putin," adding: "It looks absolutely terrible."
Zelenskyy said he spoke with US envoy Steve Witkoff several days ago about efforts to reach a diplomatic breakthrough before winter and the US midterm elections.
"Steve proposed to meet in Florida. And of course I accepted to go there and speak about the possibilities of negotiations. The Americans said they have some ideas and we agreed to come to discuss," he said.
Zelenskyy said US envoys Witkoff and Jared Kushner did not mention a potential diesel deal with Russia during their discussions. He said he understood that the envoys would convey messages from the Florida talks to Moscow and could then travel to Kyiv to pursue a peace agreement.
Zelenskyy said his negotiators in Florida informed him about an hour before Trump's announcment that Trump planned to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin and might announce a decision on sanctions, without providing further details.
"It's not honest, really, because we tried to build our relations in the best way," he said. "It looks like that they used this opportunity to meet us from one side, and from the other side called Putin and negotiate this."
Zelenskyy said he would have supported easing sanctions on Russian energy as part of an agreement to halt attacks on energy infrastructure in both countries during winter.
"If the price is energy ceasefire, this negotiation is good," he said, adding that Trump would presumably have announced such a breakthrough if Putin had agreed to it.
"What did [Trump] get? That he will have more diesel? For whom? More Russian diesel for Americans? It shows weakness of the world," Zelenskyy said.
He compared the decision to the Anchorage summit between Trump and Putin last year, which reportedly ended with the US president agreeing to many of the Russian demands regarding the war in Ukraine without getting anything in return."
Zelenskyy questioned whether granting Moscow a benefit without an apparent concession would complicate further diplomacy, but stopped short of saying Washington could no longer mediate between Kyiv and Moscow.
"We need the Americans to try to stop this war," he said.
Zelenskyy said he planned to speak with his negotiating team to get a full account of its discussions with Witkoff and Kushner. He also said he wanted to understand whether the diesel deal was linked to a planned visit by Trump's envoys to Russia.
"If you allow them to export diesel, and you think before that you have to go to Russia to negotiate, it looks that you are buying this meeting," Zelenskyy said, while stressing that he did not know whether that was actually Trump's intention.
"Maybe I'm not right," Zelenskyy said. "But it looks this way. Otherwise, why do it?"
- PUTIN-TRUMP PHONE CALL
Trump spoke with Putin over the phone on Friday and described the conversation as a "highly successful discussion."
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the talks resulted in an agreement for Russia to "immediately supply" more than 300,000 tons of diesel fuel to US and global markets.
He said another 500,000 tons would be supplied in November, followed by 1 million tons and an additional 3 million tons "within a short period," depending on the condition of Russian diesel refineries.
Putin said Russian diesel supplies to US and global markets would benefit the world economy, adding that the two leaders discussed the global energy sector, prospects for resolving the Ukraine war, the situation in Iran, and bilateral relations.
