Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that only Russia was responsible for the war in his country. He said Ukraine would halt strikes on Russian oil refineries if Moscow stopped hitting Ukraine's energy grid, after U.S. President Donald Trump blamed him for high diesel prices and said it was time for Ukraine to get a new leader.
The exchange came as Kyiv pressed its campaign against infrastructure deep inside Russia, with a drone attack on Sunday shutting down a data center run by Russian technology giant Yandex, the third strike on the company's facilities in four days. Russia and Ukraine are locked in a long-range aerial war while their armies remain largely deadlocked on the front line, more than 4 1/2 years since Moscow's full-scale invasion.
"Ukraine will be ready to stop striking Russian oil refineries if Russia stops striking our energy infrastructure," Zelenskyy wrote on X.
"It is possible to stop strikes on energy infrastructure as early as today, but Putin does not want to do so," he said, adding that any de-escalation must be reciprocal and backed by real guarantees.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha pushed back on Trump's comments, writing on X late Saturday that Zelenskyy was leading the country through a war for its independence. "He has the support of the Ukrainian people, and they have the right to decide. Statements from abroad only confirm that he is doing his job well," Sybiha wrote.