US President Donald Trump criticised Ukraine’s return to targeting Russian oil refineries as a “disgrace” and stated that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was causing global oil prices to rise by resuming attacks on Russian energy assets.
“All he’s doing is raising the world oil price. “Look, I think that’s a disgrace,” Trump told Newsmax, which aired the interview Thursday, according to Reuters.
Ukrainian forces targeted a Rosneft oil refinery in the Ryazan region south-east of Moscow after Zelenskyy announced Kyiv would no longer abide by a truce on strikes on energy targets declared by Trump.
Zelenskyy said the patience of the Ukrainian people had run out as Russia continued missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, cutting off hundreds of thousands of people from power.
Trump said Ukraine had other military targets and that attacking diesel refineries hurt world energy supplies.
“There are plenty of targets that you can hit,” Trump said, adding that hitting diesel production was “not doing the world a service.”
The Trump administration has been trying to negotiate a ceasefire to halt Russia’s war on Ukraine, which was launched by Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Trump added that he found Zelenskyy harder to haggle with than Russian President Vladimir Putin.
