US-Ukraine relationship worsens amid Trump and Zelensky’s mutual distrust

The relationship between Ukraine and the United States is facing increasing strain over intelligence sharing, sanctions, Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy and the path to peace.

There also appears to be deepening mutual distrust between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky.

Trump on Monday accused Zelensky of not knowing what he was talking about and suggested it was “time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine.”

Over the weekend Kyiv launched one of its biggest drone attacks this year on Russia, hitting a key oil terminal, in defiance of Trump’s demand that Ukraine stop hitting Russian refining plants.

The White House is trying to relieve pressure on oil and diesel prices in the US ahead of crucial midterm elections, as diesel prices are at a record high.

Last week Trump called Kyiv’s strikes on Russian oil refineries a “disgrace” and said Zelensky was more difficult to deal with than Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

In an interview on Sunday, Zelensky hit back, saying it was “better to have partners who are very open and clear than to have those who are killers, even with a smile on their face,” an apparent reference to Trump’s relationship to Russia.

Trump again criticized Zelensky on Sunday, claiming in a Truth Social post that he “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did.”

The relationship now seems to be at its lowest ebb since the explosive meeting at the White House 18 months ago.

Zelensky has consistently said he is open to peace negotiations if Ukraine’s security can be guaranteed.

The Ukrainian president said he spoke to US envoy, Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner on Sunday as part of “nonstop communication” to work towards the goal of peace.

The trio will speak again on Tuesday, with Zelensky and Witkoff set to meet in Norway’s capital Oslo, according to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. Kushner will join the meeting remotely.

Kremlin ‌spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday he hoped for a meeting between Witkoff, his team and Putin in the near future, allowing the US side to brief the Russian leader “on their contacts with both the Ukrainians and the Europeans.”

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment on the meetings.

“We are doing everything on our part to make this happen, and to ensure that America’s position is strong and helps bring peace closer,” Zelensky posted on X.

“Ukraine never wanted this war, and we have welcomed literally EVERY attempt by our partners to bring this war to a dignified end,” Zelensky added on Monday.

Zelensky also spoke to Pope Leo XIV on Monday, according to the Vatican.

The pope spoke to the Ukrainian president just days after a phone call with Putin in which he expressed his concern about the “grave humanitarian situation” in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky, where Ukrainian authorities say around 2,000 civilians are stuck without access to food or basic medicine.

Trump has defended recent concessions to Russia on sanctions, which have included a waiver to allow Russian diesel exports and another exempting Russia from sweeping economic penalties mandated by the US Congress.

“I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table,” Trump wrote in his Sunday post.

In an interview Sunday with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Zelensky said the waivers strengthened Putin’s war against Ukraine while Moscow was failing on the battlefield.

There is growing anxiety in Kyiv and Europe that the Trump administration will make further concessions to Moscow in an effort to get Putin to agree to a peace deal.

Zelensky told “Meet the Press” that the US siding with Russia would be a “historic mistake.” He said he wanted to trust Trump and hoped he would change his attitude to Putin.

Asked if Trump was an ally of Ukraine, Zelensky said: “I hope so.”

On Monday, Zelensky appealed directly to the US Congress, holding an online meeting with a group of lawmakers from both parties. He described the current situation as “the most difficult situation from the very beginning of this war” and saying that it appears as if “some political decision has been made to slow down support for us.”

Ukraine is also perturbed by reports of a possible three-way meeting involving the US and China next month on settling the conflict – without Ukrainian involvement.

“I think there’s been talk of a meeting. I don’t know if anything’s been finalized,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a visit to Uzbekistan Monday.

Trump said on Monday that he’d consider a trilateral meeting with Putin and the Chinese leader Xi Jinping — but said that the sitdown would focus on denuclearization, not Russia’s war with Ukraine.

But Ukraine criticized the idea, arguing such a meeting would not help peace but “would do only the opposite: encourage Putin to continue this war,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said Monday.

“Inviting Putin to such a meeting would feed his appetite for self-aggrandizement and give him a stature he does not deserve,” Sybiha wrote on X.

The Kremlin said Monday that “no concrete proposals or agreements – neither regarding the meeting itself nor its potential agenda and content – have been discussed or put forward by anyone.”

Attacks persist

Defying Trump’s demands, Ukraine is keeping up long-range strikes into Russia. One target at the weekend was the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal. The terminal can handle up to 12.5 million tons per year. Ukraine’s Fire Point company, which makes the drones used in the attack, said there was a fire on the terminal’s grounds following the strike.

A logistics center in St. Petersburg was also attacked, according to Ozon, a Russian distribution company, as well as a data center for the Russian VKontakte social media platform.

One person was killed and five wounded in the attacks, with residential homes damaged as well, according to local authorities.

A week ago, Trump said Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop attacking each other’s energy infrastructure.

Neither Kyiv nor Moscow acknowledged such an agreement. Ukraine briefly halted such attacks, but Russia never stopped pounding Ukraine’s energy plants and cities.

“Since the American President announced the energy ceasefire a week ​ago, Russia has ​deliberately ‌attacked ​Ukraine’s energy and oil and gas sectors ⁠76 times,” Zelensky ​wrote on X Sunday.

On Monday, Zelensky said a Russian drone attack in the Kharkiv region killed six people, including three children. Sharing a blurred photograph of one of the victims – a small child in a stroller – Zelensky said the horrific image showed “the truth about this war.”

“Lives must be protected. Ukraine needs air defense. You can’t think about making money with Russia as long as it continues its asinine war,” he said on X.

Accusations have also flown over the cuts in US satellite intelligence provided to the Ukrainian military.

Zelensky repeated on Sunday that changes in the Starlink system owned by billionaire Elon Musk was limiting the speed of its short-range and battlefield drones, describing it as a “message from the American government.”

Musk said last week that the systems are owned and controlled by the US government, meaning that only the government could decide to place limits on their speed or usage.

The Trump administration has denied it ordered the service restricted. On Monday, Trump said he didn’t know who it was that restricted it, but would “like to find out.”

Similarly the Trump administration has pushed back on accusations from Kyiv that intelligence on incoming ballistic missiles is not being shared.

Zelensky said on Monday that Kyiv had received no advance warning of ballistic missile attacks on Sunday night – something he claims has occurred multiple times in the past week.

“Another Russian ballistic missile attack came in several waves overnight, and once again, there was no early warning from our partners.”

US satellite networks are critical in providing the Ukrainian military with warnings of incoming missiles. Russian ballistic missile attacks are aimed at crippling civilian life and destroying essential infrastructure.

“I don’t know where he’s getting these things or why he’s saying these things to the press,” Rubio told ‌reporters Monday. “You should go back and ask him. There’s been no pause.”

“What he should be focused on, and what we want to be focused on, is bringing an end to this war. That’s what he should be focused ​on,” Rubio said of Zelensky.

Kyiv and Washington see very different paths to that goal.

CNN’s Daria Tarasova, Anna Chernova, Julia Benbrook, Jennifer Hansler, Christopher Lamb, Kristen Holmes and Ivana Kottasová contributed to this report.

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