Mr. Trump has lashed out repeatedly against Mr. Zelensky in recent days, calling it “disgraceful” for Ukraine to strike Russian oil refineries and insisting that it “damn well stop.” He once again blamed Mr. Zelensky for the war that Mr. Putin started and said that “Russia has been fine” even as intensifying Russian missile and drone barrages are killing more civilians in Ukraine than at any time since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
Mr. Trump went so far as to demand that Ukraine “get a new president” instead of Mr. Zelensky. By contrast, he has had no tough words for Mr. Putin, saying that he did not want to “do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.”
It goes well beyond diplomatic protocol to explicitly push for the ouster of the leader of a fellow democracy. But when Mr. Zelensky responded by calling the diesel move a “weak decision,” suggesting that he felt “betrayed” and indicating that it seemed that Washington was trying “to convince Ukraine to capitulate,” Mr. Trump adopted the role of the aggrieved party.
Just hours before the Oslo meeting, he again lay the responsibility for making peace on Ukraine rather than Mr. Putin, who could end the war tomorrow by stopping his attacks on his neighbor. “Zelensky has to want to settle this war,” Mr. Trump told reporters in Washington. “And if he doesn’t, I think it’s going to be a very bad thing.”
Mr. Trump’s assertion that Mr. Zelensky, rather than Mr. Putin, is the obstacle to peace offends Ukrainians and Europeans alike. Mr. Zelensky emphasized in Oslo that, after all, his people are the ones under bombardment.
“We are losing people, and because Russia attacks, we’re losing people and time, and it’s a pity because our children don’t have real life, childhood, and all the people, to be honest,” he said. “That’s why we need to end this war as quick as possible. I hope that our partners, Americans and Europeans, will help us.”
