Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday sharply criticised US President Trump’s diesel deal with Russia, saying it would send cash back to Moscow, and accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of reducing peace negotiations to a “parody”.Speaking at an EU summit in Brussels, Zelenskyy said Russia did not want peace and welcomed the prospect of European allies taking a greater role in talks. EU leaders rallied around him after Trump again criticised Ukraine and called its strikes on Russian refineries a “disgrace”. “And now we can see how cash will start flowing back into Russia through the diesel deal,” Zelenskyy said. “This diesel deal will never be enough to offset the impact of the Strait of Hormuz . But it will put more money into Putin’s pocket to fund this war.”He said Putin was not interested in peace. “He’s playing with words. Quite simply, it looks like a parody of a genuine desire to end the war.”Zelenskyy called his EU counterparts “real leaders”. “The war will cost 155 billion next year. And we need at least 70 billion more from you – for defence, for weapons,” he said in his address to EU leaders.Building ‘security zone’ in Ukraine, says PutinRussia is establishing a “security zone” inside Ukraine along their border, which will be non-negotiable in any future talks with Kyiv, President Putin said Friday. He said the operation was in response to Ukraine’s 2024-25 incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.
