JOINT BASE ANDREWS: US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin would like to reach a deal on the war with Ukraine, accusing leader Volodymyr Zelensky of resisting a compromise.
"Russia would like to make a deal... but for whatever reason, Zelensky does not want to make a deal," Trump told reporters.
"President Putin would like to see a settlement, strongly," Trump said of what the Russian leader told him Friday when the pair spoke on the phone.
Trump criticized the Ukrainian president for not holding an election since Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2022.
"I think he should have an election and he could have settled this thing many times," Trump said.
Trump and Zelensky traded barbs Saturday after Washington moved to ease sanctions on Russian diesel.
Trump told reporters that Zelensky had disobeyed his orders not to strike Russian refineries and that the attacks risk worsening global fuel shortages caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Zelensky called Trump's diesel deal with Moscow a "weak decision."