Zelenskyy Risks Rupture With Trump as Midterms Pressure Mounts

(Bloomberg) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is on a collision course with President Donald Trump, who is increasingly looking at Kyiv's battle against Russia primarily through the lens of energy prices ahead of US midterm elections.

Trump sprung an announcement of an "energy ceasefire" between Russia and Ukraine on Zelenskyy, as the US leader pushes for him to stop bombing Russian oil refineries and defends a controversial deal with Vladimir Putin on diesel exports.

After Trump posted on social media about the ceasefire, Zelenskyy said he is willing to accept it, but only if Russia does too — his long-standing position — making clear his significant doubts about that prospect.

"Ukraine supports the ceasefire, and it is important that Russia support it as well," Zelenskyy said on social media, adding that he is "awaiting details" from the US on the deal.

But as Ukraine continues to respond to Russia's invasion with its own attacks on refineries, Zelenskyy increasingly risks running afoul of Trump. That poses a hazard for Kyiv as it still relies on US weapon purchases that are financed by other NATO allies and on intelligence-sharing from Washington. Ukraine is also strapped for cash ahead of the fifth winter of the war.

A day before his ceasefire announcement — the second in as many months — Trump lashed out at Zelenskyy, suggesting he should consider stepping aside as Ukraine's president. On Friday, after Trump reached the diesel export deal with Putin, Ukrainian negotiators cut short their talks in Miami with US envoys, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

In the meeting, US negotiators, led by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff, told Ukrainian officials that the US was a strong partner, providing munitions and intelligence, and so Ukraine shouldn't take actions that hurt American consumers like striking refineries, according to one of the people. That was perceived as an implied threat from the US to cut off intelligence to Kyiv, several of the people said. The Financial Times was first to report about the intelligence cutoff remark at the Miami meeting.