President Donald Trump told reporters Saturday on the White House lawn that Ukraine ought to install a different head of state able to reach a peace settlement, arguing Volodymyr Zelensky has blocked an end to the conflict with Russia lasting more than four years.

Trump said the fighting would never have begun under his earlier term instead of Joe Biden’s and blamed incompetence, adding that Ukraine has lost 30 percent of its territory with combined deaths exceeding two million. He noted Zelensky, a former television actor elected in 2019, cancelled 2024 votes under martial law, which Trump called dictatorial.

Hours earlier Trump arranged for Russia to send 300,000 tonnes of diesel at once into American and world markets, with further large shipments planned; Zelensky said the resulting oil revenue would fund more Russian weapons, drones, missiles and fighters.