The Derzhprom building in Kharkiv's Freedom Square. (Image: Ivan Padalka / Wikimedia Commons — Public domain)
President Donald Trump said Monday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should find someone else to negotiate an end to the war with Russia, escalating his public criticism of the Ukrainian leader on the same day a Russian drone strike near Kharkiv killed six people, including three children.
"Maybe it's time for Zelensky to get somebody else to negotiate," Trump told reporters at the White House on October 19. He added that the United States had given "hundreds of billions of dollars" to Ukraine while Kyiv had "given nothing to us."
Zelensky announced the Kharkiv deaths on Monday, sharing a blurred photograph of one of the victims — a small child in a stroller — and saying the horrific image showed "the truth about this war." "Lives must be protected. Ukraine needs air defense. You can't think about making money with Russia as long as it continues its asinine war," he wrote on X.
Tensions between Kyiv and Washington have escalated over military aid. Zelensky accused the United States on Monday of deliberately delaying the delivery of interceptor missiles to his country. "Once again, there was no early warning from our partners," he said, as he catalogued damage, deaths and injuries from Russia's latest strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities, which knocked out power to more than 500,000 people.
Zelensky said that since Trump announced an energy ceasefire a week ago, Russia had deliberately attacked Ukraine's energy and oil and gas sectors 76 times. Neither Kyiv nor Moscow had acknowledged such an agreement, and Ukraine briefly halted such attacks while Russia kept pounding Ukraine's energy plants and cities.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on a visit to Uzbekistan on Monday, denied that intelligence-sharing had been withdrawn from Ukraine, while backing Trump's call for Zelensky to focus on ending the conflict.
Trump also said he would consider a trilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in China next month to discuss denuclearisation, adding that the talks could also cover the Ukraine war — but indicated such a meeting would not include Zelensky. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said such a meeting would "only encourage Putin to continue this war."
The Kremlin said Monday that "no concrete proposals or agreements" about the proposed summit had been discussed. Separately, Ukraine kept up long-range strikes into Russia: one target at the weekend was the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal, where Ukraine's Fire Point drone company said a fire broke out on the terminal's grounds, with local authorities reporting one person killed and five wounded.
Zelensky also spoke with Pope Leo XIV on Monday, days after the Catholic leader held a similar call with Putin, as the Vatican urged both sides to allow aid into the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky.