Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that the United States formally siding with Russia’s Vladimir Putin would be a “historic mistake” but said he still considers President Donald Trump an ally despite a series of moves that have destabilized his country and his friends on Capitol Hill.
“We want to trust him,” Zelenskyy told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday, referring to Trump. “I hope he changes his decisions, because I think they’re just mistakes, and it won’t help us, and it won’t help the United States.”
Trump on Friday lifted sweeping new sanctions against Russia passed by Congress, saying in an executive order that the move “is in the national interest of the United States.” Passed with bipartisan support and signed by Trump last month, the sanctions aimed to target Russia’s revenue streams by punishing global buyers of Russian oil and gas.
The waiver comes days after a deal with Putin to release hundreds of thousands of tons of Russian diesel fuel onto the global market as fuel prices soar.
At the same time, Zelensky said, US intelligence sharing was briefly “blocked”, rendering Ukraine blind to incoming ballistic missiles, while limits were placed on Starlink technology, essential for intercepting jet drones.
Zelenskyy told moderator Kristen Welker that Ukrainian officials believe the decision to limit Starlink, imposed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, came in response to a “message from the U.S. government.”
The United States has been Ukraine’s main supporter during four and a half years of war, but personal relations between Trump and Zelensky have appeared very strained in recent weeks, with each publicly criticizing the other.
Asked about Trump’s remark this week that the Ukrainian leader was “more difficult to deal with than Putin,” Zelensky said he was “very honest” with Trump.
“It may not be very polite,” he said, but it is “better to have very open and clear partners than to have killers, even with a smile on their face.”
Zelensky, who accused the United States of betraying kyiv last week, said his feelings had not changed. He warned that Trump’s diesel deal with Russia “will strengthen Putin’s desire to occupy us.”
In announcing the deal last week, Trump expressed hope that it would go some way to addressing soaring fuel prices.
But Zelensky said the deal would not have “real influence” on the price of oil in the United States because the price rise was due to the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz and not Ukraine.
“I don’t know all the reasons why President Trump makes these deals,” he said.
On the possibility of the United States siding more formally with Russia, he said: “If these two countries are together…we will not prevail and we will not be able to stand.”
Zelensky said it was “a shame” that Trump lifted sanctions in a bill named for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who he said was “a great supporter of peace and Ukraine.”
“He invested his life and his time because he truly believed in Ukraine,” he said.
In a separate interview on “Meet the Press,” Sen. James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma, defended Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on Russia.
“He’s trying to strike a balance between trying to put pressure on Russia, but also being able to help the American people, which is why he’s choosing the American people first, that’s what he’s doing,” Lankford said, pointing to high gas prices.
Asked whether Trump’s actions indicated the president was siding with Putin, Lankford responded that Trump was “siding with the free people of Ukraine,” later adding that Trump was working to bring the two countries “to the table so we can negotiate.”
The war has seen little movement on the front lines recently, with Russia continuing to occupy around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory. Trump had promised to end the conflict days into his second term, but peace talks have effectively stalled, with Ukraine saying Russia rejected a short-term ceasefire and that Putin’s peace terms amounted to total capitulation.
Meanwhile, another difficult winter looms for Ukrainian civilians, with a severe ammunition shortage limiting Zelensky’s ability to defend his infrastructure against Russian strikes.
Zelensky said he was scheduled to speak by phone with U.S. negotiators later Sunday and still hoped for a meeting in the coming days. “I’m very open to that, even in any difficult circumstances,” he said.
He cited some progress after a days-long hiatus in U.S. intelligence on the arrival of Russian ballistic missiles, which he said have now been “unblocked.”
“We are very grateful,” he said. “Now it works.”
European and Ukrainian officials previously told NBC News they believed a move to limit intelligence sharing, which came just days after Trump eased sanctions on Russia, was most likely aimed at pressuring kyiv to make concessions at the negotiating table amid an impasse in peace talks.
While Zelensky indicated that the intelligence problem had been resolved, he said Ukraine still faced an ongoing speed restriction on the use of Starshield, the military version of the Starlink service.
Asked if he thought Trump or Musk directly made the decision to limit Starlink, Zelenskyy said he didn’t know but thought “both” were involved. He said that if Trump decides tomorrow to lift restrictions, “it will immediately work as before.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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