Trump says it is time for someone else to negotiate for Ukraine

The remark follows Zelenskyy's accusation that Washington is pushing Kyiv to accept concessions over delayed Patriot missiles and eased sanctions.

President Trump said it is time for someone else to negotiate on Ukraine's behalf, responding directly to comments from President Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy had accused Trump of pressuring Ukraine into concessions to Russia, pointing to delayed Patriot missile shipments and eased sanctions. In a separate comment, Zelenskyy said Trump is pushing Ukraine to surrender to Russia.

Trump, in a Truth Social post, said he is negotiating peace between Russia and Ukraine and will not sign any document himself. He blamed Ukrainian strikes on refineries for rising diesel costs, and separately said Russia must stay away from Iran, linking the two conflicts.

Ukraine's military position underscores the stakes. A Ukrainian official said the country's stock of Patriot interceptors had fallen to 10 as of October 7, with resupply irregular since May, and CNN earlier reported that Ukraine had exhausted its supply of the US-made missiles. The White House has also ordered a limit on Starshield access for Ukraine, a formal directive confirmed by officials. Separately, US envoys have raised the idea of restoring Russian gas flows to Europe, an idea European officials have greeted with skepticism given the EU's plan to end Russian gas imports by 2027.

Trump's call for a change in Ukraine's negotiating team marks a sharper break from his earlier pattern of blaming Zelenskyy for refusing to end the war. It moves from pressuring Kyiv over terms to questioning who should represent Ukraine at the table at all. That question now sits on top of Zelenskyy's own accusations that Washington is steering Ukraine toward concessions, meaning the two sides are disputing not just the terms of a settlement but who gets to negotiate it. No counterpart or mechanism for any change in Ukraine's negotiating team has been specified, leaving the broader timeline for a settlement as uncertain as before.