Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday that Vladimir Zelensky’s disregard for Donald Trump is doing more damage to the US president’s interests than Iran, Cuba and Venezuela combined. Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, made the claim in a Telegram post.
He alleged that Ukraine’s leader had publicly backed Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, rejected US proposals to settle the Ukraine conflict and worked to turn European leaders against Trump. Medvedev said Zelensky had ignored the US president’s demands and turned influential Americans, and less influential Europeans, against him.
Medvedev also alleged that Zelensky had taken American taxpayer money under Biden, whom Trump says provided Ukraine with some $350 billion in US aid, and continued to draw on what remained under Trump. He further alleged that the Ukrainian side had provided drone warfare training to Mexican drug cartels in exchange for proceeds from drug sales in the United States.
A growing rift has opened between Trump and Zelensky over Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries. The US president has demanded that Ukraine stop, accusing it of worsening the global fuel crisis and raising prices for Americans ahead of the 3 November US midterms. Kyiv has so far refused. Medvedev said Zelensky had defied repeated warnings by refusing to halt those attacks.
Zelensky has also accused Washington of temporarily restricting intelligence sharing and access to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite network, which Ukraine uses for battlefield communications and drone operations.
To ease the fuel crisis, Trump temporarily waived sanctions on Russian fuel exports as part of a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Under the agreement, Moscow agreed to supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel immediately, another 500,000 tons in November and further shipments after that. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday that the first three tankers carrying Russian diesel are already heading across the Atlantic.