Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly urged a bipartisan group of US senators to help sustain his country’s war effort against Russia, even as President Donald Trump called for him to be replaced.
In recent days, Zelensky has accused US officials of withholding warnings about imminent missile strikes and restricting Ukraine’s access to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service.
He has also alleged that Washington failed to deliver weapons vital to Ukraine’s defense, suggesting the Trump administration may have imposed the restrictions behind the scenes to pressure him into accepting a peace agreement favorable to Russia.
Trump and other White House officials have repeatedly rejected those allegations. They deny that the administration deliberately reduced Ukraine’s satellite access and say the missed warnings about potential Russian strikes last week were caused by a software malfunction.
As Zelensky continued to press his case on Monday, Trump responded with a sharp public rebuke.
“Zelensky doesn’t know what he is talking about,” the president told reporters outside the White House.
“All I want for Russia and Ukraine is for them to stop the stupid war. Anything I can do to end the war, whether somebody’s there or not—whatever I can do to end the war—I will have done the world a big, big favor.”
Trump said Zelensky would have secured a better agreement earlier if he had followed his advice, claiming that “a million people” could still be alive. He added: “I think there’s time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met virtually with US senators on Monday and reportedly urged them to push the Trump administration to lift what he described as restrictions on intelligence sharing and weapons deliveries during the war with Russia.
US President Donald Trump called for the Ukrainian president to be removed from office.
Trump’s comments came as Zelensky told the senators that conditions in Ukraine were “the most difficult” they had been since “the very beginning of this war,” according to CNN.
He said the circumstances suggested that “some political decision has been made to slow down support for us,” while outlining the challenges facing Ukrainian forces.
During the virtual meeting, Zelensky told the bipartisan delegation—led by Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut—that restrictions on the US military’s Starshield satellite systems were still in place, Axios reported.
“We still have no explanation for this, just different strange stories we’re hearing, unfortunately,” Zelensky said, according to a transcript of the meeting.
Ukrainian troops depend on the technology for communications along the frontline and for information about incoming Russian drones and missiles. Zelensky said the reduced satellite access was also undermining Ukraine’s ability to intercept Russian attack drones.
He said Ukraine had failed to receive advance US warnings of Russian ballistic missile attacks on three occasions during the previous week, including on Sunday night.
Zelensky argued that the missed alerts pointed to a broader reduction in intelligence cooperation between Washington and Kyiv. “We have received no clear explanation from Washington [as to] why this is happening,” he said.
The Ukrainian president also claimed that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had declined to authorize the delivery of Patriot interceptors and AIM-9X missiles for Ukraine’s air defenses, despite NATO countries having already paid for the equipment.
Zelensky addressed a bipartisan group of senators led by Republican Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Democrat Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, detailing the difficulties Ukraine faces in its war with Russia.
Zelensky said the United States had not delivered any new weapons. An American Avenger self-propelled air-defense system, equipped with a machine gun and Stinger missiles, is shown on combat duty last year.
‘We have almost no Patriot interceptors left from the US partners,’ Zelensky bemoaned. ‘All of this suggests that some political decision has been made to slow down support for us.
‘We want to understand what is happening, why it’s happening and where all of this is heading.’
Tillis said after the meeting that Congress ‘remains committed to standing with Ukraine and our European allies to end Russia’s brutal aggression and secure lasting peace.’
Blumenthal also said that ‘bipartisan support for Ukraine was clear and unequivocal, which we’ll be expressing in upcoming action.
‘Appeasement won’t work with Putin, a thug who understands only strength and force,’ he said.
Despite Zelensky’s claims at the private virtual meeting, Trump insisted on Monday that the US is still sharing intelligence with Ukraine and said he did not know who ordered the throttling of the Starlink satellite system ‘but I am going to find out.’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio separately also said that the lack of warnings last week resulted from a ‘software problem involving [Ukraine’s] early warning system,’ but he could not speak as to what happened on Sunday night, when missiles struck the capital city of Kyiv.
Zelensky and Trump have been trading barbs since the US president struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to buy hundreds of thousands of tons of Russian diesel. They are pictured together at the United Nations in September
The war of words between the Trump administration and Zelensky have been rising ever since the US commander-in-chief struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to buy hundreds of thousands of tons of Russian diesel in an effort to bring down fuel prices ahead of the midterm elections.
Zelensky then met with Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on Sunday, who asked the Ukrainian leader to stop attacking Russian oil refineries.
The Ukrainian leader proposed at the meeting that Ukraine halt strikes on refineries for 30 days, and in return the US would supply Ukraine with Patriot interceptors so it could defend itself from Russian ballistic missiles, Zelensky recounted to the US senators on Monday.
But, he said, Witkoff and Kushner did not show any openness to the proposal.
Zelensky has suggested that the Trump administration secretly imposed these restrictions in an attempt to force Zelensky to accept a deal to end the war in a manner that would be favorable to Russia. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are pictured last year
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Should the US risk relations with Russia to send Ukraine more weapons and support, or hold back?
He also claimed that the two envoys threatened at the meeting on Sunday that Trump could cut off Ukraine from US intelligence and stop selling weapons if it continued to ignore the Trump administration’s requests not to target Russian oil refineries.
US officials have denied such a threat, saying Witkoff and Kushner instead told the Ukrainians that the US was a strong partner, providing munitions and intelligence.
As a result, they argued, Ukraine shouldn’t take actions that hurt American consumers by targeting Russian oil refineries.
Tensions then rose once again on Monday amid reports that Putin, Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping could meet next month in China.
The reports fed fears in Ukraine that Trump is only encouraging Putin to continue the conflict and that the two men are conspiring to eventually impose an unfavorable settlement of the war on Kyiv.
Trump has since said he would consider a trilateral meeting with Putin and Xi Jinping, but said the sit down would focus on denuclearization and not Russia’s war with Ukraine.
