Trump calls Ukraine’s refinery strikes a “disgrace”; Zelensky, in Brussels, answers: “Yesterday we had a thousand drones” – and asks the EU for €70 billion and 300 Patriot missiles

US President Donald Trump has again attacked Ukraine’s leadership, calling Kyiv’s renewed strikes on Russian oil facilities a “disgrace” and describing Volodymyr Zelensky as harder to deal with than Vladimir Putin. Zelensky answered from Brussels, on the second day of the European Council summit, and used the platform to ask EU leaders for €70 billion in additional funding and 300 Patriot interceptors.

Trump: “I think that’s a disgrace”

In an interview with Newsmax’s Rob Finnerty, aired on Thursday evening US time, Trump said the Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries only push global oil prices higher. “All he’s doing is making the world oil price higher. I think that’s a disgrace. There’s plenty of other targets; they don’t have to hit,” he said, according to NBC News.

Trump went on to say that Zelensky “is not a good guy for us to deal with” on the war, adding that he believes both sides would actually like it to end but that he finds Zelensky “to be more difficult to deal with than Putin”. He also said he is “not a big fan” of the Ukrainian president and claimed that “they destroyed that country”. According to the Greek source, the Kremlin, through spokesman Dmitry Peskov, said it agreed with the assessment.

The remarks follow a series of moves by Washington that Kyiv has read as favouring Moscow. Trump unilaterally announced an “energy truce” on October 11, and he had earlier agreed to allow Russian diesel exports. Ukraine resumed its strikes on Russian refineries after saying the ban on them was over.

Zelensky: “Yesterday we had a thousand drones”

Asked in Brussels about Trump’s comments, Zelensky said he is defending only his own country. “I defend exclusively the interests of the people of Ukraine. We were attacked, we were occupied, our people were killed,” he said, according to the Kyiv Independent. “Yesterday, there were a thousand drones in Ukraine. A thousand. But the American side said that it’s ‘difficult to speak with Zelensky. It’s less difficult to manage with Putin.’ Of course.”

He said he feels full support from Europe and that Ukraine cannot accept “diesel deals”, because easing sanctions on diesel would be followed by pressure to relax gas and banking sanctions as well. He also noted that PAC-2 and PAC-3 interceptors for Ukraine’s Patriot systems come from Europe. According to RTÉ, he added that Putin “does not want peace talks right now, in any format”, and, on arriving at the summit, he pointedly referred to his counterparts as “real leaders”.

The ask to the EU: €70 billion and 300 Patriots

In his address to the European Council, Zelensky argued that the “diesel deal” would “never be enough to offset the impact of the Strait of Hormuz on global markets”, but “will put more money straight into Putin’s pocket to fund this war”. He asked for a strong 22nd EU sanctions package, with measures against every company and person involved in making Russian ballistic missiles, advanced communications systems and drones, as well as those involved in Russia’s financial system.

• Funding: “The war will cost €155 billion next year. And we need at least €70 billion more from you – for defence, for weapons, and for our resilience.”
• Frozen Russian assets: he proposed “something like a special EU-controlled custodian” to reduce the risk that the assets are unfrozen and divided up among those who “do not want what is best for Europe”.
• Air defence: a “winter package” of 300 Patriot interceptors specifically against ballistic missiles, drawn from stocks European countries already hold.

“Ukraine can’t get by on just two or four missiles from a country every few months,” he told the leaders, noting that Russian ballistic missiles and drones keep hitting the country’s energy and water infrastructure and leaving people without electricity. He also said Ukraine has started its own anti-ballistic programme, called FREYJA.

Belgium promises 10 F-16s

On the sidelines of the summit, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever promised that his country will deliver 10 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine this year. “We will supply 10 this year. We have fallen a little behind because of delays with the F-35s, but those are now starting to arrive, which will enable us to send F-16s to Ukraine,” he said after meeting Zelensky, the Kyiv Independent reports.

Ukraine is also still dealing with limits on its Starlink service. Zelensky said connection speed has not been fully restored but is returning, a dispute that Poland’s foreign minister has publicly raised with Elon Musk.