The key facts

  • Dmitriev accused Zelensky of trying to weaken the Republicans' position ahead of the US midterm elections
  • Strikes by Ukrainian forces on oil refineries resumed after a two-week pause
  • In October, Trump said it was harder to strike a deal with Zelensky than with Putin

Dmitriev's statement

Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian president's special representative for investment and economic cooperation with foreign countries and head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, delivered a harsh assessment of Volodymyr Zelensky's position. On the social network X, he wrote that the Ukrainian leader, in his words, does not learn from his own mistakes and continues to lecture Donald Trump. Gazeta.Ru quotes the text of Dmitriev's message.

Context: the dispute over strikes on oil refineries

The RDIF head's statement came amid escalating rhetoric between Trump and Kyiv. On October 16, the American leader called the Ukrainian military's strikes on Russian oil refineries an outrage, said that reaching a deal with Zelensky is harder than with Vladimir Putin, blamed Kyiv for the rise in global oil prices, and expressed confidence that the conflict could be resolved without the Ukrainian president's participation. In response, Zelensky set a condition: he demanded interceptor missiles from the United States in exchange for the Ukrainian military refraining from attacks on oil refineries.

Resumption of strikes

On October 30, the Ukrainian outlet Strana.ua reported that the Ukrainian Armed Forces resumed strikes on Russian oil refineries after a two-week pause. Thus, the pause in attacks, which coincided with the exchange of statements between Trump and Zelensky, turned out to be temporary. Earlier, on October 31, it was reported that Zelensky remained dissatisfied with one of the US decisions; the publication did not specify which decision was meant.