U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday charged Ukraine to elect another leader who can broker a deal, attributing soaring energy prices to Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s refusal to make a deal to end the war with Russia.

“I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal because he could have made many deals and for some reason he never does,” Mr Trump said on Saturday.

Mr Trump’s remarks come a day after he announced an agreement with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.

Blaming Mr Zelenskyy, Mr Trump said, “He wants to make problems for the world. He wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers, with diesel fuel.”

According to Mr Trump, the Russia-Ukraine war would not have happened if he was U.S. president at the time it broke out in 2022.

“There was no reason that war with Ukraine and Russia started. It started due to incompetence. That’s a war that should have never started. And I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president,” Mr Trump said.

Mr Zelenskyy disagreed with Mr Trump’s position in a social media post, saying, “Any easing of sanctions against Russia without a clear and lasting de-escalation agreement with Russia is an obvious weakness.”

He added, “It plays into Russia’s hands—allowing it to kill more, wage war for longer, have even less respect for America, and inflict even greater losses and damage on the world.”