Trump Says Zelenskiy Should Get Somebody Else to Negotiate an End to the War

President Donald Trump said on Monday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy should step back from the talks aimed at ending the war with Russia and let someone else negotiate on Kyiv's behalf.

"Maybe it's time for Zelenskiy to get somebody else to negotiate," Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before he left for a campaign trip to Kansas, according to Reuters. He said Russia has been "fine" in its dealings over Ukraine, and added: "They haven't been doing much."

Trump then put the point more bluntly. "Zelensky is a man that should have had this war settled a long time ago," he said, according to the New York Post. "If he would have listened to me, he would have made a much better deal a long time ago and he'd have a million people living. I think it's time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine."

A call he has made before

Monday's remark was not the first time Trump has aimed at Zelenskiy's place in the talks. On October 10, Trump called for Ukraine to replace its president, Reuters reported. This time he stopped at the negotiating table itself, arguing that a new face for Kyiv would have a better chance of reaching a deal with Moscow.

Trump also said Ukraine is losing its male population to the war, and that the country could have had the fighting settled a long time ago if its president had listened to him.

The Oval Office shadow

Trump pointed reporters back to his meeting with Zelenskiy in the Oval Office in February 2025, when he and Vice President JD Vance clashed with the Ukrainian leader in front of the cameras over American military aid and whether Kyiv had shown enough gratitude for it. "You're not winning this," Trump told him at the time, in remarks the Post recalled on Monday. "You have a damn good chance of coming out OK because of us."

That meeting has shaped the public relationship between the two presidents ever since, and Trump returned to it on Monday as evidence for his argument that Zelenskiy is the obstacle to a settlement.

Intelligence and protection, in the same remarks

In the same exchange with reporters, Trump said the United States continued to share intelligence with Ukraine, Reuters reported. The subject has been disputed in public for days. Zelenskiy said on Sunday, October 18, on NBC's Meet the Press that intelligence sharing had been restored after a block of about three days, and he warned that siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin would be a historic mistake. On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, denied that sharing had ever been paused and told Zelenskiy to focus on ending the war, Reuters reported.

Trump also said he would consider allowing Ukrainians to stay in the United States under Temporary Protected Status until the war ended, Reuters reported. On Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security said Ukrainians and Sudanese nationals would keep that protection from deportation for now, with final decisions on the two programs still to come.