Sybiha responds to Trump's call for a new Ukrainian president

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukrainians should decide who leads their country. His comments followed Donald Trump's declaration that Ukraine should get a new president.

Trump spoke to reporters at the White House on October 10, a day after announcing that Russian diesel would gain access to the US market. He criticised Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries.

The US president linked the strikes to problems with global diesel supplies and difficulties faced by American farmers. He said Washington had asked Kyiv to refrain from attacking refineries. These were Trump's arguments rather than an independent assessment of the causes of higher fuel prices.

Sybiha subsequently said Volodymyr Zelensky had the support of the Ukrainian people, who had the right to make the decision. He argued that statements from abroad showed the president was doing his job well. The foreign minister's response added a new development to the public dispute between Kyiv and Washington.