{"id":227993,"date":"2026-10-19T06:36:03","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T06:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/u-s-taking-putins-side-would-be-a-historic-mistake-says-zelenskyy-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T06:36:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T06:36:03","slug":"u-s-taking-putins-side-would-be-a-historic-mistake-says-zelenskyy-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/u-s-taking-putins-side-would-be-a-historic-mistake-says-zelenskyy-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. taking Putin\u2019s side would be a \u2018historic mistake,\u2019 says Zelenskyy – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that the U.S.\u2019 formally siding with Russia\u2019s Vladimir Putin would be a \u201chistoric mistake\u201d but said he still sees President Donald Trump as an ally despite a series of moves that have unsettled his country and its friends on Capitol Hill.
\u201cWe want to trust him,\u201d Zelenskyy told NBC News\u2019 \u201cMeet the Press\u201d on Sunday, referring to Trump. \u201cI hope that he will change his decisions, because I think that it\u2019s all mistakes, and it will not help us, and it will not help United States.\u201d
Trump on Friday waived sweeping new sanctions against Russia passed by Congress, saying in an executive order<\/a> that the move \u201cis in the national interests of the United States.\u201d Passed with bipartisan support and signed by Trump last month<\/a>, the sanctions were intended to target Russia\u2019s revenue streams by punishing global buyers of Russian oil and gas.
Trump defended his decision Sunday, writing on Truth Social<\/a> that he did not want to \u201cdrive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.\u201d Trump added that Zelenskyy was targeting diesel refineries in Russia, which he claimed was \u201cseriously hurting the world diesel markets, including those in the United States.\u201d
Trump added that \u201cRussia is doing very little, if anything, to help the Islamic Republic of Iran, compared to what they could be doing, and I want to keep it that way, and will, unless stupid people get in the way,\u201d a claim that comes the same day the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry announced<\/a> that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would travel to Tehran this week.
The waiver came days after a deal with Putin <\/a>to release hundreds of thousands of tons of Russian diesel fuel onto the global market as fuel prices soar was announced.
At the same time, Zelenskyy said, U.S. intelligence sharing was briefly \u201cblocked,\u201d blinding Ukraine to incoming ballistic missiles, while limits have been placed on Starlink technology <\/a>critical to intercept jet-powered drones.
Zelenskyy told moderator Kristen Welker that Ukrainian officials believe the decision to limit Starlink, imposed by Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX, came in response to a \u201cmessage from American government.\u201d
The U.S. has been Ukraine\u2019s most significant backer across 4\u00bd years of war, but personal relations between Trump and Zelenskyy have appeared severely strained in recent weeks, with each publicly criticizing the other.
Asked about Trump\u2019s remark last week<\/a> that he was \u201cmore difficult to deal with than Putin,\u201d Zelenskyy said he was \u201cvery honest\u201d with Trump.
\u201cMaybe it\u2019s not very polite,\u201d he said, but it is \u201cbetter to have partners who are very open and clear than to have those who are killers, even with a smile on their face.\u201d
Zelenskyy, who accused the U.S. of betraying Kyiv last week, said his feelings have not changed. He warned that Trump\u2019s diesel deal with Russia \u201cwill strengthen Putin in his will to occupy us.\u201d
Announcing the deal last week, Trump expressed hopes that it would go some way to address soaring fuel costs.
But Zelenskyy said the deal wouldn\u2019t have \u201ca real influence\u201d on the price of oil in the U.S. because the rising prices were due to the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, not Ukraine.
\u201cI don\u2019t know all the reasons why President Trump makes such deals,\u201d he said.
Of the prospect of the U.S.\u2019 more formally siding with Russia, he said: \u201cIf these two countries will be together … we will not prevail, and we will not be able to stand.\u201d
Zelenskyy said it was a \u201cpity\u201d Trump had waived the sanctions in a bill named for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who he said was \u201ca great supporter of peace and of Ukraine.\u201d
\u201cHe invested his life and time because he really believed in Ukraine,\u201d he said.
In a separate interview on \u201cMeet the Press,\u201d Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., defended Trump\u2019s decision to lift the Russia sanctions.
\u201cHe\u2019s trying to walk this fine balance between trying to be able to put pressure on Russia, but also to be able to help the American people, so he is choosing the American people first is what he\u2019s doing,\u201d Lankford said, pointing to high gas prices.
Asked whether Trump\u2019s moves indicate the president is siding with Putin, Lankford, a member of the Intelligence Committee, said Trump was \u201csiding with the free people of Ukraine,\u201d adding later that Trump was working to get the two countries \u201cto the table to be able to negotiate.\u201d
The war has seen little recent movement on the front line, with Russia continuing to occupy around a fifth of Ukraine. Trump had vowed to end the conflict within days of the start of his second term, but peace talks have effectively stalled, with Ukraine saying that Russia has rejected a short-term ceasefire and that Putin\u2019s terms for peace are tantamount to a full surrender.
Meanwhile, another difficult winter looms for Ukrainian civilians, with a critical munitions shortage <\/a>limiting Zelenskyy\u2019s ability to defend infrastructure against Russian strikes.
Zelenskyy said he was due to speak to U.S. negotiators by phone later Sunday and was still hopeful of a meeting in the days ahead. \u201cI\u2019m very open for this, even with all the difficult circumstances,\u201d he said.
He cited some progress after a multiday interruption in U.S. intelligence about incoming Russian ballistic missiles, which he said has now been \u201cdeblocked.\u201d
\u201cWe are very thankful for this,\u201d he said. \u201cNow it works.\u201d
European and Ukrainian officials previously told NBC News they believed that a move to limit sharing intelligence<\/a>, coming only days after Trump eased sanctions on Russia, was most likely aimed at pressuring Kyiv to make concessions at the negotiating table amid a stalemate in peace talks.
While Zelenskyy indicated that the intelligence problem has been resolved, he said Ukraine was still facing an ongoing speed restriction on its use of Starshield, the military version of the Starlink service.
Asked whether he thought Trump or Musk had directly made the decision to limit Starlink, Zelenskyy said he did not know but thought \u201cboth\u201d were involved. He said that if Trump decided tomorrow to lift the restriction, \u201cit will immediately work as it was before.\u201d
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Freddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London.\u00a0
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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For YouSettings news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that the U.S.\u2019 formally siding with Russia\u2019s Vladimir Putin would be a \u201chistoric mistake\u201d but said he still sees President Donald Trump as an ally despite a series of moves that have unsettled his country and its friends on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":227994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}