Trump accuses Zelenskyy of not wanting to end the war sparked by Russia's full-scale invasion

President Trump said Sunday that he is "in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine," and he accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of not wanting to end the conflict sparked four and a half years ago by Russia's full-scale invasion. 

In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Mr. Trump criticized Zelenskyy for targeting Russian diesel refineries and said, "he doesn't want to end this war, and probably never did."

"He could have made a better deal two years ago than he can now. His country is in shambles, a large portion of his land is lost, his oceans and seas are gone, and his male population is low, wounded, and/or dead," Mr. Trump wrote.

The comments come amid a deepening rift between Mr. Trump and Zelenskyy, with the U.S. president criticizing his Ukrainian counterpart for attacking Russian oil infrastructure — a tactic Ukrainian forces have focused on in recent months in a bid to deprive Putin's forces of both cash and fuel to continue their brutal offensive.

Mr. Trump said Sunday that he had decided to hold off on implementing new sanctions against Russia because he doesn't "want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table."

Mr. Trump asserted on Truth Social that "great progress is being made, and that includes current hostage negotiations," adding that, regarding the additional sanctions, "I can sign it later, or any time that I want!"

Zelenskyy earlier said that while he trusted Mr. Trump, siding with Moscow would be a tragedy and a "historic mistake" for Washington.

"People want to forget what's going on. But we can't give this possibility to forget, or to change reality, or to change the truth," Zelenskyy said. "We can't compare me and Putin. He's aggressor. He occupied us. He killed adults and children, his soldiers. He's a terrorist, and that's why I hope that President Trump will be very clear with this position."

Speaking Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Zelenskyy said waiving sanctions against Russia, which Mr. Trump has already done to enable Russian diesel exports, would strengthen Putin's war effort. He also said U.S.-Ukraine intelligence sharing had resumed after being "blocked for some period of time."

Asked Sunday about reports, including by CBS News, that the U.S. may have intentionally withheld early warnings from Ukraine last week of deadly Russian missile strikes, and Zelenskyy's assertion that data sharing was blocked for a period of time, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that he was "not sure Zelenskyy knows what he's talking about, but it wasn't deliberate."

"We have nothing to do with that," said Rubio. 

Regarding separate but linked claims from Ukrainian officials that crucial satellite data from Elon Musk's Starlink network had been constrained last week, inhibiting Ukraine's offensive and defensive drone operations, Rubio said, "The United States, nobody ordered that Starlink speed to be slowed down. It sort of happened, but my understanding is it's been restored. It's back to where it was before."

Later Sunday, Zelenskyy said on social media that he had spoken with U.S. presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner about the results of an Oct. 9 meeting between U.S. and Ukrainian negotiating teams in Miami, as well as "next steps in diplomacy."

Ukraine and Russia continued trading strikes over the weekend. Russia's Defense Ministry said Sunday it had intercepted more than 1,015 Ukrainian drones over 15 Russian regions, as well as Ukraine's Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula and the Black Sea.

At least one person was killed and five others wounded in an attack on St. Petersburg that also sparked fires at the Petersburg Oil Terminal and the Ruchi oil depot, according to local government authorities.

A logistics center belonging to Russian retailer Ozon and a data center operated by Russian tech giant VK were also targeted, the companies confirmed.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state news agency Tass that Kyiv was "resisting" Moscow's invasion but could not "change the current course of events."

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, a woman was killed and a 6-year-old girl was among at least two other people wounded in two Russian attacks on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, local officials said Sunday.