Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said rising fuel prices are being driven by the war in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, pushing back on claims that Ukraine is to blame for higher costs at the pump.
Zelenskyy's remarks, delivered during a press appearance and circulated Sunday by the accounts @atrupar and @clashreport, came after President Donald Trump said Ukraine should get a new president and tied Zelenskyy to US diesel prices, according to ABC News. The Guardian reported that Trump suggested Zelenskyy has not done enough to end the war with Russia and described a diesel agreement with Russia aimed at lowering fuel prices.
In the video posted by @atrupar, Zelenskyy laid out the sequence he said Washington and other capitals have refused to acknowledge. "Because these people can't find a key how to stop Putin. Because it's more difficult to stop Putin than to pressure others. Because it is more simple to speak about the prices and connect it with Ukraine," he said. "When everybody in the world understands, because of the war in Middle East, the prices are rising, the increasing, the increasing because of the war in Middle East, of the blocking or moose. Because of these reasons, everybody understands it."
Zelenskyy then closed with an appeal to plain talk. "And if we want to speak with people fairly, if we want to be clear, if we want to speak with our nations openly, we have to stop. I mean, this people have to hear reality. Don't play games with people."
The account @clashreport carried the same closing passage, quoting Zelenskyy: "When everybody in the world understands because of the war in Middle East, the prices are rising, the increasing, the increasing, because of the war in Middle East, of the blocking or moves, because of these reasons, everybody understands it. And if we want to speak with people fairly, if we want to be clear, if we want to speak with our nations openly, we have to stop, I mean, this people have to hear reality. Don't play games with people."
The account @FirstSquawk, which monitors financial and geopolitical headlines, put the same claim in its own terms: "Zelensky: Everyone understands very well that prices are rising because of the war in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz."
Taken together, the three accounts show the Ukrainian leader's argument reaching English-language audiences in real time, as the dispute over who owns the price pain collided with the president's push for new leadership in Kyiv. The posts do not show a single coordinated message; they show the same talking point being clipped, quoted and paraphrased across the accounts that shape the day's argument.
The Hormuz claim is the crux of Zelenskyy's answer. The Strait of Hormuz is the narrow waterway through which a large share of the world's seaborne oil passes, and any blockade or closure there would be felt at the pump far beyond the region. That is the causal chain Zelenskyy is putting in front of voters in the United States and Europe: not his war, but a different one, and the shipping lane it runs through.
Trump's comments, as reported by ABC News, went the other way. The president said Ukraine needs a new leader and blamed Zelenskyy for US diesel prices. The Guardian reported that Trump suggested Zelenskyy has not done enough to end the war with Russia, and that the president announced a deal to buy Russian diesel, a move the Guardian said is likely to create a fresh crisis with Ukraine and NATO allies. The same report noted the president framed the agreement as necessary to lower fuel prices.
That is the collision Zelenskyy is answering. On one side, a White House that says cheaper fuel requires buying from Moscow. On the other, a Ukrainian president who says the price spike belongs to a different war entirely, and that connecting it to Ukraine is the easier political move because it avoids the harder problem of stopping Vladimir Putin.
Against that backdrop, the account @amuse posted a separate claim Sunday, writing: "NYC: New York City taxpayers are funding Islamic terror in the Middle East thanks to the Ugandan national they elected." The post names no evidence and no official finding. It is a social media assertion, not a report, and it does not identify any program, contract, or dollar figure. It circulated alongside the Zelenskyy clips, reflecting how quickly the price-and-foreign-policy argument is being pulled into domestic political fights far from Kyiv.
The Ukrainian leader has also signaled openness to a political exit ramp. TRT World reported that Zelenskyy said he is ready for fresh elections in Ukraine if Russia agrees to a truce, quoting him: "Please tell Putin, give us two months, 60 days of total ceasefire, 60 days, and we will organise elections." That offer, if taken up, would put the question of his leadership directly to Ukrainian voters, the same question Trump raised from Washington.
For American consumers, the two accounts of the price spike lead to opposite conclusions. If Zelenskyy is right that the Middle East war and the Hormuz closure are doing the damage, then pressuring Kyiv will not lower diesel. If Trump is right that the war in Ukraine is the driver, then a change of leadership in Kyiv is the lever. Both men are making their case in public, and both are using the same number on the pump to argue for a different foreign policy.
Next News Network could not independently verify the claim about the cause of the price increases, the reported diesel agreement, or the assertion made by @amuse. What is documented is the exchange itself: a Ukrainian president telling audiences not to play games with people, a US president calling for a new leader in Kyiv, and a set of accounts carrying both messages to the same readers on the same day.
Our Take
Zelenskyy's complaint has the ring of a man who knows the argument has already moved past him. He is right that the Strait of Hormuz matters, and he is right that blaming Kyiv for the price at the pump is the cheap shot — the one that avoids the harder question of how to actually stop Putin. But the political reality is that Trump has put the diesel deal on the table and the election offer on the table in the same week, and the American voter is going to hear the one that touches his wallet. Zelenskyy can insist that everybody understands the real cause of the spike. What he cannot do is make the White House stop saying otherwise. If he wants to stay in the argument, he is going to have to win it in Washington, not in a press clip — and that is a fight he was already losing before he opened his mouth.
