Trump openly lies that Zelenskyy “doesn’t care” about ending the war. He also lies that Russia is generously sending cheap diesel to the world. Russia is selling it under a deal Trump struck with Putin, after the US lifted sanctions to allow it.
Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia can stop the war any day by withdrawing. Ukraine can’t.
Breakdown of Trump lies⬇️
“I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.”
Trump lied.
Trump’s own words give other reasons for going easy on Russia. Later in the same post he says that perhaps more importantly, Russia is doing very little to help Iran and he wants to keep it that way. Bloomberg reported that he waived the Russia energy tariffs because they were getting in the way of lowering diesel prices before the midterms. When he announced the diesel deal with Putin, he didn’t mention the war or sanctions and performatively called lower prices for farmers, ranchers and truckers his greatest priority, all the meanwhile being the culprit behind the increased prices.
He has shown no similar concern about driving Ukraine away. He said Kyiv "had better damn well stop" its refinery strikes and that Ukraine should replace its president, and Ukrainian officials say US counterparts warned that the US would cut off intelligence if the strikes continued. Russia, meanwhile, hit power plants in Ukraine within hours of Trump announcing his energy ceasefire.
"Russia is doing very little, if anything, to help the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Trump lied.
“Very little compared to what they could be doing” is a standard nobody can test. Moscow and Tehran have a deep military relationship. Russia’s air war on Ukrainian cities was built on Iranian-designed Shahed drones.
Read the sentence in context. Trump says he wants to keep Russia’s help to Iran limited and will, unless stupid people get in the way. That’s an admission that he’s going easy on Moscow over Ukraine to keep it quiet on Iran.
His own military has said otherwise. Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed Russia has been aiding Iran during the war, including expanded intelligence sharing and satellite imagery to help Tehran target US forces. Ukraine has said Russian satellites photographed Diego Garcia, Incirlik in Turkey, Al Udeid in Qatar and Saudi oil and gas fields, all of which Iran later attacked.
Russia was shipping TNT, ammunition and drone components to Iran across the Caspian Sea, helping it rebuild arsenals used up fighting the US and Israel. Moscow has also coached Tehran on drone use and electronic warfare, drawing on its experience in Ukraine. Eighteen American service members have been killed in the war. Trump knew this months prior, did nothing to protect service members.
“Farmers, ranchers, and businesses of all kinds are suffering greatly from this.”
Trump lied.
Ukrainian strikes forced Russia to ban diesel exports, which tightened global supply, but the main cause of record US diesel prices is the war with Iran. Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz after the first US and Israeli strikes in February, and shipping crude out of the Gulf now costs about $33 a barrel, up from about $2. NBC reported that Trump has tried to blame the Ukraine conflict for record diesel prices rather than his own war on Iran.
“Russia is, nevertheless, sending, at a low price, millions of barrels of diesel to the World.”
Trump lied.
Russia isn’t sending diesel out of goodwill. It is selling it under a deal Trump negotiated with Putin, after the Treasury licensed transactions in Russian diesel, including US imports, through April 2027. Russian industry experts had already been calling for the export ban to be lifted because Russia was losing profit. The shipments come to about ten days of US consumption and are expected to do little for prices. Trump provides nothing to back up “at a low price.”
“Zelenskyy doesn’t care.”
Trump lied.
On Oct. 11 Zelenskyy said Ukraine would stop striking Russian refineries if Russia stopped attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. He made the same offer in an ABC interview, asking Trump to tell Russia to stop hitting Ukraine’s grid. Trump announced his energy ceasefire after that interview aired, and Zelenskyy’s office learned of it from social media. Ukraine suspended its refinery strikes anyway and resumed them only after Russian missile and drone attacks broke the truce.
“He doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did.”
Trump lied.
Trump struck the diesel deal with Putin by phone while his envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were meeting Ukrainian officials to discuss a plan to end the war. Ukraine was at the table with Trump’s own negotiators when he went around them to Moscow.
A senior CFR fellow said the deal came as a major shock to the Ukrainians, to European governments, and to members of Congress who thought Trump was being moved toward new sanctions on Russia. Zelenskyy later said the US-Russia agreements were made without informing Ukraine.
“With all of the money that Europe is famously giving him, and that Crooked Joe Biden gave him in the past…”
Trump lied.
Europe isn’t giving Zelenskyy money. Much of what it spends goes to US weapons makers, under a program Trump set up himself. In July 2025, Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte launched PURL, after the White House complained that Europe should carry more of the cost of Ukraine’s security. Under PURL, European allies and Canada buy US-made weapons, which are then sent to Ukraine. By July 2026, partners had put nearly $7 billion into it, and the program supplies 95% of Ukraine’s Patriot missiles.
The European money Trump is complaining about is going to American factories. He knows that because he arranged it. His administration has also reportedly threatened to shut PURL down to force Ukraine to stop hitting Russian refineries.
The Biden-era aid followed the same pattern. In 2023, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said as much as 90% of US security assistance for Ukraine was being spent in the United States, on new weapons or on replacing weapons sent from US stockpiles. Biden said nearly two-thirds of the 2024 Ukraine package would go to US industry, in states like Arizona, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas, where Patriots, Javelins and artillery shells are made.
“Giving him” is chosen to make the aid sound like cash in Zelenskyy’s pocket, and the rest of the sentence uses that to suggest he is dragging the war out for the money.
“His male population is low, wounded, and/or dead.”
Trump lied.
Ukraine’s losses are heavy, but the numbers don’t come close to what Trump describes. CSIS estimated in July 2026 that Ukrainian forces had lost between 525,000 and 625,000 killed, wounded or missing since February 2022. Former NATO commander Christopher Cavoli put Ukrainian deaths at about 150,000. In a country of roughly 36 million people, that is a terrible toll, but it is nowhere near a male population that is mostly wounded or dead.
Ukraine still fields one of the largest armies in Europe. Zelenskyy has said the armed forces total about 880,000, second in Europe only to Russia’s.
Ukraine does have a real manpower problem. The number of conscription-age men in the country fell from about 8.7 million before the invasion to roughly 5 million by early 2024, through death and emigration. Recruiting enough soldiers is a constant struggle. Trump turns that strain into a claim that Ukraine’s men are gone.
He also leaves out Russia’s losses, which are far worse. CSIS estimates Russian forces lost about 1.4 million killed, wounded or missing over the same period, more than twice Ukraine’s toll. Cavoli puts Russian deaths at about 450,000. Trump doesn’t say Russia’s male population is low, wounded or dead.
Trump has a record of inventing Ukrainian casualty figures. In January 2025 he claimed 700,000 Ukrainians had been killed, more than four times the estimate today.
“His oceans and seas are gone.”
Trump lied.
Ukraine still controls its Black Sea coast west of the occupied south, including Odesa, and its ports continue to export grain.