Donald Trump announced that the United States would buy millions of tonnes of diesel from Russia, then said Ukraine should “get a new leader” able to reach an agreement with Moscow to end the conflict.
The agreement is intended to bring down American fuel prices, which rose after the US and Israel’s conflict with Iran. It came as the US president faces elections in November.
Wes Streeting, the UK defence secretary, said Britain did not support Trump’s agreement with Vladimir Putin.
Streeting said the choice of Ukraine’s leader belonged to Ukrainians. He added that the country was “fortunate to have someone of his calibre, his courage and his integrity leading their war effort”.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said the diesel agreement would give Moscow money to obtain further military equipment and continue the war.
Andrew Griffith, the Conservative shadow chancellor, said Trump was “wrong” to call for Zelenskyy to leave office. He said the diesel arrangement “sends out all the wrong messages”.
Streeting said responsibility for the war “lies squarely and solely with President Putin and his imperialist ambitions”.
The dispute comes as Britain weighs its own military preparations. Streeting said UK defence spending must be planned on the basis that Russia could attack NATO by 2030. NATO is made up of 32 countries.
John Healey resigned as defence secretary earlier this year, accusing the government of failing to provide sufficient defence funding. He said the UK needed to spend 3% of national income on defence by 2030, compared with an estimated 2.6% this year.
Streeting said Healey would use the coming Budget to “plug” a £4.7bn funding gap for the Defence Investment Plan.
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