Zelenski: “Trump is very unhappy that Russian oil is still bought by Europe.” What are the countries targeted
The President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, along with European leaders and Ukrainian president Volodimir Zelenski, at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, on August 18, 2025. PHOTO: Pool / Abaca / Abaca Press / Profimedia
US President Donald Trump is “very dissatisfied” that EU states continue to buy oil from Russia, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski said in Paris on Thursday, after a new meeting of the leaders of Ukraine in the “Coalition of will” and who also encompassed a video conference with the leader of the White House. Agerpres.
“He is very unhappy that Russian oil is still bought by Europe,” Zelenski said at a common press conference that French President Emmanuel Macron, insisting on Hungary and Slovakia, countries whose governments do not support in the war with Russia and consequently has tense relations with the heads of these governments.
The French president validated the statement and, referring to Hungary and Slovakia, also claimed that “President Trump and the US administration disapproved (…) The elections made by two EU member countries that continue to buy Russian oil.”
Emmanuel Macron also expressed satisfaction with this position of Washington, especially since he continued to argue, Budapest and Bratislava “sometimes defended themselves by invoking them to this new American administration.” “Therefore, the American-European alignment will be very effective for the cessation of these practices,” believes the French president.
“These two countries complained to President Trump” after the Ukrainian blows on Russian energy infrastructures, said Zelenski, referring to the recent Ukrainian attacks on the Drujba pipeline that disrupted the oil supply of Hungary and Slovakia.
Trump, called to arbitrate the EU – Orban dispute
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced at the end of last month that he had asked for the help of the United States, in a letter to President Donald Trump. “I asked for the help of the US president. The Ukrainians continue to bomb the Drujba oil pipeline,” Orban said on Facebook and made public the leader from the White House. “Viktor, I do not like to hear this; I am very upset. Say this to Slovakia! You are my big friend,” Trump wrote in his answer.
At the same time, Zelenski, in turn, said he asked Trump to intervene next to Orban in order not to obstruct the process of Ukraine's accession to the EU. The Hungarian prime minister opposes this accession for several reasons, concerning the situation of the rights of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia, the damages that the Hungarian economy would suffer and the blocking of most European funds for Hungary by the European Commission following the ideological disputes between Budapest and Brussels.
Like Orban, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico refuses any military support for Ukraine in the war with Russia and in addition to describing Zelenski as “a comedy actor who is breathing” and “needs this war to preserve his power.” However, Zelenski and Fico will have a meeting in western Ukraine on Friday. Unlike Orban, who once visited Kiev during the period since the beginning of the war, Fico was not at Kiev at this time.
At the end of the new meeting of the countries of the “Coalition of the will”, President Macron said that 26 countries were “employed to participate in a reinsurance force” with presence “to the ground, at sea or in the air”, to provide Ukraine Security guarantees in the event of a fire termination with Russia. But the latter has already transmitted several times to reject any troops in Ukraine among NATO members or Kiev supporters. Any discussion about Western security guarantees for Ukraine that does not take into account the position of Moscow will not lead anywhere, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has previously warned.
