US President Donald Trump called for Ukraine to replace its leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy and railed against Ukraine's attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, a day after announcing a diesel supply deal with Russia that had drawn a sharp rebuke from Zelenskyy.

In some of his harshest criticism yet of the White House, Zelenskyy linked the US lifting of sanctions on Russian diesel with a Russian attack on Saturday that killed 20 people, including three children, in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.

A steep rise in global diesel prices, which followed the start of the US and Israel’s war on Iran in February, has become a political liability for Trump's Republican Party ahead of next month's midterm elections, when opposition Democrats could gain control of one or both houses of Congress.

"I think it's time for Ukraine to get a new president," Trump told reporters at the White House, saying Zelenskyy had hurt global diesel supplies with strikes on Russian refineries. "He wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers, with diesel fuel because Russia supplies a large portion of the diesel fuel throughout the world."

Kyiv presses for talks

Earlier in the day, Zelenskyy said Trump's announcement of the diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin had emboldened Moscow. Kyiv has instead urged Washington to pressure Moscow for serious negotiations to end the four-and-a-half-year-old conflict.

The Russian government said it had partially lifted a ban on diesel exports.

"Today, Russia said thank you for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia," Zelenskyy said.

"Last night provided yet more confirmation that Russia perceives any easing of pressure as a signal that it can supposedly keep fighting, that it can supposedly keep dropping bombs on cities. Different signals are needed."

The southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia has been a regular target of Russian bombardment with strikes intensifying in the past few months.

Moscow has not commented specifically on the bombardment. 

Diesel deal criticized

Nearly 80 civilians were killed in Russian strikes on Wednesday and Thursday, including at least 30 killed by a bomb in the eastern garrison city of Kramatorsk and 22 others by a missile in the town of Pryluky, about 130 kilometers east of Kyiv.

The diesel deal was also criticized by US lawmakers, including one of Trump's fellow Republicans, Representative Don Bacon, who said it was time to apply more sanctions that Congress had recently passed, not lift them.

Analysts said the agreement was unlikely to lead to sustained lower fuel prices, with the volumes still much lower than what Russia usually exports when its refineries are not under attack.

Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham spoke with Zelenskyy and said Britain would strengthen its sanctions on Russia, according to a Downing Street spokesperson, who added that the two leaders would meet in person in the coming days.

The latest strikes followed talks between Ukrainian and European officials with US negotiators in Miami on Friday, which were aimed at developing a common proposal for ending the conflict, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

Resumption of talks unlikely

Trump announced the diesel deal while the negotiations were under way, a move Zelenskyy said had caught Kyiv by surprise.

The Ukrainian delegation was headed home on Saturday, presidential aide Dmytro Lytvyn told the Interfax Ukraine news agency.

Putin said after a call with Trump on Friday that an immediate resumption of ‌peace ⁠talks was unlikely, citing Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow.

US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner may visit Moscow within the next two weeks, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Saturday, citing a source.

In his remarks at the White House, Trump criticized Zelenskyy over the lack of a peace deal, while demanding an end to Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy facilities.

"I said to him, 'Do what you want. Don't hit refineries. There's plenty of targets. Don't hit refineries.' And he went out and he hit," Trump said. "He better damn well stop."

"I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal because he could have made many deals, but for some reason he never does," he added.

On Sunday, Zelenskyy repeated Ukraine's long-standing position that it was willing to halt attacks on Russian refineries only as part of a mutual de-escalation of the conflict, which would require Moscow to cease its own strikes on Ukrainian power infrastructure. Any such deal would need to come with "real guarantees", Zelenskyy said.

"The real cause of the war in Europe is Russia and Russia alone," Zelenskyy said, without alluding specifically to Trump's remarks. "It's possible to stop strikes on energy infrastructure as early as today, but Putin does not want to do so."