Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Donald Trump of trying to pressure Kyiv into surrendering to Russia, escalating a week-long row with the US president. Zelenskyy also offered a new proposal to accede to Trump’s request to stop targeting Russian refineries, which was aimed at combating high diesel prices, in exchange for deliveries of more Patriot air-defense missiles. “Now, we have dangerous days ahead of the elections,” Zelenskyy said, referring to the Nov. 3 midterms in the US. “My latest model was: We don’t target Russian diesel, you give us missiles for Patriot systems to protect our facilities. But they just want us to stop attacking diesel. And if we strike that, they will disconnect us from something.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-18/zelenskyy-says-trump-is-pushing-ukraine-to-capitulate-to-russia