Kyiv pushes back on Donald Trump’s call for a new Ukrainian president as drones hit Russian data hub

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Published – October 11, 2026 05:19 pm IST – Kyiv

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, front left, and British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, front right, talk in the yard of an apartment building heavily damaged after a Russian attack on October 8, 2026
| Photo Credit: AP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday (October 11, 2026) that only Russia was responsible for the war in his country. He said Ukraine would halt strikes on Russian oil refineries if Moscow stopped hitting Ukraine's energy grid, after U.S. President Donald Trump blamed him for high diesel prices and said it was time for Ukraine to get a new leader.

The exchange came as Kyiv pressed its campaign against infrastructure deep inside Russia, with a drone attack on Sunday (October 11) shutting down a data centre run by Russian technology giant Yandex, the third strike on the company's facilities in four days. Russia and Ukraine are locked in a long-range aerial war while their armies remain largely deadlocked on the front line, more than 4.5 years since Moscow's full-scale invasion.

“Ukraine will be ready to stop striking Russian oil refineries if Russia stops striking our energy infrastructure,” Mr. Zelenskyy wrote on X.

“It is possible to stop strikes on energy infrastructure as early as today, but Putin does not want to do so,” he said, adding that any de-escalation must be reciprocal and backed by real guarantees.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha pushed back on Mr. Trump's comments, writing on X late on Saturday (October 10) that Mr. Zelenskyy was leading the country through a war for its independence. “He has the support of the Ukrainian people, and they have the right to decide. Statements from abroad only confirm that he is doing his job well,” Mr. Sybiha wrote.

Donald Trump said on Saturday (October 10) it was time for Ukraine to get a new president, suggesting Zelenskyy has not done enough to end the war and blaming him for high diesel prices in the U.S.

“I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal because he could have made many deals and for some reason he never does,” Mr. Trump said.

The U.S. president, who on Friday (October 9) struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to buy diesel from Russia in an attempt to address high fuel prices ahead of the US midterm elections, has been urging Mr. Zelenskyy for weeks to stop strikes on Russian energy infrastructure.

He has sought to blame record U.S. diesel prices on Ukraine rather than the U.S.-led war in Iran, which has driven up world energy prices. Ukrainian and European officials reacted to the diesel deal with dismay, saying it will help pay for Russia's war effort.

A Ukrainian drone attack shut down a data centre run by Russian technology giant Yandex, the company said on Sunday (October 11), the third strike on its facilities in four days as Kyiv widens its campaign against infrastructure deep inside Russia.

The attack on the data centre in the city of Vladimir, east of Moscow, caused outages across Yandex's services, leaving users in dozens of Russian cities and in Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia unable to order taxis or access banking services, according to Russian independent news outlet Astra.

Russia and Ukraine are locked in a long-range aerial war while their armies remain largely deadlocked on the front line, more than 4.5 years since Moscow's full-scale invasion. Ukraine's strikes on data centres follow Russian attacks on data hubs in Ukraine.

“As a result of the drone attack, the infrastructure of Yandex's data centre in Vladimir was damaged. Operations at the data centre have been completely halted. There were no injuries,” said the Yandex Cloud Telegram channel, which provides operational updates on service availability.

On Thursday (October 8), a drone attack took a Yandex data centre offline in the Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow. A day later, Ukrainian drones hit the company's major data centre in the Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow, partly putting it out of action, Yandex said.

Yandex, often described as Russia's Google, runs the country's most popular search engine and a wide range of digital services, and is heavily involved in Russia's artificial intelligence development.

Elsewhere, Mr. Zelenskyy said search and rescue operations ended in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia after a Russian bombing on Saturday (October 10), Ivan Fedorov, the former regional head and co-chair of the regional defence council, said Sunday.

ALSO WATCH Trump and Putin discuss peace in Ukraine as fighting continues

“President Zelenskyy said 23 people were killed in the attack, including four children. More than 30 people were wounded,” Mr. Fedorov said, “eight of whom remain hospitalised.”

A man was killed and two women wounded in a Ukrainian drone strike on Russia's Bryansk border region, local officials said on Sunday (October 11).

Published – October 11, 2026 05:19 pm IST

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Fonte: The Hindu – International