US President Donald Trump is losing his patience with Ukraine after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reached out to the White House last week calling for supplies and criticized the White House decision to temporarily ease sanctions on Russian oil.

In an interview with NBC Trump said Zelenskiy needed to “get on the ball” and agree to a deal, adding: “I think Putin is ready to make a deal.”

Zelenskiy earlier this month offered to help US forces and their allies in the Middle East with intercepting Iranian drones, using the Ukrainian military’s experience with shooting down Russian drones. But on March 14, Trump said that “we don’t need help,” adding that the “last person we need help from is Zelenskiy.”

Trump went on to say: “I’m surprised that Zelenskiy doesn’t want to make a deal. Tell Zelenskiy to make a deal because Putin’s willing to make a deal… Zelenskiy is far more difficult to make a deal with.”

Trump turned on Zelenskiy as he comes under increasing pressure as the US starts to take painful losses in Iran, losing some key radar installations and the destruction of US planes and equipment stations in US bases across the Gulf region. Painted into a corner in the Iranian conflict and frustrated by the lack of progress in cutting a ceasefire deal to halt the war in Ukraine. Trump increasingly sees Ukraine as a distraction that it doesn't want to deal with.

Earlier this year Trump imposed a June deadline for an Ukraine ceasefire agreement to be reached, which looks increasingly likely to be missed. In an interview with the Financial Times over the weekend, Zelenskiy reiterated that he was unwilling to concede territory to Russia and pressed Trump to increase the sanctions on Russia, not loosen them.

Talks that made so much progress at a Moscow meeting on December 3 have effectively stalled again. Suggestions for a trilateral meeting between Russia, Ukraine and the US have been shelved for the meantime. Trump needs to extract himself from both wars before the midterm elections in November and is starting to feel the pressure. The two presidents have never gotten on well but relations seem to have deteriorated again.

The war in Iran has distracted the White House and Ukraine’s peace talks have fizzled out for the meantime, as Trump’s focus shifts entirely to the deteriorating situation in Iran.

“The Middle East has severely reoriented political attention” away from Ukraine, an EU diplomat told Financial Times. “For us, and for Ukraine, it’s a disaster.”

EU countries had been told that US arms shipments, particularly air defence, would be delayed as Washington prioritised Middle Eastern customers, the diplomats said.

“It is definitely a problem because you have a competition for the same assets really, in the Middle East as well as in Ukraine,” Kaja Kallas, the EU’s chief diplomat, told the Financial Times. “Clearly America’s attention right now is on the Middle East.”

Trump’s war with Iran has given Russia an unexpected lifeline by driving up global energy prices, helping the Kremlin recoup additional revenue of up to $150mn a day and the US has begun to ease sanctions on Russian oil to ease the pressure on prices.

Zelenskiy urges Trump to turn up the pressure on Putin

Backed into a corner by a swelling domestic political crisis and shortage of weapons, Zelenskiy urged United States President Donald Trump to turn up the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin rather than push Kyiv into a ceasefire, warning that Ukraine will not accept Moscow’s demands for territorial concessions.

Speaking in an interview at the presidential palace in Kyiv with Gordon Repinski for Politico and Welt, Zelenskiy acknowledged the toll of the conflict but said he was not ready to capitulate.

“We need negotiations. We support them,” Zelenskiy said in the interview. “We don’t trust Russia, but I think, and I trust that Americans really want to finish with this war. I hope that they will help us, but we need more pressure on Russia, not on me.”

The Ukrainian leader also called on European governments to prepare a fallback funding mechanism if Hungary continues to block financial support for Kyiv. As bne IntelliNews reported, Zelenskiy is also facing a funding crisis after Hungary blocked the passage of the EU’s €90bn loan that will fund the government for the next two years.

Zelenskiy urged EU leaders to develop what he described as a “Plan B” to bypass the Hungarian block. The Nordic countries are proposing to offer €30bn of stopgap bilateral loans to get Ukraine to the autumn and buy more time.

Despite tensions, Zelenskiy says that the US involvement remains vital in any peace process. Zelenskiy said discussions with Trump’s envoys in December indicated Washington might be willing to provide security guarantees as part of a peace agreement, though Kyiv has yet to receive concrete details.

“Be honest. For us, it’s very important, but we don’t have a clear answer,” he said.

Ukraine sends drone help to Middle East

Zelenskiy has offered to help the US protect against Iranian drones, but was rebuffed by the White House. "We don't need any help," Trump said.

However, Bankova is in touch with the governments of several countries in the Gulf and they are a lot more interested in tapping Ukraine's state of the art drone technology.

“Countries in the Middle East have reached out to us, asking to share our expertise in intercepting Iranian “shahed” drones during massive strikes. That is why we have already sent expert teams to three countries. We are ready to help. By the end of the week, our military personnel and the NSDC Secretary will return and provide a full report. We will then understand the scope of the assistance our partners expect from us,” Zelenskiy said in a post on social media.

“We know that in Middle Eastern countries, in the US, and in European states, there is a certain number of interceptor drones. But without our pilots, without our military personnel, without specialized software, none of this works. This system exists only within our Armed Forces; it is official, and therefore everyone understands: even with dozens or hundreds of interceptors, they will not be able to stabilize the situation. This is a systemic defence. And it is precisely the experts in systemic defence, professionals in air defence and in the use of short-range air defence, that have been sent to the Middle Eastern countries,” Zelenskiy added.