President Donald Trump said Saturday that “it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president,” railing at Volodymyr Zelensky, and claiming he has not done enough to end his country’s war that has raged since Russia invaded four years ago.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on his way to a rally in Tennessee, Trump said, “I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal,″ adding that ”for some reason (Zelensky) never does.”

“Zelensky could have settled this war many times, many many times, and he chooses not to,” Trump railed, after being asked about his deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to supply diesel to the U.S. in a bid to lower fuel costs ahead of the midterm elections.

It comes as Americans have seen their fuel costs rocket following Trump’s war in Iran. The deal raises questions about Trump’s sweeping sanctions on Russia, signed into law just last month, that aimed to punish and pressure Moscow for its war against Ukraine.

“Very difficult. It’s a war that should have never been started. If I were president, if the election weren’t rigged, I would have been president, and that war would have never started,” Trump said Saturday, repeating a debunked but oft-repeated claim about the US election in 2020.

Russia and Ukraine are locked in a long-range aerial war while their armies remain largely deadlocked on the front line, more than 4 1/2 years since Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Ukraine is struggling to counter escalating Russian bombardments that have killed more than 60 people over the past four days.

“But he could have settled it many times, and he chose not to,” Trump went on about the Ukraine leader. “We said you can do whatever you want to Russia. Don’t hit the refineries because that’s a world problem that’s caused. And he wants to make problems for the world.”

Trump then appeared to extrapolate his rage at Zelensky to some of the domestic matters that have seen his approval rating plummet to epic depths, a plunge that has Republicans facing loss of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in November’s elections.

“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, and we told them, do whatever you want, but don’t hit the diesel fuel because there’s a big problem, a big shortage. And what does he do? He goes and hits the diesel fuel,” Trump railed.

Zelensky has “lost 30% of your country and you’ve had over a million people go between the two of them, over 2 million people killed. That’s a war that should have never started. And I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president,” Trump said.

Zelensky on Friday night lashed out at Trump over the deal, perhaps sparking Trump’s strong rebuke.

“I believe our team is simply being used as a smoke screen, and that is certainly not fair,” Zelensky said.

“It is certainly not how partners should treat each other,” he added, calling Trump’s announcement of the diesel deal with Putin a “weak decision.”

In a post on social media, Zelensky blasted: “Gifts to Putin will not bring peace or any benefit to the civilised world.’