EU leaders rallied around Zelensky in Brussels — one day after Trump called him harder to deal with than Putin

European Union leaders closed ranks around Volodymyr Zelensky at a summit in Brussels on Friday, greeting the Ukrainian president with handshakes and hugs one day after U.S. President Donald Trump called Ukraine's renewed strikes on Russian oil refineries a "disgrace" and said the Ukrainian leader was "more difficult to deal with" than Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky told the summit he was "only standing up for Ukraine's interests," and pushed back on Washington directly. "If I don't stand up to this… who else will?" he said, praising Europe's "real leaders," according to summit coverage.

The split between Washington and Kyiv has sharpened this week around two developments: Trump's rebuke of Ukraine's refinery-strike campaign, and a U.S. deal to import Russian diesel that has angered Ukraine and European allies. Zelensky rejected the arrangement, warning a gas agreement could come next, and said the diesel deal would send money straight to Moscow to fund the war, per reporting from the summit.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters the EU had backed Trump's energy ceasefire "but we've seen that Russia did not respect it, not a single minute," and said sanctions on Russia "have to increase." European Council President António Costa said "this is no time to withdraw support" for Ukraine and "no time to relieve Russian sanctions," as the U.S. has done with the diesel deal.

The summit's agenda centred on financing Ukraine through another winter — the fifth since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022. Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal told Reuters the EU would probably have to provide a new loan to Ukraine to help cover its budget gap for next year, saying, "Last winter was already hell, this one will be once again like hell."

On the ground, the urgency was visible Friday. Russian drone strikes on Kharkiv killed three people, and strikes elsewhere left hundreds of thousands of people without power, according to summit coverage.

Zelensky had paused attacks on Russian refineries for three days at Trump's request as part of an energy-ceasefire pitch, but said Thursday the strikes would resume because Moscow never honoured the deal — a ceasefire Trump announced unilaterally last weekend. Trump, facing U.S. midterm elections in November, has blamed Ukrainian strikes for pushing up energy prices. In his Thursday Newsmax interview, he also said, "I'm not a big fan of Zelensky. They've destroyed that country."

For Canada, the Brussels show of unity matters on two fronts. Ottawa has been one of Kyiv's most committed backers since 2022, and as Washington wavers, the pressure on Canada and Europe to carry more of the financial and military load will only grow. The energy side hits closer to home too: Ukraine's refinery strikes and the U.S.-Russia diesel deal both feed the same global fuel prices Canadians pay at the pump — prices already running hot this fall.