Transcript of Trump Pressures Ukraine, Trump's Midterm Priorities, Saudi Arabia Airport Attacks New

President Trump disapproves of Ukraine's attacks against Russian oil refineries.

He wants President Volodymyr Zelenskyy out of power. Ukrainians say that is a call for them to make.

I'm Steve Inskeep, with Michele Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. The president is looking to Russia to bring down fuel prices before the midterms. He lifted sanctions on Russian diesel. Will that help the president convince voters he's focused on affordability?

And the main airport in Saudi Arabia's capital is still shut down after it was hit by Houthi attacks. At least 20 people have been killed in the last week, including an American citizen. Can Saudi Arabia stop the attacks without more help from its allies? Stay with us. We'll give you news you need to start your day. President Trump is once again telling Ukrainians to hold wartime elections and ditch their president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Trump blames Zelenskyy for not ending the war. He also blames Ukraine's long-range drone strikes on Russian oil refineries for rising global fuel prices. Trump lifted sanctions on Russian diesel and claimed both sides have agreed to, quote, an energy ceasefire.

Joining us now to talk about the latest is NPR's Joanna Kakissis, in Kyiv. Joanna, good morning.

Good morning, Michelle.

How are Ukrainians reacting to Trump's call to remove Zelenskyy?

Well, Michelle, every time Trump does this, it seems to make Zelensky more popular here. Uh, just having conversations with Ukrainians in Kyiv yesterday and also reading comments online, one theme clearly emerged that Ukrainians say, you know, Zelensky is far from ideal, but outsiders don't get to decide whether we should hold elections or who we should get rid of. I spoke with Oleksandr Maresko. He's from Zelensky's party and he leads the Foreign Affairs Committee in Parliament. And he says this idea actually comes from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin understands that if he manages to remove somehow Zelensky, maybe with the help of Trump, it will weaken seriously Ukraine during the war. It's, it's a very dangerous idea. And the key question is whether President Trump will align himself with Putin in his attempt to ruin Ukraine and to pressure us into capitulation.

Do other Ukrainians feel this way?

Yeah, Zelensky's term ended in 2024. But, you know, public opinion polls here show most Ukrainians do not want to hold elections in the middle of the war. They do criticize Zelensky's governing style and they worry he may have some shady people in his circle. But I saw this poll recently that shows, you know, about half of Ukrainians do not want him to run for a second term, but only when elections are held after the war ends. Most Ukrainians realize that holding elections now is dangerous. There's no ceasefire and Russia is bombing Ukrainian cities multiple times a day.

President Trump claims that both Ukraine and Russia have agreed to an energy ceasefire. Is that actually happening?

Well, you know, Zelensky said on Sunday that he did not know anything about this ceasefire. This would involve both sides halting attacks on energy facilities. And in his evening video address Sunday night, Zelensky said he welcomes such a ceasefire. He's saying, let's make it happen. Ukraine supports real paths to ending this war and is ready to stop striking Russian energy infrastructure if Russia reciprocates in Ukraine. But then he pointed out that even after Trump declared the ceasefire, Russia attacked a power plant in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. And I should note that Trump has announced an energy ceasefire before and nothing came of that.

So where does Ukraine go from here? Is there any hope of ending this war?

Well, Ukraine says it's hitting Russian oil refineries to weaken the Kremlin's ability to wage war. Maresko, the Ukrainian lawmaker, says his country has the right to fight back. And he says Trump is using Ukraine as a scapegoat, blaming the Ukrainians for rising fuel prices instead of the U.S. war on Iran. And he says Trump's envoys in peace negotiations, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, they don't care about Ukraine.

They don't care much about values or lives of people in Ukraine. They want to make a quick deal. at the expense of Ukraine. And how you can make a quick deal? Only by pressuring Ukraine into surrender.

And Mykhaili says Ukraine will learn to survive even if the U.S. does abandon it.

That is NPR's Joanna Kakissis in Kyiv. Joanna, thank you.

You're welcome, Michelle.

One of the responses by the U.S. to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine was to sanction Russian diesel. As we mentioned, the Trump administration lifted those sanctions.

Trump described a deal to import millions of tons of Russian diesel over time. This agreement has upset members of Congress and U.S. allies, and for voters who are focused on affordability, it is unlikely to have any immediate impact on diesel prices.

NPR senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson is looking at the politics of this. Good morning, Mara.

Good morning.

So Russia was already under strong sanctions since it invaded Ukraine, and Congress just passed new sanctions against Russia. Trump signed that law. So what is Trump doing now?

What he's doing is he is trying, without much success yet, to bring down oil prices before Election Day. You know, he blames Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries for higher gas prices in the U.S., even though it's the Iran war that is causing higher prices in the U.S. And He has demanded that Ukraine stop bombing Russian oil refineries. He hasn't demanded that Russia stop bombing Ukrainian energy infrastructure, its electrical grid, or civilian targets. Trump is also calling for Ukrainian President Zelenskyy's ouster. He has had a very long-held grievance about Zelenskyy.

And the president has been even more preoccupied with many of his other grievances. How does that play into the Democrats' closing message for the midterms?

Yes, well, in the past few days, Trump has attacked Norway for not giving him the Nobel Peace Prize, even though the Norwegian government doesn't make that decision. He's trying again to launch an investigation to fire Lisa Cook, one of the Federal Reserve Board members. He's tried and failed to fire her in the past. The Supreme Court stopped him from doing that. He's also launching a Department of Justice antitrust investigation into the TV networks that have boycotted sharing footage of Trump after he banned CNN from the White House press pool. And what we see from polling and from What we're hearing from NPR's own swing voter focus groups is that voters want Trump to focus on their priorities, bringing prices down. And instead, they complain that he's too focused on the ballroom or the arch or the press pool or the Kennedy Center. And all this comes as Trump's efforts to try to win the midterms keep failing and running into roadblocks. Last night, a federal court issued a temporary restraining order against some taxpayer-funded campaign ads that he's been running.

So we're about 3 weeks out from Election Day. Let's zoom out for a minute. And what's the outlook for Republicans?

Well, the dynamic hasn't changed much. Republicans are still on defense, although they have a tremendous amount of money to defend themselves with. About 2/3 of the Republican campaign spending is now focused on states and districts where Trump won by more than 10 points in 2024. And the Senate map is tilted red. There are more Senate seats up This year. Also, those states are more rural. They're more exposed to high diesel prices, high fertilizer prices. There are a lot of low-income voters in those states, many of whom voted for Trump, that are just now starting to feel the cuts in Medicaid and food assistance and other safety net programs from that one big beautiful bill. And, you know, Donald Trump has the same challenge that Joe Biden had. He is trying to convince voters that the economy is doing better than their own day-to-day experiences tell them. And that is a very hard thing to do.

That is NPR. Senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson. Mara, thank you.

You're welcome.

Saudi Arabia says Houthi attacks against its airports have killed at least 20 people in the last week.

Houthis are firing missiles from Yemen at the airport in Riyadh, as well as others to the south and east of the capital.

Joining us to talk about the latest is NPR correspondent in the Gulf, Aya Batraoui. She's joining us from Dubai. Aya, good morning.

Good morning, Michelle.

So tell us what's been happening in Riyadh.

Okay, this is a really busy airport. It's one that I just flew out from a week ago, and it connects Riyadh to the world. This is a landlocked city, and so there's really no quick way to get to the capital except by flying in. Now, Riyadh Airport has been hit at least 4 times over the past week, including twice over the weekend. The deadliest attack was Saturday. The Houthis struck a passenger terminal there. The Saudis released CCTV footage showing passengers, many of them Muslim pilgrims headed to Mecca, standing in line when a fireball hits the passenger terminal and parts of the ceiling collapse. Helicopters were seen flying in to medevac the wounded out, and Saudi authorities say 13 people of various nationalities were killed, including a U.S. citizen, and more than 300 others were wounded, some critically, according to authorities. Now, Saudi state TV also showed the health minister visiting some of the wounded in Riyadh's hospitals. He spoke with a distraught mother whose daughter from Sudan is a flight attendant on Saudi Airlines, and she says she's the family's breadwinner but has been badly wounded. They also showed with face burns and a toddler with a neck brace on in the hospital beds.

And what's been the international reaction to this?

So, Michelle, of course there's been a slew of global condemnations against these attacks, but all eyes are really on President Trump. We know the Saudis have asked Washington for refueling support in their fighter jet attacks on Yemen's Houthis, but Trump has not yet agreed to that. The U.S. is helping with intel on the Houthis, but unlike France, the U.K., Turkey, and Pakistan, which have all sent military help to the Saudis, Trump's seems still cold to getting involved in another Gulf War, especially at a time when there are still daily Iranian attacks happening on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

What are the Houthis saying about why they are attacking Saudi airports specifically and so aggressively now?

Well, Michelle, to take a step back, Saudi Arabia has been at war with the Houthis, who are backed by Iran, since 2015, and they've been trying ever since, unsuccessfully, to reinstall the Yemeni government to power. And the Houthi fighters last month pushed Yemeni government forces out of territory along along the Red Sea. So the Saudis then launched this major offensive a week ago with around 100 fighter jets and Yemeni government forces on the ground to try and roll back those Houthi gains. But here we are a week later, and the Houthis still control the port city of Mokka. Another major city of Taiz is encircled by Houthi forces, and the Houthis are still able to hit Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea and blockade Saudi from shipping out its oil that way. And so the Houthis say they're attacking Saudi airports now in response to what they say are more than 2,000 Saudi airstrikes on Yemen in past weeks that have also killed women and children there. The Houthis have also been hitting Saudi energy sites. And I can't stress enough what a blow this is to Saudi Arabia, which is one of the world's biggest spenders on defense, particularly from the U.S. These attacks are really testing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's ability to secure the country and to carry out major economic reforms that are meant to draw in foreign investors and tourists to Saudi Arabia.

But as of this moment, the capital's airport is shut down and under persistent attacks.

That is NPR's correspondent in Dubai, Ava Aya, thank you.

Thanks, Michelle.

Before we go, I'd like to tell you about my new special report called Going There: A Matter of Life and Death. It looks at the rising suicide rate among Black Americans and the myths that can keep people from getting the help they need. I sat with experts, families, and people who've struggled with suicidal thoughts, including 2 superstar athletes. You can hear their stories and tools to help in Going There: A Matter of Life and Death. The full conversation is on NPR's YouTube page.

And it's really powerful, Michelle. People should— people should take a look at this.

Thank you for that. And that's Up First for Monday, October 12th. I'm Michelle Martin.

And I'm Steve Inskeep. Today's Up First presented by Tina Krya, Brett Neely, Miguel Macias, Mohammed El Bardisi, and Taylor Haney. It was produced by Ziad Butch and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zoe Vangenhoven, and our technical director is David Greenberg. Join us again tomorrow.