Zelensky Tells Russian Elites Living in West to ‘F*** Away’ Home

Source : Newsweek: Zelensky Tells Russian Elites Living in West to ‘F*** Away’ Home https://www.newsweek.com/zelensky-tells-russian-elites-living-in-west-to-f-away-home-11528927

by Ellie Cook • 16 February 2026

Russian elites living in Europe and the U.S. should “f*** away” back to Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said ahead of a renewed push to reach a peace deal for the war-torn country.

In a pointed statement posted to social media on Monday, Zelensky urged the U.S. and European countries to sanction Russia’s state nuclear energy giant, Rosatom, and Russian individuals profiting from its operations while residing in Western nations.

“F*** away to Russia. Go home. You don’t respect anybody in the United States,” Zelensky wrote in a message posted across his public accounts. “You don’t respect Ukraine or Europe. Go home.”

The Ukrainian leader’s profanity-laced comments come on the eve of a third round of trilateral peace talks between the U.S., Ukraine and Russia aimed at bringing the almost four-year-long war to a close.

Ukraine has long pushed for Western countries to put more economic pressure on Russia, choking off the profits it can access from its energy industry to fund its war effort.

President Donald Trump sanctioned Lukoil and Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil companies, in 2025 as his frustration with the lack of progress toward a peace deal grew. Trump has generally steered away from strongarming Russia into negotiating with Ukraine, and Zelensky said on Saturday Washington “too often” tried to make Kyiv concede to Moscow.

Zelensky praised Trump’s previous sanctions on Lukoil and Rosneft, but said the U.S. president could target “all of their energy, in particular nuclear energy.”

“It will be a powerful message to the Europeans,” Zelensky added. “Full sanctions mean full sanctions.”

The European Union has slapped Russia with waves of sanctions and committed to stopping all imports of Russian oil and gas by the end of 2027. The bloc has also said it will phase out Russian nuclear energy.

Europe still leans on Moscow to supply between a fifth and a quarter of its enriched uranium imports.

The previous U.S. government, under then President Joe Biden, banned imports of low-enriched uranium (LEU) from Russia apart from in cases where it is deemed a necessary move by the U.S. energy secretary.

U.S. imports of enriched uranium from Russia dropped by roughly half in 2024 compared to the previous year, according to the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report, published in November 2025. Russia had briefly blocked enriched uranium exports to the U.S. in late 2024 before trade resumed.

Update 02/16/2026, 8:15 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.

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