Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council and a former Russian president and prime minister, urged US President Donald Trump on Sunday to order action against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a post on the pro-Kremlin social media platform Max reported by The Moscow Times and RBC-Ukraine. 'American history itself offers a solution,' Medvedev wrote. 'All he has to do is summon the secretary of war and the CIA director and tell them to take care of this "unfortunate little problem."' He added: 'The how, where and by what means are irrelevant.'

Source: The Moscow Times and RBC-Ukraine via Silent Dossier; InterNewsCast, Oct 25, 2026

Medvedev argued that Zelenskyy 'does far more damage to Trump's real interests than all the fallout from Trump's imaginary grievances against Venezuela, Cuba and Iran combined'. In the same post he accused the Ukrainian leader of holding a 'major grudge' against Trump and being 'downright disrespectful to him at every turn', of demanding money and weapons, of manipulating European leaders to turn them against Trump and his team, of refusing calls to stop Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries, and of misusing American aid. Those are Medvedev's allegations, published as part of his appeal to Trump; they are reported here as his claims, not as established facts.

Source: InterNewsCast; BritBrief, Oct 25, 2026

RBC-Ukraine's translation of the post rendered the same passage as Trump needing to 'correct this unfortunate misunderstanding', and a Ukrainian outlet, UNN, headlined the post as a call to 'get rid of' Zelenskyy. The Moscow Times and RBC-Ukraine both reported the post on Sunday, and neither Washington, Kyiv nor the CIA had responded to it in the reporting.

Source: RBC-Ukraine and The Moscow Times via Silent Dossier, Oct 25, 2026

The post landed days after Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg — a meeting at which Putin agreed to release detained American Stephen Hubbard as a goodwill gesture — and as Kyiv says Ukrainian, Russian and US negotiators are to meet in Abu Dhabi in the first half of November. Read: Zelenskiy, ceasefire and the planned trilateral talks

Medvedev, who has a long record of inflammatory social-media posts aimed at Western leaders since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, holds the Security Council's deputy chairmanship under Putin. His Sunday post did not announce any Russian policy or action; it was an appeal addressed to the US president, published while a local humanitarian ceasefire agreed for the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky is due to begin on October 27 and wider peace talks remain stalled on territory and security guarantees.

Source: InterNewsCast, Oct 25, 2026; Reuters explainer via Q106, Oct 25, 2026

What is solid

  • Medvedev published the post on Max on Sunday urging Trump to summon the defense secretary and CIA director to 'take care of' Zelenskyy, with 'the how, where and by what means are irrelevant' — reported by The Moscow Times, RBC-Ukraine, InterNewsCast and BritBrief from the same post
  • Medvedev is a former Russian president and prime minister and is now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council
  • Washington, Kyiv and the CIA had not responded to the post in the reporting available at publish time

What is only claimed

  • Medvedev's accusations against Zelenskyy — disrespect towards Trump, manipulation of European leaders, misuse of US aid and responsibility for the refinery strikes dispute — are his allegations in a polemical post, not findings by any authority, and are labelled as his claims in this story
  • Translations of the post's key phrase differ slightly between outlets ('unfortunate little problem' versus 'unfortunate misunderstanding'); the underlying Russian wording is Medvedev's own
Why this matters

A serving deputy head of Russia's Security Council publicly urging the US president to have a wartime allied head of state 'taken care of' is an escalation in rhetoric even by the standards of this war's social-media exchanges — and it arrived while Washington, Kyiv and Moscow are publicly discussing a new round of talks.