US hopes revealed in connection with diesel deal with Russia

The United States hopes that a deal with Russia on diesel fuel will help soften Moscow's position and resume negotiations on resolving the conflict in Ukraine. This was reported by three sources familiar with the meeting of US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner with Ukrainian officials, Reuters reports.

"The idea was that the US could go back to Russia and say, 'See, the Ukrainians stopped their strike and we made this deal with you. Now it's your turn to do something,'" one source said.

According to the agency's interlocutors, the diesel deal became part of a broader discussion of possible ways to return Moscow and Kyiv to the negotiating table. At the meeting in Miami, representatives of the United States and Ukraine also discussed security guarantees for Ukraine, but the details of this conversation were not disclosed.

However, as Reuters notes, Ukrainian officials were skeptical about the approach proposed by Washington.