On the day when a Russian aerial bomb, according to Ukrainian authorities, killed 20 people in Zaporozhye, including three children, US President Donald Trump expressed the opinion that Ukraine needs a new president because Vladimir Zelensky does not want to stop attacks on Russian oil refineries.
“It would be nice for him to stop. […] Ukraine needs a new leader who can make a deal,” Trump told reporters outside the White House.
“We told him, you can do whatever you want with Russia, but don’t hit the refineries, because it creates problems for the whole world. [...] He could make a lot of deals, but for some reason he doesn’t,” continued Trump, whose problems ahead of the November midterm elections for Congress are created by fuel prices in the United States, which have risen primarily due to the war with Iran.
The day before, Trump announced that he had called Russian leader Vladimir Putin and he promised him that Russia could begin supplying diesel fuel to the United States and the world market. The US Treasury Department immediately announced the issuance of a temporary supply license to Russia, and on Saturday Russian authorities announced that they were partially lifting the ban on diesel fuel exports.
Vladimir Zelensky, who usually tries not to directly contradict or criticize Trump, this time reacted quite directly, saying that allowing Russia to sell oil products is a gift to Putin and an “investment in war.”
“Any easing of sanctions against Russia without a clear and lasting de-escalation agreement with Russia is an obvious weakness, it plays into Russia’s hands, so that it will kill more, fight longer, respect America even less and cause even more losses and damage to the world,” the Ukrainian president said.
On Saturday in Miami, negotiations between delegations from Ukraine, the EU and the USA were completed earlier than planned. It was planned that they would last two days, but, as Dmitry Lytvyn, adviser to the President of Ukraine on communications, told the press, the Ukrainian delegation is already flying home.
According to the Financial Times, the Ukrainian delegation cut short its trip to the United States precisely because of Trump’s agreement with Putin on the supply of Russian diesel fuel to the world market - the statement of the American leader took representatives of Kyiv by surprise.
According to the publication's sources, US representatives at the meeting demanded to stop attacks on Russian oil refineries, threatening otherwise to stop the exchange of intelligence necessary to launch attacks on Russian territory.
Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff wrote on the social network X that the negotiations in Miami were “productive” and noted that the participants agreed to “continue diplomatic efforts to end the war,” FT recalls.
On Saturday, Zelensky spoke by phone with the leaders of several allied countries.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham's office said Burnham and Zelensky reiterated their consensus that Russia should immediately agree to a mutual moratorium on energy strikes and stop attacks on merchant ships in the Black Sea.
“This would immediately increase the supply of energy and food to the world market,” Downing Street said in a statement.
The agreement between Trump and Putin was also condemned by the head of the European Union's foreign policy service, Kaja Kallas.
“Over two days, more than 80 Ukrainian civilians were killed as a result of Russian strikes. In addition, Russia has intensified hybrid attacks on Europe - both on EU member states and NATO allies,” she wrote on the social network X. “The suspension of sanctions on Russian diesel fuel provides Moscow with additional income for waging war.”
According to Callas, now is not the time to ease pressure on Russia, and Europe will not do this.
The consensus among political observers is that the deal with Putin on diesel is another attempt by Donald Trump to reduce fuel prices in the United States ahead of the November midterm elections to Congress, in which polls indicate his Republican Party may lose its majority in one or even both houses of Parliament.
At the same time, as many experts say, the volumes of diesel supplies from Russia announced by Trump are very small compared to daily consumption in the United States and the world and are unlikely to significantly affect prices.
Trump wrote after his call with Putin that Russia would immediately supply "more than 300,000 tons of diesel fuel to the American and world markets, another 500,000 tons during November, and another 1,000,000 tons immediately thereafter."
The average price of diesel fuel in the US is now $6.28 per gallon ($1.66 per liter). Last year the price was almost half that at $3.68 per gallon.
Over the past year, Russia has faced two waves of severe fuel shortages across the country, caused by Ukrainian drone strikes on oil refineries.
