Donald Trump announced Friday that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had committed to supplying several million tons of diesel “for the American and global market” over several months, after a “very fruitful discussion.” “Russia will immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel to the American and world market, 500,000 tons more in November and 1,000,000 tons immediately thereafter. Furthermore, depending on the state of its refineries, Russia will quickly deliver 3,000,000 tons of diesel,” he wrote on his Truth Social network.
“Diesel prices for Americans, and indeed the world, WILL RAPIDLY FALL IN RECORD PROPORTIONS!” Lower prices for Americans and especially our great farmers, breeders and truckers are my biggest priority,” added Donald Trump. The American president knows that the high price of fuel is a major cause of voter discontent before the very important legislative elections on November 3 in the United States. The Republican Party fears losing control of Congress in these elections.
As Russia is subject to sanctions on its hydrocarbon exports, the American Ministry of Finance immediately clarified that it had given provisional authorization for this marketing. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced an “unworthy” and “weak decision”. “You know, this looks like a nice birthday present for Putin. It’s absolutely horrible,” Volodymyr Zelensky told American media Axios in reference to the Russian president’s 74th birthday on Wednesday. “This only fuels Putin and gives him the opportunity to wage an even more intense war,” he also told the press, regretting that the Ukrainian team traveling to Florida had “simply served as a front” for this agreement with Moscow.
The head of EU diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, said on Saturday that the lifting of sanctions on Russian diesel was helping to fuel the war waged by the Kremlin against Ukraine, after the agreement announced by Washington with Moscow concerning this fuel. “Suspending sanctions on Russian diesel gives Moscow more revenue to wage war. Now is not the time to ease the pressure on Russia, and Europe will not,” Kallas wrote on social media.
Donald Trump's announcement coincides with the resumption of discussions in Florida between Americans and Ukrainians on Friday and Saturday, to which the Europeans were invited, on a resolution of the conflict with Russia.
Prepare for winter
In Miami, the Ukrainian delegation met Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump's special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the American president's son-in-law who acts as an informal mediator, in the presence of European representatives. Steve Witkoff spoke of “constructive discussions” on X, without specifying whether they would continue on Saturday as initially planned.
The discussions focused in particular on “short-term measures linked to preparation for winter (energy resilience, cereal exports), security guarantees, as well as longer-term measures for the security of Ukraine and Europe,” said the envoy.
Since Wednesday, Russian attacks have killed around 60 people in Ukraine, including at least 30 on Thursday in a strike that hit two buses in Kramatorsk (east), in one of the deadliest attacks in recent weeks.
Recent Russian bombings have also caused “considerable damage” to the Ukrainian electricity network, Mr. Zelensky lamented on Friday. kyiv fears a repeat of the scenario of last winter, when Russia shelled the country's energy installations, plunging millions of homes into cold and darkness.
At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday, Under-Secretary-General Khaled Khiari denounced the latest Russian attacks, which he said had “reached a new level of horror”. “Residents of kyiv and other major cities could be plunged into darkness and extreme cold this winter if these attacks do not stop immediately,” he warned.
