“Gifts to Putin will not bring peace, but more terror,” says Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejects the diesel deal announced on Friday by his US counterpart, Donald Trump, which lifts sanctions imposed on Russia and allows it to supply diesel to the US and global markets. As the European Union also denounced this Saturday, the Ukrainian leader assures that the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, will have more funds to finance the war. Russia, on the other hand, congratulated itself this Saturday on the pact and in Moscow it was understood that it could open a definitive gap between the US and the EU, Kyiv's main supporters.

In a long message on X, Zelensky says that with measures like this the war will lengthen. "Gifts to Putin will bring no peace or benefit to the civilized world. Russia will pay for diesel with more terror and perfidy. Allowing Russia to sell oil products is an investment in a war that must end," he wrote.

The EU is in a similar position. This Saturday, its high representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, assured that "suspending sanctions on Russian diesel gives Moscow more income to wage war."

The White House had been looking for weeks to find ways to reduce energy prices in the US market before the midterm elections on November 3. The pact between Washington and Moscow, and the sanctions relief it entails, raises fears in Europe and Ukraine that Moscow and Washington are forging a new relationship that will have consequences in the war in favor of Russia.

Zelensky also criticized this Saturday that Trump's announcement occurred while a delegation of Ukrainian negotiators was in Florida (Miami) meeting with US envoys (Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner) to discuss a possible ceasefire and the end of the war. The Ukrainian president denounced that his negotiating team was used as a “smoke screen” to hide the pact that the White House was already closing with the Kremlin.

This approach was taken for granted this Saturday in Moscow. "The agreement demonstrates the power of economic cooperation between Russia and the United States, as well as its benefits for people and the world. Cooperation will prevail," Kiril Dimitriev, Putin's special envoy and top economic negotiator, wrote in X.

After a telephone conversation with the head of the Kremlin, the US president announced on Friday night that they had reached a commitment for Russia to supply the US with 300,000 tons of diesel this October, 500,000 in November and one million in December. Trump added that, “in addition, depending on the state of its refineries, Russia will subsequently deliver – in a short period of time – 3,000,000 tons of diesel.”

Diesel is one of the main petroleum products that Russia sells abroad, so this deal is an excellent opportunity to make money. But the pact goes beyond the economy, maintains the influential Russian senator Alexei Pushkov, who congratulated the “horror” of the Europeans on Telegram.

"This is not a détente, but a transition to practical interaction. There is a gap in the Western sanctions policy. The Europeans are horrified. (...) While they are waging an ice war against Russia, hating Trump and mocking him, the presidents of Russia and the US are conducting successful negotiations and negotiating with each other," Pushkov said.

In Moscow, the agreement is also interpreted as a serious blow to the position of the Ukrainian Government. We could be facing a turning point in the future of the war, wrote the tabloid Moskovski Komsomolets, which highlights the “frustration” and “anger” in Kyiv.

Moscow also hopes it will open an opportunity for the US to review other sanctions. Experts believe that Russia may ask for sanctions on its companies to be frozen, since the main fuel exporters are included on the US Treasury sanctions list.