Donald Trump has warned Volodymyr Zelensky to halt Ukraine’s long-range strike on oil refineries across Russia ahead of a meeting in New York this week, it has been reported.
“Diesel, diesel... diesel,” was the US President’s main message to his Ukrainian counterpart during a phone call that came hours before Vladimir Putin’s United Russia claimed a record number of seats in the parliamentary election, further cementing his grip on power.
A senior White House official familiar with the conversation between the two leaders said Trump was worried that the Ukrainian attacks are exacerbating a global diesel shortage and pushing up prices, the FT reported.
After the call, Zelensky said he will meet Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. He further warned that Russia is “sending many signals” that it is ready to expand the war.
This comes as Vladimir Putin’s United Russia has claimed a record number of seats hours after polls closed in the first parliamentary election since the start of the full-scale invasion, further cementing his grip on power.
Results from over 95% of the polling stations gave the governing party just under 58% of the vote for the 225 seats apportioned by parties, according to the Central Election Commission.
Vladimir Putin’s party is set to win by a comfortable majority as voting closed in the country’s tightly-controlled parliamentary elections, widely branded a sham.
Initial data from Russia’s Central Election Commission suggests the leader’s United Russia party is in the lead to win with 57.8 per cent of the votes and over 90 per cent of the ballots processed.
Kaja Kallas has announced plans to propose sanctions on those who facilitated the State Duma elections in occupied Ukrainian territories.
Reiterating that European Union does not recognise the “sham” results, the Vice-President of the European Commission said: “Those involved in organising these sham elections or standing as candidates in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, as well as those responsible for undermining the possibility of free and fair elections inside Russia, will be sanctioned.”
Russians went to the polls for elections to its parliament amid a fuel crisis, mortuaries swollen with war dead, and an economy that is shrinking.
But with more than 90 per cent of the results counted, Vladimir Putin’s rubber-stamp-representatives are sitting more than comfortably, with 58 per cent of the votes.
This will give them the 300+ seats needed in the Duma to rewrite the constitution.
Donald Trump has warned Volodymyr Zelensky to halt Ukraine’s long-range strike on oil refineries across Russia ahead of their meeting in New York later this week, it has been reported.
“Diesel, diesel... diesel,” was the US President’s main message to his Ukrainian counterpart during a phone call on Sunday.
A senior White House official familiar with the conversation between the two leaders said Trump was worried that the Ukrainian attacks are exacerbating a global diesel shortage and pushing up prices, the FT reported.
This is the second time in less than a week that Trump has called on Zelensky “to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia.”
The US President himself is feeling the pressure at home as the US war on Iran has curtailed oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
“We spoke to Mr.Zelensky about it,” Trump told reporters.
“There are plenty of other targets. Don’t hit diesel fuel, because that’s hurting, that’s hurting the world.”
Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov has been re-elected to a fifth term, with almost 100 percent of the vote.
A close ally to Vladimir Putin, Kadyrov has been allowed to run the southern, mainly Muslim region of Chechnya, as a criminal state.
Human rights organisations have long accused his brutal regime of torture, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings.
Russia's Central Electoral Commission said Kadyrov took 99.85 percent of the vote in Chechnya, slightly up from 99.73 percent in 2021.
Britain has condemned Russia’s “sham” elections in occupied Ukrainian territories in a joint statement with Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway.
“These sham elections are part of a wider system of occupation: the imposition of Russian administration, law, media, education, language and citizenship, backed by coercion and repression.,” it said.
“This includes reports of the enforced disappearance, detention, and torture of thousands of Ukrainian citizens.”
Voting was held for the second time in the annexed Crimean Pensisula and for the first in Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.
“These regions are part of Ukraine and holding sham elections cannot alter the status of these territories under international law,” the statement added.
Communist Party of the Russian Federation - 13.8 percent
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia - 8.9 percent
New People party - 7.9 percent
Ella Pamfilova, chair of Russia's Central Election Commission, said the Fair Russia party was said to have a "good chance" of clearing 5 percent of the vote.
She also called the vote "clean" in the face of allegations from opposition activists in exile of widespread rigging.
Voter turnout was recorded at 59.3%, the Tass state news agency reported.
Russia has significantly reduced the deployment of ballistic missiles in attacks on Ukraine, suggesting it may be stockpiling them for winter, it has been reported.
Since August, the military has favoured jet-powered drones instead, according to Bloomberg.
Ballistic missiles inflict some of the heaviest damage, and can only be countered with ABM systems, like the US Patriots, which is running low on.
Since the start of the war, Russia has attached Ukraine's energy system 5,796 times.
Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson for Vladimir Putin, has confirmed there has been “no progress so far in the negotiation process regarding Ukraine”.
His statement to the Tass state news agency comes as Volodymyr Zelensky said he will travel to New York to meet with Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Volodymyr Zelensky’c chief negotiator has praised the work of US envoy Steve Witkoff after reports that the Ukrainian government was “growing increasingly frustrated” with him, it was reported.
Rustem Umerov, who is also the head of Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service, insisted that a Kyiv Independent story the frustration with Witkoff is “false.
“I believe that the work of American negotiators should be assessed by people who are directly involved in the negotiation process and work closely with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner," he told Axios.
