Trump Defends Russian Diesel Deal and Claims Energy Ceasefire as Kyiv Reports Continued Strikes

President Donald Trump defended an agreement that allows Russia to export diesel to the United States and global markets, and he insisted that Russia and Ukraine had accepted an energy ceasefire even as Ukrainian officials reported fresh strikes on power facilities.

Trump said after a phone call with President Vladimir Putin on 9 October that Russia would release 300,000 tonnes of diesel immediately, another 500,000 tonnes in November, and a further one million tonnes thereafter. He later stated that an additional three million tonnes could follow depending on the condition of Russian refineries. The US Treasury issued a temporary general licence the same day that suspends sanctions on Russian diesel exports until 7 April.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the arrangement a gift to Putin that prolongs the war. A Ukrainian delegation was in Florida meeting Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner when the deal was announced. Zelenskyy said his team had been used as a smokescreen.

On 11 October Trump posted that both sides had agreed to an energy ceasefire effective immediately. Moscow has not confirmed the claim. Zelenskyy said the proposal was news to him. Hours after the announcement, Russian drones struck a power plant in Kyiv and energy facilities in Kharkiv. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha noted that Russia had attacked energy infrastructure “just hours after” the statement.

Trump told reporters on 12 October that the two sides had agreed “because I said, ‘You agree.’” He has previously declared energy truces that did not hold. A person familiar with his thinking said the intended scope was limited to refineries, even though Ukraine’s refining capacity was largely destroyed early in the war.

European officials expressed scepticism. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said an agreement between the United States and Russia on diesel was “out of the question” for Germany and Europe. Several European capitals noted that they have already reduced purchases of Russian energy and that fresh revenue for Moscow would help finance the war.

The diesel deal arrives ahead of the US midterm elections. US diesel prices reached $6.28 a gallon in the days before the announcement, according to AAA. Russia had extended its own ban on diesel exports amid Ukrainian strikes on refineries. Those strikes, combined with the export ban, had tightened global supplies.

The Treasury licence does not lift sanctions on other Russian energy assets or on frozen bank funds. It is limited to diesel. Putin confirmed that Russia is prepared to supply oil and petroleum products to the US and global markets. His aide Yuri Ushakov said the two leaders spoke for about 90 minutes and that Putin ruled out an early resumption of three-way peace talks.

The sequence has opened a visible gap between Washington and Kyiv. Trump has also said it is time for Ukraine to have a new president. Ukrainian forces have continued limited operations against Russian energy infrastructure while reporting that they held off some strikes after Trump’s announcement, only to see Russian attacks continue.

Whether the temporary sanctions waiver produces measurable volumes of Russian diesel in US ports, and whether either side actually reduces energy-related strikes, will become clearer in the coming weeks. For now the public record shows a US policy change that channels revenue to Moscow and a ceasefire claim that neither party has fully endorsed.