A Month After Signing Russia Sanctions Bill, Trump Finalizes Multi-Million-Ton Diesel Deal With Putin

According to The Hindu, citing the Associated Press, U.S. President Trump announced on October 9 that he had reached a diesel procurement agreement with Russian President Putin: Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, deliver another 500,000 tons in November, then immediately add another 1 million tons, and pledged to deliver a further 3 million tons "in the short term." The deal directly conflicts with a sweeping sanctions bill targeting Russian oil and gas revenue that Trump signed just last month — legislation whose stated purpose was precisely to "curb oil and gas revenue funding Russia's war against Ukraine."

Around the time the deal was announced, Russian forces struck a residential building in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Ukraine's State Emergency Service said on October 10 that a glide bomb dropped by Russian forces hit the residential building, killing at least 20 people, including three children, and wounding at least 18. Ukrainian officials said more than 60 people had been killed by Russian bombardment over the past four days.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy wrote that day on the social platform X: "Today, Russia attacked a residential building in Zaporizhzhia with five glide bombs, expressing its gratitude for the lifting of diesel export sanctions." He said the strike showed that Moscow interprets "any easing of pressure" as a signal that it can keep fighting and keep dropping bombs on cities. In a Telegram post published shortly afterward, he wrote: "Russia's choice is war." He stressed that every additional ruble Moscow earns from exports would go toward weapons components, drone upgrades, missile production and mercenary recruitment, and that "Moscow will only be willing to stop when its combat capability is weakened."

On the day before announcing the diesel deal, Trump had also publicly demanded that Ukraine change its president. Speaking on October 10 before departing for a Republican rally in Tennessee, Trump said: "I would recommend that they get a leader who can make a deal, because he could have made a lot of deals, but for some reason he never did." He also blamed Zelenskyy for high U.S. diesel prices, saying Zelenskyy "wants to create trouble for the world, wants to create trouble with diesel fuel for our farmers, our ranchers."

Yet the direct factor driving up U.S. diesel prices is not Ukraine. An AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released October 1 showed that Americans disapproved of Trump's handling of Iran and believed he should be held responsible for rising prices. The U.S.-led war against Iran is in fact one of the main causes of rising international energy prices. Trump also claimed Zelenskyy had caused Ukraine to "lose 30% of its territory," while independent estimates put the share of Ukrainian territory actually controlled by Russia at around 20%. British Ministry of Defence officials recently estimated Russian military deaths at roughly 500,000, but there are currently no reliable estimates of recent Ukrainian casualties.

Zelenskyy said on October 9 that Ukraine had not been informed before the diesel deal was publicly announced. "I believe our delegation was simply used as a smokescreen," he said. "That is certainly unfair, and it is certainly not how things should be between partners." An anonymous senior Ukrainian official confirmed to the Associated Press on October 10 that the announcement of the diesel deal had nothing to do with what the U.S. and Ukrainian delegations had discussed in Miami; the Ukrainian delegation had already left Florida and returned to Ukraine. Zelenskyy also revealed that he had discussed strengthening air defense with French President Macron, warning that the risk of missile strikes would rise in coming days; he had also spoken with Finnish President Stubb about the situation, and Ukraine would receive F-16 ammunition in the coming days for intercepting Shahed drones.

European allies publicly expressed disappointment at the U.S.-Russia deal. Swedish Prime Minister Kristersson said Stockholm regretted the agreement "because energy revenue is at the core of Russia's war funding," and noted that the EU would adopt on October 12 its most comprehensive Russia sanctions package to date, listing 1,600 entities tied to the Russian military-industrial complex. German government spokesman Steffen Cornelius reiterated Germany's commitment to Russia sanctions and stressed that support for Ukraine is "unwavering." Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski directly questioned Russia's ability to deliver, citing embassy reports about fuel shortages in Moscow and "reliable information" that Ukraine has destroyed about half of Russia's refining capacity, and asking on the social platform X: "So where does the export surplus come from?"

At the Fallen Soldiers Memorial on Kyiv's Independence Square, Ukrainians expressed anger and helplessness over the deal. Oleksandr Petrenko, 26, said: "Trump has once again shown his true colors. He doesn't care about the situation, doesn't care about the bombing, doesn't care about our homes being destroyed. He only cares about oil, only cares about fuel prices, only cares about how much Americans have to pay." He added that Trump was trying to manipulate the market because the midterm elections were approaching and he needed to tell voters fuel prices would get cheaper, but "it won't work." Oksana Yakunina, a financial adviser from the central city of Kropyvnytskyi, told the Associated Press the announcement was "not a surprise," because "Trump has been working with Putin for a long time."