US and Russia Reach Diesel Deal; Trump Unilaterally Announces "Energy Ceasefire"; Ukrainian Lawmaker Denounces It as Betrayal

According to a report by National Public Radio (NPR), US President Trump announced over the weekend that he had reached an agreement with Russian President Putin to relax sanctions on Russia and resume the flow of diesel fuel. The move sparked fury in Kiev — Ukrainian President Zelensky publicly called Trump "weak," and Trump fired back the next day, saying Ukraine "should have a leader who can negotiate a deal."

Whether a ceasefire had actually been established immediately became a dispute in which each side stuck to its own version of events. In an interview on ABC's "This Week," Zelensky offered a trade: let Putin deliver a 60-day full ceasefire, and Ukraine will hold elections. Trump then posted on Truth Social that "both sides have agreed to an energy ceasefire," while Zelensky told reporters he was "completely unaware" of any such thing.

NPR host Joel Rose called Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Merežko, chair of the Verkhovna Rada's Committee on Foreign Policy, to seek confirmation. Merežko's response was blunt: "There is absolutely no ceasefire. At this very moment I am sitting in a dark apartment with no electricity and no water. The air-raid siren went off again this morning, and afterwards I heard fairly heavy explosions. We have no ceasefire and no energy truce to speak of. I was quite taken aback by President Trump's statement."

As for Trump's claim that both sides had reached an agreement, Merežko suspected the statement was linked to the upcoming US midterm elections, but added that "the majority" of the US Congress "stands with Ukraine," and that the disagreements between Trump and Zelensky were "part of the normal process of diplomatic politics."

NPR noted that the Russia-Ukraine war has now entered its fourth year, that American military and financial aid to Ukraine remains in limbo, and that the fighting is intensifying a global energy crisis.

For Ukraine, the most pressing concern at present is the continued damage to infrastructure and the coming winter. Merežko told the outlet that critical infrastructure "is being hit almost every day, and the situation is not good," and that what lies ahead will be "a very difficult winter." He warned: "Putin will definitely weaponize this winter — he wants to keep destroying us, he wants to create a humanitarian catastrophe. We are trying to prepare the power grid for winter, but we know this coming winter is going to be extremely tough."

Speaking about Trump's diesel deal with Putin, Merežko said outright that he "felt anger." He said: "Yes, this is seen as a betrayal, because we don't understand what is happening. Putin is committing a genocide against the Ukrainian people. If our closest ally, the United States, is in some way supporting the Russian war machine or channeling money to it, then that amounts to helping Putin kill us."

Responding to Trump's claim that he partly blames Ukraine for high US diesel prices, Merežko said: "We do not wish for Ukraine to become a hostage of American domestic political struggles. We understand tensions are rising ahead of the midterms, but Ukraine cannot be made the scapegoat. I think blaming the victim of aggression is very unfair, even immoral. We are trying to protect ourselves; we are trying to destroy the Russian war machine that is killing us. And the only way to do that is to cut off Russia's oil revenues and its refining capacity. America should support the victim, not blame the victim. That strikes me as deeply immoral."