U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday, Oct. 10, that Ukraine should get a new president, a day after announcing a deal with Russia’s Vladimir Putin for up to 4.8 million tonnes of Russian diesel that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called a gift to Putin.
The total is large. Trump said Russia will immediately supply more than 300,000 tonnes, another 500,000 tonnes in November, one million tonnes shortly after that and a further three million tonnes within a short time, according to ITV News and the Associated Press.
Trump announced the deal on social media on Friday, Oct. 9, after a phone call with Putin. The White House did not say who would pay for the diesel or when it would arrive, the AP reported, and ITV noted it was unclear whether the November shipments would land before the U.S. midterm elections on Nov. 3.
Speaking to reporters at the White House before leaving for Tennessee on Saturday, Trump blamed Zelenskyy for high U.S. diesel prices, Euronews reported. “I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal because he could have made many deals and for some reason he never does,” Trump said, according to Euronews.
Trump also said Zelenskyy “wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers, with diesel fuel,” Euronews reported. Trump had earlier urged Ukraine to stop striking Russian oil refineries, saying the attacks were driving a global shortage.
Zelenskyy rejected the deal. He called it a “gift to Putin” that would “not bring peace or any benefit to the civilised world,” and said letting Russia sell petroleum products “is an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged,” Euronews reported. In remarks carried by the AP, he described it as a weak decision by “strong partners” and said Ukrainian negotiators were being used as a “smokescreen.”
ITV reported that Zelenskyy offered to stop Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries if Russia stops attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev welcomed Trump’s remarks in a post on X, Euronews reported, saying Ukraine needs leadership focused on peace.
The announcement cuts against a Russia sanctions law Trump signed last month. According to the AP, the law targets Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of tankers, bans new U.S. investment in Russia and directs tariffs of up to 100 per cent on the top five importers of Russian oil or gas, with exceptions.
The U.S. Treasury Department issued a temporary licence allowing Russian diesel to be supplied to global markets. The AP said sanctions will not apply until April 2027 to Russian diesel loaded onto tankers as of Oct. 9, the first diesel easing to last longer than the standard 30-day window since the invasion began in February 2022. The U.S. has not imported Russian oil or gas since 2022, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The U.S. national average diesel price was $6.28 US a gallon on Oct. 9, down from a record $6.52 on Sept. 22, according to AAA figures cited by the AP. Analysts told the AP the effect on prices could be small. Clayton Seigle of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said prices would probably not move much, while calling the deal a “great benefit” to Russia.
Russia banned diesel exports in July because of Ukrainian refinery strikes, and the International Energy Agency says Russian diesel output has fallen about 30 per cent, the AP reported. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Moscow is lifting export restrictions early and could begin U.S. supplies this month.
Democratic senators Chuck Schumer, Jeanne Shaheen and Elizabeth Warren called the move a betrayal of Ukraine and European allies, the AP reported. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a co-sponsor of the sanctions law, said it makes the U.S. complicit in Putin’s war.
In Europe, ITV reported that U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham told Zelenskyy in a call he stands in “complete solidarity” with Ukraine, and that Downing Street said Britain will keep strengthening its sanctions on Russia. Euronews said European officials expressed dismay and warned the deal would help finance Russia’s war effort. Ukrainian and European officials were meeting U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Miami on a peace proposal when the diesel deal was announced, according to the AP.
No Canadian government response had been published in the coverage reviewed for this article. Canada has been part of the Western sanctions coalition on Russia, and Canadians of Ukrainian descent number in the hundreds of thousands, but how Ottawa will respond to a U.S. easing of diesel sanctions is not yet known. Canadians travelling in Europe can check advisories at travel.gc.ca.
The next markers are the first deliveries, which Novak said could begin this month, the November shipment Trump cited, and the Nov. 3 U.S. midterms. For earlier coverage, see how EU envoys backed new Russia sanctions and the Russian strike on Kramatorsk buses. The reported details of the deal rest on Trump’s own announcement, and Russia has not published volumes.
Via Euronews, ITV News and the Associated Press.
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