President Donald Trump announced on October 9 that Russia would put millions of tons of diesel on the American and global markets, a deal he said followed a call with Vladimir Putin. “Russia will immediately supply over 300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel to the American and Global Marketplace, another 500,000 Tons during the month of November, and 1,000,000 Tons immediately thereafter,” he wrote on Truth Social.
He tied it to his Iran policy, claiming “TOTAL CONTROL of the Strait of Hormuz” and promising diesel prices would fall “IN RECORD NUMBERS, AND FAST!” The Treasury Department backed the announcement with action. Its Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a temporary general license allowing Russian diesel to be supplied to the global market. Critics described it as a six-month authorization. The Kremlin said Russia had confirmed during the call that it was willing to supply oil and petroleum products.
“We need oil for the world, and this is diesel, which is what we need, so we are happy to get it,” Trump told reporters. He thanked Putin but still called Washington Ukraine’s “strong partner.”
Anger in Kyiv, Brussels and the Senate
Democratic Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren called the license “a total betrayal of Ukraine, our European allies and American national security.” They accused Trump of financing Russia’s war to offset fuel price rises caused by the US war with Iran, and said it undercut bipartisan legislation passed weeks earlier to curb Russian energy revenues.
Volodymyr Zelensky said the move came while Ukraine’s negotiators were in Florida for two days of talks with US officials on ending the war or at least securing a ceasefire that could start with a halt to attacks on energy infrastructure. “I believe our team is simply being used as a smokescreen,” he said. He added that Ukraine would stop striking Russian refineries if Moscow stopped hitting Ukrainian power facilities, an offer Kyiv has already put to Washington.
Europe’s response was just as cool. Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho said the EU would keep cutting its dependence on Russian fossil fuels. Kaja Kallas wrote on X that EU foreign ministers intended to approve the biggest set of sanctions listings against Russia’s war machine since the war began. “This is not the time to ease pressure on Russia, and Europe won’t,” she said.
Does the math work?
Ukrainian sanctions official Vladyslav Vlasiuk called the deal “economically pointless.” By his figures the United States uses 3.5 million tons of diesel a week and produces 4.9 million, so the first 300,000 tons would cover about 15 hours of American demand. A European diplomat told the Kyiv Independent the deal was unlikely to move prices, though “the symbolism will have a real impact.”
The calculus on the Russian side is plain. Moscow is pressing for relief from US sanctions in talks on an energy truce, which it also wants linked to Black Sea ceasefire arrangements, the Kyiv Independent reported, and it may seek the release of frozen assets. At home, Russia had extended its ban on diesel exports by fuel producers through October 31, even as Putin said on October 1 that supplies were ample and only sanctions kept Russian diesel from world buyers.
