The national diesel average reached a record $6.23 per gallon Monday after climbing more than 80 cents in a month, as President Donald Trump urged Ukraine to stop attacking Russian refineries amid tightening global fuel supplies.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.

The national average price of diesel climbed to a record $6.23 per gallon Monday, extending a rapid increase that has added pressure to U.S. transportation and freight costs as President Donald Trump calls on Ukraine to stop striking Russian refineries he says are contributing to a worldwide fuel shortage.

Diesel averaged $6.23 per gallon on Sept. 14, up from $6.20 Sunday and $5.90 one week earlier, according to the American Automobile Association. The price has increased by more than 80 cents during the past month and is approximately $2.54 higher than a year ago, when the national average stood at $3.69.

The escalation carries implications well beyond motorists who drive diesel vehicles. The fuel powers much of the nation’s trucking, freight, agricultural and delivery infrastructure, meaning sustained increases can raise the cost of moving food, consumer products and industrial materials throughout the economy.

Those pressures were already evident in August wholesale inflation. U.S. producer prices rose 0.4% for the month and 5.4% from a year earlier, with diesel prices jumping 24.1% during August and contributing significantly to higher energy and transportation costs.

The new diesel record came one day after Trump publicly urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop attacking Russian refining facilities.

Speaking to reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One while returning from Ireland, Trump said the strikes were reducing Russian diesel availability at a time when global supplies were already strained.

“I’ve asked President Zelenskyy not to hit the diesel plants, refineries,” Trump said.

“Diesel is being driven up by the fact that it’s having a hard time coming out of Russia, and that’s a case that hurts the world. We got to stop.”

Trump delivered a similar message earlier Sunday while attending the Irish Open, saying Zelenskyy “has to do one thing—he has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia.”

“There are plenty of other targets,” Trump said. “Don’t hit diesel fuel, because that’s hurting the world.”

Ukraine has made Russian energy infrastructure a recurring target of its long-range drone and missile campaign, arguing that refineries, oil storage facilities and other parts of the petroleum industry provide revenue and logistical support for Moscow’s military operations.

Zelenskyy said Sept. 12 that Ukrainian forces had struck Russia’s petrochemical sector, including an oil facility in Perm and a crude storage tank in Taganrog.

A day later, he emphasized that Ukraine itself continued to face large-scale Russian attacks against civilian and energy infrastructure.

“This week alone, Russia launched around 2,100 drones against Ukraine—a significant share of them jet-powered ‘shaheds,’ which the Russians are using in an attempt to cripple the economy and destroy people’s lives,” Zelenskyy said Sept. 13.

“Last night and this morning, energy facilities, Ukrzaliznytsia, businesses, and ordinary residential buildings came under attack.”

The Ukrainian president has repeatedly characterized strikes against Russia’s petroleum industry as an effort to reduce Moscow’s ability to finance and sustain the war.

“Last night, our long-range sanctions reached two oil refineries in Russia,” Zelenskyy said in a June 28 post on X after attacks on facilities in the Krasnodar and Yaroslavl regions.

“We continue our operations that weaken Russia’s ability to wage this war. Each of our long-range sanctions means fewer resources serving Russia’s war machine, and another step toward peace.”

Pressure on Russia’s domestic fuel market intensified during the summer, and Moscow responded in July by banning diesel exports as supplies tightened at home.

The disruption to Russian refining has compounded a broader global diesel shortage already shaped heavily by the U.S.–Iran war and restrictions on commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Before the conflict began Feb. 28, the Strait of Hormuz handled roughly one-fifth of global oil consumption and a comparable portion of worldwide liquefied natural gas trade. Approximately 125 large commercial vessels ordinarily passed through the waterway each day.

Traffic has since fallen sharply as the United States and Iran contest control of the strategically vital route.

The International Energy Agency said in its September oil market report that oil and diesel exports from Gulf producers averaged about 390,000 barrels per day during August, slightly more than one-quarter of their pre-war volume. The agency identified “severely constrained” shipping through Hormuz as a major source of the shortage and said continued Ukrainian attacks on Russian refining capacity were creating additional pressure.

“Disruptions to Russia’s refining system and a near-halt to product exports following intensified Ukrainian attacks have compounded these losses,” the IEA said.

The agency reported that U.S. diesel prices exceeded $200 per barrel in early September, approximately 94% above their level before the war. Diesel and other middle-distillate fuels represent nearly 30% of worldwide petroleum demand.

The current strain follows months of disruptions across the international petroleum market. Earlier in the conflict, the IEA reported unprecedented supply losses associated with restricted Hormuz traffic, depleted inventories and reduced refinery activity as Gulf producers struggled to move crude and refined products into world markets.

The simultaneous disruption of Gulf exports and Russian refining has placed particular pressure on diesel because the fuel occupies a central role in commercial transportation and industrial activity.

For the United States, the consequences are increasingly visible both at fuel pumps and farther along the supply chain. A national average of $6.23 represents an increase of more than 80 cents in approximately one month and nearly $2.54 from the same period last year.

Trump’s request to Zelenskyy marks an effort to address one contributor to that shortage by preserving Russian refining capacity, while Ukraine continues to argue that striking the petroleum facilities weakens the resources available to Moscow’s war effort.

With commercial traffic through Hormuz still restricted and Russian refineries under continued pressure, the record U.S. diesel price reflects a fuel market being squeezed simultaneously by two major conflicts — leaving transportation-dependent businesses and consumers exposed to the resulting increase in costs.

Original article