President Donald Trump said Monday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop attacking each other’s energy infrastructure as record U.S. diesel prices and disruptions to Russian refining intensify pressure on global fuel markets.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
President Donald Trump announced Monday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop attacking each other’s energy infrastructure, one day after he publicly urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to halt strikes on Russian refineries as U.S. diesel prices climbed to an all-time high.
“Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do, likewise! The World’s Diesel price rise is mostly caused by the Russia/Ukraine War, not Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump did not specify when the arrangement would begin, how long it would remain in effect or precisely which facilities would be covered. Ukraine and Russia did not immediately issue matching confirmations of an unconditional agreement. Zelenskyy later said Ukraine was prepared to stop strikes if international partners could guarantee that Moscow would likewise stop targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure, key facilities and food-supply routes.
The announcement followed Trump’s repeated appeals Sunday for Ukraine to stop its long-range campaign against Russian oil and fuel infrastructure.
“Mr. Zelenskyy has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,” Trump said during a visit to Ireland.
“Let him go after targets but not diesel fuel because he’s causing a shortage of diesel. This isn’t done by the Middle East; this is done by what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine.”
Trump’s latest intervention comes as diesel costs have risen sharply across the United States. The national average reached $6.23 per gallon Monday, up from $6.20 Sunday, $5.90 a week earlier and $3.69 at the same point last year, according to AAA. Monday’s $6.2301 average was the highest diesel price the organization has recorded.
The increase has implications throughout the economy because diesel fuels much of the nation’s trucking, commercial transportation, agriculture, mining and freight networks.
California motorists were facing considerably higher prices, with diesel averaging about $8.15 per gallon Monday.
The fuel surge has coincided with disruptions in more than one major petroleum-producing region.
Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, rose more than 3% Monday to above $108 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude climbed more than 3% to above $103 per barrel as markets reacted to continuing Middle East instability and supply disruptions.
Trump, however, placed most of the responsibility for the worldwide diesel-price increase on the Russia-Ukraine war rather than the U.S.-Iran conflict.
Ukraine has increasingly used long-range drones to target Russian oil refineries and other energy facilities, arguing that the infrastructure supplies revenue and fuel that enable Moscow to continue its war.
The attacks have reduced Russian refining output and contributed to domestic gasoline and fuel shortages. Russia has also taken steps to restrict fuel exports as it attempts to stabilize supplies at home.
Kyiv has maintained that Russian refineries are legitimate targets because of their role in sustaining Moscow’s military operations and has pointed to Russia’s extensive attacks against Ukraine’s own power and energy infrastructure.
Zelenskyy reiterated that justification Sept. 7 while describing a Ukrainian strike against a refinery in Russia’s Ryazan region.
Ukrainian forces are “responding justly to Russian strikes on Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.
He also reported long-range Ukrainian operations targeting facilities in Russia’s Perm and Tatarstan regions.
The intensification of Ukraine’s refinery campaign placed additional strain on fuel supplies already affected by the conflict in the Middle East, including reduced commercial movement through the Strait of Hormuz and recent attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure.
Russia nevertheless welcomed Trump’s Sunday appeal to Zelenskyy before the president announced the purported reciprocal arrangement Monday.
“Any call on the Kyiv regime to stop attacks on civilian economic infrastructure can only be welcomed,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday.
Peskov disputed Trump’s assessment of the principal source of global energy-market pressure, however, pointing instead to the Middle East.
The situation was worsening primarily because of “instability and new rounds of escalation in the Persian Gulf region,” Peskov said.
Trump’s Monday announcement followed additional diplomatic contacts intended to move Russia and Ukraine toward an end to their war.
The president spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week and told him he wanted to see a rapid conclusion to the conflict, according to an official.
That conversation followed visits earlier this month by U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to both Russia and Ukraine.
Whether Monday’s announcement develops into a sustained halt in attacks on energy infrastructure will depend in part on whether Moscow and Kyiv agree on the terms and verification of such an arrangement.
Zelenskyy’s subsequent comments indicated that Kyiv wants concrete guarantees of Russian reciprocity before ending its own operations. He said Ukraine does not trust Russia to honor such an arrangement without mechanisms ensuring that attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure also stop.
The potential energy ceasefire arrives as the economic consequences of attacks on petroleum infrastructure become increasingly visible outside the battlefield.
With U.S. diesel now at a record $6.23 per gallon, Russian refining capacity under pressure and crude oil trading above $100 per barrel amid instability in the Persian Gulf, Trump is seeking to remove at least one source of disruption by persuading both combatants to leave energy facilities outside their continuing military campaigns.
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