President Donald Trump called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to stop targeting Russia’s diesel supplies on Sunday, saying the strikes were causing fuel shortages. Speaking to reporters at his golf resort in Doonbeg, Ireland, Trump said Zelensky could pursue other Russian targets but must stop “knocking out diesel fuel.” The remarks came as Ukrainian drones targeted Russian oil facilities and AAA put the U.S. diesel average at a record $6.20 a gallon, around 68 percent higher than a year earlier. Ukraine has stepped up long-range attacks on Russia’s oil and gas industry, which Kyiv says finances and directly fuels Moscow’s war.
The campaign has disrupted refineries and contributed to fuel rationing in parts of Russia, despite the country’s status as a major oil and gas exporter. The latest attacks included a strike on Nizhnekamsk, a major refining and petrochemical center in Russia’s Tatarstan region, where local officials said two people were killed and 14 injured. Ukraine also claimed to have hit a refinery in Slavyansk-on-Kuban, damaging a key oil-processing unit and setting its tank farm ablaze.
Trump’s intervention came amid renewed U.S. efforts to broker an end to the war. Jared Kushner, Trump’s envoy and son-in-law, said the central obstacle remained Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand that Ukraine surrender territory in the Donbas that Russia does not currently control. Speaking at the Yalta European Strategy conference on Friday, Kushner said Putin had outlined his territorial demands during talks with U.S. envoys in Moscow on September 5.
He said much of a potential agreement had been assembled, but Zelensky’s government was unwilling to withdraw Ukrainian forces to the line sought by Russia. Kushner said Washington was pursuing a “creative solution” that would protect Ukraine’s interests while persuading Russia to end the war. He added that the U.S. expected to announce the next steps in the negotiations in the coming weeks.
The comments followed visits to Moscow and Kyiv by Kushner and fellow Trump envoy Steve Witkoff. The trip produced no immediate breakthrough, although Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. agreed to resume trilateral negotiations. This is a breaking story and will be updated.
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