Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a deal to import Russian diesel into the United States, calling it a gift to Vladimir Putin that amounts to “an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged” — a BBC report carried by the Daily Mirror.
Trump said Putin had agreed to release 300,000 tonnes of diesel immediately “to the American and global marketplace”, followed by 500,000 tonnes in November and another million after that. In a post on Truth Social he added that a further three million tonnes would be delivered “within a short period”, depending on the condition of Russian refineries, which have been struck by Ukrainian attacks.
It is understood the US Treasury is suspending sanctions on Russian diesel exports until 7 April as part of the deal. Other assets, including those held in American banks, remain frozen.
Al Jazeera reported that the announcement followed a telephone call between the two presidents lasting about 90 minutes on Friday, and gave the same tonnages.
Putin later said Russia — which introduced a ban on diesel exports earlier this year — was willing to supply both the United States and global markets with oil and petroleum products, but his statement did not specify amounts.
Ukraine’s response
Zelensky said Russia would repay the diesel with “further terror”.
“We count on America’s fair support for our defence of life, for our defence of people in Ukraine — and on the United States having a correspondingly strong conversation with Russia.”
The price pressure behind the deal
The deal comes as American diesel costs have climbed steeply. Al Jazeera put the average US pump price at US$6.27 a gallon (about US$1.66 a litre) on American Automobile Association figures, and reported that prices are up about 70 percent since the US and Israeli war on Iran began this year, having begun to ease slightly in the past week.
That same global fuel market reaches Sri Lanka, where pump prices and the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation’s import bill track world refined-product prices. Supply in the region has already been disrupted this month by attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
Not reported
Neither filing says what price the United States will pay, which American buyers or Russian suppliers are involved, or how the diesel will be shipped. Neither explains how the arrangement sits alongside the sanctions legislation Trump signed into law in September, and neither reports any response from the European Union, from US lawmakers, or from the US Treasury itself.
Al Jazeera’s account carries no reaction from Zelensky, and the Daily Mirror’s carries no pump-price figures — the two filings are complementary rather than overlapping. Al Jazeera also gives a week-on-week and month-on-month price comparison that is not arithmetically consistent with the average it reports, so those two figures are not reproduced here.
Sources: Daily Mirror (carrying a BBC report), Al Jazeera.
