President Donald Trump’s announcement that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop hitting each other’s energy sites, a deal he tied to rising diesel prices, unraveled within an hour.
Trump made the claim in a Monday post on Truth Social, which also blamed the Russia-Ukraine war, not his own war with Iran, for the global rise in diesel prices.
About an hour later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that no such agreement existed.
“Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do, likewise!” Trump wrote, adding that the world’s diesel price rise was “mostly caused by the Russia/Ukraine War, not Iran.”
“Ukraine has proposed that its partners secure an agreement with Russia that would stop the destruction of critical infrastructure,” Zelenskyy wrote, saying Kyiv would halt its own strikes only if those partners could guarantee that Russia genuinely stopped first.
“Ukraine is not convinced that Russia is willing to abide by any agreement,” he added.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov blamed the turmoil in fuel markets on instability in the Persian Gulf, CNN reported. Speaking before Trump’s post, he declined to say whether Russia would halt its strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid.
Neither Kyiv nor Moscow had confirmed the arrangement, European Pravda reported.
Ukraine has struck Russian oil facilities for months. Kyiv calls the refineries legitimate targets because Moscow’s oil funds the invasion, Al Jazeera reported.
Rising energy costs are threatening Republican reelection chances, Politico reported.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other administration officials have taken to blaming Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russian refineries, according to the same report.
The claim landed as U.S. diesel hit a record $6.06 a gallon Friday, Al Jazeera reported. A year earlier, the national average was $3.71, and the midterm elections are in November.
“Mr. Zelenskyy has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,” Trump told reporters in Ireland on Sunday, according to Al Jazeera.
A day earlier, Trump blamed the Iran war for high gas prices and said they would “come tumbling down” after the midterms, MS NOW reported.
