Shafaq News- Washington

US President Donald Trump decided to proceed with a Russian diesel deal after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ignored six US requests to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries, Axios reported on Saturday, citing a US official with direct knowledge.

The official said Trump wanted Ukraine to stop the refinery attacks unilaterally because they were contributing to high gasoline prices in the United States. Trump also did not consider the Ukrainian strikes equivalent to Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid.

The refinery attacks were hurting both Russia and the United States, the official said, accusing Zelenskyy of “misreading the room.”

During eight hours of talks in Miami on Friday, Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner told a Ukrainian negotiating team that the president was expected to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin and lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports, Axios reported.

Trump later said he had held a “highly successful” discussion with Putin and announced that Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel to US and global markets, followed by 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons immediately afterward. Russia would then deliver another 3 million tons within a short period, depending on the condition of its diesel refineries.

The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License 135 on October 9, authorizing transactions related to the sale, delivery, offloading, and importation of Russian-origin diesel through April 7, 2027.

Zelenskyy criticized the sanctions relief, saying relief outside a lasting de-escalation agreement amounted to weakness. Ukraine was prepared to stop striking Russian oil refineries if Russia halted attacks on Ukrainian power plants, he added.

A Ukrainian official told Axios that Witkoff and Kushner threatened that Trump could cut Ukraine off from US intelligence if Kyiv continued ignoring his requests. The US official denied that any such threat was made, saying the envoys told the Ukrainian delegation that Washington was a strong partner providing munitions and intelligence and that Ukraine should not take actions that hurt American consumers.