Trump presses Zelensky to halt refinery strikes
Thestandard · 3 SOURCESabout 4 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Ukraine and Russia had agreed not to strike each other’s energy facilities, one day after he publicly rebuked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over attacks on Russian diesel refineries. Trump argued that refinery strikes were worsening diesel shortages and pushing up global fuel costs, while insisting the Russia-Ukraine war, rather than the Middle East conflict, was driving the rise in diesel prices. The Kremlin welcomed Trump’s call and said any effort to press Kyiv to stop attacks on what Moscow called civilian economic infrastructure would aid a settlement process. There was no immediate confirmation from either Kyiv or Moscow of the non-targeting arrangement Trump described
Key Points
- Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday that Ukraine had agreed not to hit Russian energy targets and that Russia had agreed to do the same.
- Speaking in Ireland on Sunday, Trump said Zelensky “has to stop” hitting Russian diesel fuel refineries because the attacks were causing shortages and hurting other countries
- Trump said he had spoken with Zelensky about Ukraine’s stepped-up attacks on Russian refinery sites and told him there were “plenty of other targets.”
- Ukraine has struck numerous Russian oil refineries far from the border, while Moscow has intensified long-range missile and drone attacks that have raised civilian deaths.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed Trump’s remarks, and Russia had earlier imposed a temporary export ban on gasoline, diesel, marine fuel and gas oil
Why It Matters
For Hong Kong readers, the immediate issue is energy pricing: the reports link refinery attacks and wider war-related disruption to higher diesel and oil prices, which can feed into transport and logistics costs. The episode also shows Washington trying to shape battlefield targeting choices through public pressure, even as no formal confirmation of Trump’s claimed energy truce had emerged.