KYIV, Ukraine — President Trump on Sunday called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to halt strikes on Russian diesel, saying the attacks are causing a global shortage.
He spoke after diesel prices in the U.S. hit a record on Friday, soaring past $6 a gallon on average, driven mainly by the Iran war.
Ukraine has for months been targeting Russia’s oil and gas industry with long-range strikes, prompting fuel rationing across the country and causing Moscow to ban diesel exports in July, one factor disrupting the global supply of diesel. But the global crunch also came after the war on Iran curtailed oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. The price of diesel in the United States has risen more than 60% since the U.S. and Israel launched the war in late February.
Fuel prices are weighing on Americans as they prepare to vote in midterm elections in November.
Trump was asked by a reporter if he had spoken with Zelensky after his recent conversation with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. He responded by calling on Zelensky to halt strikes against Russia.
“Mr. Zelensky has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,” Trump told reporters on the sidelines of the Irish Open, which is being played at his Doonbeg golf club.
“We spoke to Mr. Zelensky about it. There are plenty of other targets. Don’t hit diesel fuel, because that’s hurting, that’s hurting the world,” he said.
Kyiv says Russia’s oil industry both funds and directly fuels Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor, which began four and a half years ago.
Russia has ramped up its air campaign against Ukraine in recent weeks, using ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones to pierce Ukraine’s defenses. Moscow’s attacks have targeted Ukraine’s power grid ahead of winter in what officials say is meant to demoralize civilians.
Civilians were killed and injured overnight into Sunday as Russia and Ukraine exchanged large-scale drone strikes.
Two people were killed and 14 more injured near an oil and industrial hub in Russia’s Tatarstan, according to local officials, while Ukrainian authorities reported Russian drones pummeling the Black Sea port of Odesa and starting a fire near a border crossing with Poland.
Ukraine targets more Russian oil facilities
The two Russian civilians died after a drone slammed into a tree near their parked car in the city of Nizhnekamsk, according to the office of regional head Rustam Minnikhanov. Nizhnekamsk houses a key cluster of oil refineries and other industrial plants. Mayor Radmir Belyaev said that a fire had broken out at an unspecified “enterprise.”
Ukraine also claimed to have hit a major oil refinery in Slavyansk-on-Kuban, in Russia’s Krasnodar region near Russian-occupied Crimea. The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine said its drones struck a key oil processing unit and the refinery’s tank farm overnight into Sunday.
Krasnodar authorities said the strike on “an enterprise” in Slavyansk-on-Kuban injured three people and damaged an oil pipeline.
Russian forces shot down 389 Ukrainian drones during the night, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday.
Russia targets Odesa and western Ukraine
In Ukraine, at least nine people were injured in a “massive” Russian nighttime attack on Odesa, according to Serhii Lysak from the city’s military administration. Odesa is home to Ukraine’s main port hub on the Black Sea and has faced sustained drone and missile strikes, with Kyiv accusing Moscow of trying to choke off its exports.
A Russian drone attack on Saturday struck a residential high-rise in Odesa, killing two people and injuring 26 others, Ukrainian officials said.
Russian overnight strikes also pounded western Ukraine, though there were no immediate reports of casualties. One drone set fire to a gas station near the Yahodyn-Dorohusk border crossing with Poland, according to Ukraine’s top diplomat and a spokesperson for the local customs force.
“This is Putin’s terror ‘knocking’ directly on the doors of the EU and NATO. Russian barbarians are at your gate, dear partners,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X.
Ukraine’s border crossings with Poland are a conduit for much of the military and humanitarian aid sent by Western allies.
Valentyna Chernysh, a spokesperson for the Volyn Customs Office, told the Associated Press that the Yahodyn crossing was intact and no one was harmed.
On Tuesday, two people died when Russian drones hit the Starokozache border crossing between Ukraine and Moldova. The following day a “direct threat” to a Polish-Ukrainian crossing point was avoided due to the cooperation between Warsaw and Kyiv, according to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Ukraine’s air force said its air defenses shot down or suppressed 409 Russian drones of various types overnight, including a newer jet-powered version that is faster and more difficult to intercept. It said Russia had attacked Ukraine with 453 drones.
Kremlin says peace talks could restart in October
Also on Sunday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow is open to restarting peace talks in autumn featuring Russia, Ukraine and the United States.
“We are not ruling out that possibility,” Peskov told reporters. “October cannot be ruled out.”
Last weekend, U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff held talks with Putin in Moscow, followed by a meeting with Zelensky in Kyiv. Despite the latest diplomatic push, the core demands of Moscow and Kyiv remain mutually exclusive, especially over territorial concessions.
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