Ukraine Warupdated 36m ago2 min read
Ukraine Attacks Rostov Oil Terminal After Trump-Putin Diesel Deal
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Ukraine attacked Rostov-on-Don oil terminal after Trump-Putin diesel deal. Immediate 300,000 tons of Russian diesel to US/global market under deal.
Diesel deal sparks attacks
Ukraine attacked a Rostov, Russia oil terminal hours after the agreement reached between presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to supply “immediately” more than 300,000 tons of diesel fuel to the U.S. and global market. In Ukraine, Russian attacks on the city of Zaporiyia killed at least eight people, including three children, and caused 16 injuries, according to regional authorities and police.
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. Russian strikes killed at least 20 people, including three children, in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, and Zelensky wrote on X that Russia expressed its thanks for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia.
Zelensky calls it gift
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Donald Trump's announcement of a deal to import Russian diesel into the US, calling it a gift to Vladimir Putin that amounts to "an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged". Zelensky told reporters, "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."
A U.S. official told Axios that Trump decided to make a diesel fuel deal with Russia after Zelensky ignored half a dozen U.S. requests to stop attacking Russian oil refineries, and the official said, "Zelensky is misreading the room." The U.S. official also said, "The attacks on the refineries cause pain in Russia, but it causes pain for the U.S., too," as Witkoff and Kushner told Ukrainians that the U.S. was a strong partner providing munitions and intelligence.
Sanctions, intelligence, and next steps
The BBC said the US Treasury was suspending sanctions on Russian diesel exports until 7 April as part of the deal, while other assets like those in American banks are still frozen. The U.S. formally placed sanctions on Russia - Russian diesel shortly after the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, and minutes after Trump's announcement the Treasury Department issued a six-month waiver to those trade restrictions.
The EU's foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said suspending sanctions "provides Moscow with more revenues to wage war", adding: "This is not the time to ease pressure on Russia, and Europe won't." Zelensky warned that Russia would repay the diesel with "further terror" and it quoted him saying the deal "It plays into Russia's hands — allowing it to kill more, wage war for longer".