Trump Strikes Deal With Putin for Russian Diesel Supplies to the US

US President Donald Trump has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to supply hundreds of thousands of tons of diesel fuel to the United States and global markets in the coming months. Trump announced the arrangement on his Truth Social platform. It marks a sharp reversal: just three weeks earlier he signed legislation authorising new sanctions and tariffs on countries that import Russian oil and gas.

Pressure ahead of the vote

The decision comes as Trump continues to deal with the political fallout of the Iran war and its effect on global energy prices. Less than a month remains before the midterm elections, which will decide whether Republicans keep control of Congress, and early voting has already begun in many states. Higher fuel costs and the broader inflation that followed have hurt the president's public standing. Agricultural states such as Iowa, Kansas, Texas and Ohio, which depend on diesel for farm machinery and for taking products to market, have been hit especially hard.

Earlier, Trump pressed European allies to tap their oil reserves further, deferred federal fuel taxes and allowed supplies designated for farm use to be used in interstate trucking. He has also promised not to renew attacks on Iran until after the midterms.

Unanswered questions and criticism

It is unclear how Russia will deliver the fuel or what it will receive in return besides hard currency. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the deal a "gift" to Putin that Russia would "repay" with "terror and perfidy", writing on X that letting Russia sell petroleum products is an investment in a war that must be ended. European allies and US politicians may also argue that Washington is helping fund Russia's war effort.

The effect on prices may be limited. The US uses roughly 3.6 million barrels of diesel a day, so the promised 300,000 tons this month would equal about half of one day's consumption. Russia's diesel refining capacity has been damaged by repeated Ukrainian strikes, which Trump has encouraged Zelensky to curtail. Over the past seven months, prices for energy, fuel and consumer goods have only risen.