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U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that Russia "has unfortunately lost control of its Diesel Oil Industry" due to its war with Ukraine, a day after pressing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a phone call to halt Kyiv's drone and missile strikes on Russian refineries.
Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a Sunday phone call to halt Kyiv's drone and missile strikes on Russian oil refineries, warning the attacks were worsening a global diesel shortage and driving up prices, the Financial Times (FT) reported, citing people familiar with the call.
The U.S. president's main message was about "diesel, diesel ... diesel," a senior Ukrainian official who was on the call told the FT, saying Trump repeatedly urged Zelenskyy to order his military to stop the attacks.
A second senior Ukrainian official said Trump emphasized he was "very worried" about rising diesel prices and wanted to ensure Russian supplies could keep reaching global markets to provide relief.
In a sign of his mounting frustration, Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday: "Russia has unfortunately lost control of its Diesel Oil Industry due to its War with Ukraine. A large number of their Diesel refineries have been blown up and are, at least temporarily, out of commission."
"This ridiculous and never-ending war with Ukraine must be ended. The whole World suffers as 25,000 people, mostly soldiers, are being killed each month. What a shame!" Trump wrote.
Zelenskyy, in a statement after the call, described it as an "important conversation" and said an in-person meeting with Trump on the sidelines of this week's UN General Assembly "could change a lot," with his office saying the meeting was expected Tuesday.
"There is diplomatic momentum," Zelenskyy said, without elaborating.
The Sunday call came hours after Ukraine hit Moscow with what Russian authorities described as the largest-ever drone attack on the capital, setting a major oil refinery ablaze and killing at least two people while injuring 20 others.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced on Telegram that air defenses shot down 450 drones as they approached the city.
Russia has continued its own strikes on Ukrainian targets, hitting energy infrastructure, petrol stations, commercial warehouses, and other businesses.
Zelenskyy has said Ukraine would honor a reciprocal energy ceasefire if the U.S. and other partners could ensure Russia does the same, though it remains unclear whether the Trump administration has made similar requests of Moscow regarding its own attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
Russia has not commented directly on Trump's push for an energy ceasefire.
According to people briefed on Russian President Vladimir Putin's thinking, cited by the FT, Putin is unlikely to agree to any truce before the end of the coming winter, when his forces are reportedly planning a major aerial bombardment of Ukraine's energy grid.
Putin is said to believe his forces will capture the remaining areas of Donbas and to view the air campaign as leverage to extract further concessions from Kyiv.
Putin said this month he had ordered Russia's armed forces to prepare a mass air-strike campaign in response to Ukraine's refinery attacks: "They are hitting ours. They'll get an answer. That's basically how it is."
A recent assessment by Ukraine's KSE Institute found that the U.S.-Iran war has had a far larger impact on global diesel, oil and gas supplies than Ukraine's drone campaign against Russian refineries, according to the FT.
One senior Ukrainian official told the FT they believed Trump could be holding up implementation of the sweeping Russia sanctions law he signed last week as leverage to push Ukraine to halt its refinery attacks, though the official said Trump could equally use the sanctions as leverage against Moscow to restart direct negotiations, noting the administration has generally favored using sanctions as negotiating tools rather than automatically enforcing them.
Zelenskyy, traveling to New York on Monday, said in a statement: "Russia is not backing down from its escalation and is sending many signals that it is ready to expand the war," urging allies to "continue pressuring" Moscow and arguing that Ukraine's drone and missile campaign was "part of the pressure that is actually working and the world can feel it."
He added: "But diplomacy must work in parallel."
Trump had claimed on Sept. 14 that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a mutual halt on striking energy infrastructure, writing on Truth Social: "Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do likewise!"
Ukrainian officials later told the FT the president had gotten ahead of himself and that no formal ceasefire had actually been agreed.
The Kremlin welcomed the idea without confirming an agreement, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov calling it "a very good idea overall" while stressing that a truce alone would not resolve the "main problem" of Russian petroleum products reaching global markets, which he said would also require safe navigation guarantees for tankers that he said Kyiv has been unwilling to provide.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova separately said Russia has always honored ceasefires it announced, "unlike" Ukraine, adding that "the most important thing is for these declarations to be translated into action."
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