First posted on Instagram · @profilopolitics
President Donald Trump announced Friday that he has struck a deal with Vladimir Putin for Russia to supply millions of tons of diesel to the United States — and thanked the Russian leader for it. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired back, calling it "a weak decision, unfortunately, a weak decision by strong partners." And for the record: Zelenskyy did not call Trump weak. He called the decision weak. The distinction matters, because at least one reporter at the White House tried to blur it.
Watch: The New York Post on Trump's Russian diesel deal and his thanks to Putin.
Trump said on social media Friday that he struck the deal with Putin in a phone call that was supposed to be about a suspected case of plague in Russia. Instead, the two leaders agreed Russia will immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, followed by another 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons "immediately thereafter" — plus an additional 3 million tons "within a short period of time." All told, nearly 4.8 million tons.
Leaving the White House for a rally in New York, Trump was asked about Zelenskyy's criticism. "I think you heard about the oil deal with Russia. That is a big deal," Trump said. "That is massive amounts of oil coming into our country. And I want to thank President Putin, to be honest with you. We have massive amounts of oil coming into our country, and it's diesel, which is what we want. So, thank you." When a reporter told him "Zelenskyy said you are weak because of it," Trump leaned in — "Who said that?" — and moved on. Pressed again later that Zelenskyy called it "a weak move by a strong partner," Trump answered: "Well, we are a strong partner."
Zelenskyy's actual words, in a statement released by the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, were aimed at the policy, not the man. He called the arrangement a "gift to Putin," warned Russia would repay the diesel with "further terror and perfidy," and said any easing of sanctions without lasting de-escalation "is an obvious weakness" that "plays into Russia's hands — allowing it to kill more, wage war for longer." He added that he believes his team was "simply being used as a smokescreen" in the parallel peace talks: "That is certainly not fair. It is certainly not how partners should treat each other."
The timing stung in Kyiv. Trump announced the deal just as his envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were meeting Ukrainian officials in Miami on a proposal to end the war. And the reversal is stark: last month Trump signed a sweeping bipartisan Russia sanctions law aimed at choking off the oil and gas revenues funding Moscow's war — a law that directs the administration to target the biggest buyers of Russian fuel by an October 18 deadline. Now the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control has issued a temporary license authorizing Russian diesel transactions through April 2027.
The White House case is about prices at home. Diesel hit a record $6.52 a gallon on September 22 and was still near $6.23 on Friday, according to AAA — up from about $3.68 a year ago. Diesel powers trucking, farming, and construction, so the price feeds into nearly everything, including groceries. Earlier in the week, Trump signed an executive order allowing red-dyed diesel, normally reserved for off-road farm use, onto highways to dodge a federal tax. "Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my Greatest Priority," Trump said.
Analysts aren't convinced the Russian fuel moves the needle. Barron's called the volumes a drop in the bucket against global demand, diesel futures dipped only modestly on the news, and the White House hasn't said who pays for the fuel or when it actually arrives. Senate Democrats Chuck Schumer, Jeanne Shaheen, and Elizabeth Warren called the deal "a betrayal of Ukraine, the European allies and U.S. national security," demanding Trump "end his war with Iran instead of funding Russia's war machine." Russia's envoy Kirill Dmitriev, meanwhile, praised the agreement on X, writing that "Russia-US cooperation on diesel and energy will benefit the world."
So the facts are these: Zelenskyy called the deal a weak decision by strong partners — not Trump a weak man. Trump thanked Putin and says the fuel is coming. Whether any of it actually lowers the price at the pump, or just hands Moscow billions while the war grinds on, is the question the next few weeks will answer.