Zelenskyy says diesel deal with Russia is possible only with an energy truce
Photo: President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Getty Images)
Kyiv considers the US diesel deal with Russia unfair and compares it to last year's Alaska summit. Ukraine would support easing sanctions on Russia only in exchange for an energy truce, reports Axios, which received President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy's assessment of the deal in a phone interview.
Ukraine does not object to the US easing sanctions on Russian energy, but only under one condition. In return, Russia must agree to an energy truce, meaning a mutual commitment to refrain from strikes on power plants, substations, and oil refineries during the winter.
"If the price is energy ceasefire, this negotiation is good," Zelenskyy explained.
However, according to him, Washington received no concessions from Moscow. Otherwise, Trump would have announced them himself.
The Ukrainian delegation flew to Florida at the invitation of US President's special envoy Steve Witkoff, who promised to discuss new ideas for ending the war. During the negotiations, the Americans did not mention the diesel deal a single time. The Ukrainian side learned about Trump's call with Putin only an hour before the announcement.
"It looks like that they used this opportunity to meet us from one side, and from the other side called Putin and negotiate this," Zelenskyy said.
The president called the deal "a birthday present to Putin," whose birthday the Russian dictator celebrated on October 7.
Zelenskyy compared the current situation to the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska in August 2025. At the time, the US president agreed to a number of Moscow's demands regarding the war without receiving anything in return.
"What did [Trump] get? That he will have more diesel? For whom? More Russian diesel for Americans? It shows weakness of the world," Zelenskyy noted.
The US envoys planned to relay signals from Florida to the Russians and then possibly travel to Kyiv to finalize a peace deal. Zelenskyy does not rule out the possibility that the diesel deal was the Kremlin's price for the meeting, although he acknowledges that he may be wrong.
Despite his outrage, Kyiv is not rejecting US mediation.
"It's not simple. We need the Americans to try to stop this war," the president emphasized.
Trump announced the deal after a phone call with Putin. Russia is to supply up to 1.8 million tons of diesel to global markets thanks to a temporary exemption from sanctions. In response to criticism from Kyiv, Trump replied with a brief "Okay", thanking Putin and assuring that the US remains a strong partner.
