3 minPolitics
Trump's Claim of Russia-Ukraine Energy Truce Collapses Within an Hour
President Trump said Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop striking each other's energy sites, but Ukraine's president said no such deal exists, and the Kremlin declined to confirm it. The claim came as U.S. diesel prices hit a record and Republicans face midterm pressure.
President Donald Trump's announcement that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to halt strikes on each other's energy infrastructure fell apart within an hour, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said no such agreement existed and the Kremlin declined to confirm one.
Trump made the claim in a Monday post on Truth Social, writing that «Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do, likewise!» He also attributed the global rise in diesel prices to the Russia-Ukraine war rather than to the conflict with Iran, saying the increase was «mostly caused by the Russia/Ukraine War, not Iran.»
About an hour later, Zelenskyy responded on X that no truce had been reached. «Ukraine has proposed that its partners secure an agreement with Russia that would stop the destruction of critical infrastructure,» he wrote, adding that Kyiv would halt its own strikes only if those partners could guarantee that Russia genuinely stopped first. «Ukraine is not convinced that Russia is willing to abide by any agreement,» he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, speaking before Trump's post, blamed turmoil in fuel markets on instability in the Persian Gulf and declined to say whether Russia would stop striking Ukraine's energy grid. Neither Kyiv nor Moscow had confirmed the arrangement, according to European Pravda.
The episode unfolded against a backdrop of mounting economic and political pressure in the United States. U.S. diesel prices hit a record $6.06 a gallon on Friday, up from a national average of $3.71 a year earlier, with midterm elections set for November. Rising energy costs are threatening Republican reelection chances, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other administration officials have blamed Ukraine's drone strikes on Russian refineries for the price surge.
Ukraine has struck Russian oil facilities for months, calling the refineries legitimate targets because Moscow's oil revenue funds its invasion. Trump himself pressed the point publicly a day before his social media post, telling reporters in Ireland on Sunday that «Mr. Zelenskyy has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia.» A day earlier, he had blamed the Iran war for high gasoline prices and said they would «come tumbling down» after the midterms.
The rapid collapse of the announced truce left the diplomatic picture unchanged: no verified agreement, no confirmed commitment from Moscow, and a Ukrainian government insisting it would only stand down if Russia did so first under outside guarantees. The White House did not immediately respond to the contradiction between the two leaders' accounts.
