U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) accused President Donald Trump on Thursday of shifting blame for soaring fuel costs onto Ukraine while restricting Kyiv’s access to Starlink satellite service, and he pointed to the war with Iran as the real cause. In a post on X, the senator said Trump faces political defeat over gas and diesel prices and is targeting Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil refineries. The post came days after the Treasury Department authorized imports of Russian diesel, and on the day Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country would resume those refinery strikes.
Markey’s Post
Markey published the post at 10:40 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. It reads in full:
“Facing political defeat, Trump is blaming sky high gas and diesel prices on Ukraine’s attacks against Russian oil refineries—and is limiting Ukraine’s access to Starlink to make his point. But we know the truth: it’s Trump’s illegal and unwinnable war on Iran to blame.”
The post makes two claims about the administration’s conduct. It says Trump is blaming Ukraine’s refinery attacks for high fuel prices, and it says he is limiting Ukraine’s Starlink access to press that argument. It then attributes the price spike to the U.S. war on Iran, which Markey has repeatedly called illegal and unconstitutional.
The Russian Diesel License
The dispute follows an announcement on Friday, Oct. 9, when Trump said after a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia would supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel to the U.S. and global markets. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License No. 135 the same day. The license authorizes transactions tied to the sale, delivery, offloading and importation of Russian-origin diesel, including importation into the United States, through 12:01 a.m. EDT on April 7, 2027. It does not authorize debits to accounts of Russia’s central bank, National Wealth Fund or Ministry of Finance.
The license drew criticism from members of Congress. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) said it violates the 2022 Ending Importation of Russian Oil Act, which passed the House 413-9 and the Senate unanimously and was signed April 8, 2022. The law bans imports of Russian energy products, including diesel. Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said Trump had “chose Putin over the American people” by easing energy sanctions, and that the deal would do little for American drivers.
Ukraine Pauses, Then Pushes Back
On Sunday, Oct. 11, Trump unilaterally declared an energy cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine and called for Zelensky to be replaced, The New York Times reported. Ukraine stopped striking Russian refineries, even as Russia kept bombarding Ukrainian energy infrastructure. On Wednesday, Ukraine said its forces had lost some critical access to a military-grade version of Starlink that the Pentagon pays for. Reports followed that the service had been restricted for devices moving faster than 100 miles per hour, the speeds needed to intercept some Russian drones. The restrictions were seen in Ukraine as a way to limit Kyiv’s fighting ability. Ukraine’s embassy in Washington later said service had resumed, while defense officials said they were still verifying it.
Hours before Markey’s post, Zelensky said Ukraine would no longer abide by Trump’s demand to stop hitting Russian refineries. “That’s it. The block is out,” he said. He did not say when the strikes would resume, but the governor of Russia’s Ryazan region said a refinery caught fire after an overnight drone strike, and a Ukrainian official confirmed Kyiv was behind it. Zelensky also said U.S. military officials had threatened to withhold intelligence if Ukraine kept attacking Russian energy infrastructure. U.S. officials said this week that Washington had not cut intelligence sharing and had made no such threat.
Elon Musk wrote on X on Wednesday that the U.S. government and military, not SpaceX, control Starshield speed limits. The Trump administration has pushed Kyiv to stop attacking Russia’s oil refineries so Moscow can send more diesel to global markets, as high prices threaten Republicans’ midterm prospects. European leaders in Brussels largely backed Ukraine’s decision, though Bulgaria’s prime minister said he did not support strikes on any refineries. The prime minister of the Netherlands called the diesel deal a “very bad choice” that would fill Putin’s war chest without lowering world prices. The White House had no immediate response to Zelensky’s remarks.
Markey’s Record on the Iran War
Markey’s opposition to Trump’s military action in Iran predates the current war. On June 27, 2025, he voted for Sen. Tim Kaine’s war powers resolution after the June 21 U.S. strikes, saying Trump acted against the Constitution by attacking without congressional approval. When the U.S. struck Iran again on Feb. 28, 2026, Markey called the attack “illegal and unconstitutional” and urged an immediate vote on the Kaine-Schiff resolution.
He voted for war powers resolutions on March 4, March 18 and March 24, and each failed 47-53. After the first vote he said Trump’s stated reasons for the war were a lie and that there was no plan to end it. After the second he warned that gas prices were “skyrocketing.” After the third, with 13 U.S. service members dead and gasoline up about $1 a gallon, he called the conflict an “ever-expanding quagmire with no clear exit.”
On April 7, after Trump threatened that “a whole civilization will die” if Iran did not agree to a deal, Markey called for Congress to impeach and remove him, or for the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment. He said a war powers resolution “will not be enough.” He voted for resolutions again on April 15, which failed 47-52, and April 22, which failed 46-51. In the April 15 statement he said gas prices were $1.20 a gallon higher than before the war and that the war had cost taxpayers about $50 billion. On April 22 he said he would “not vote for one more penny to fund this illegal war.”
On Aug. 8, Markey voted against a continuing resolution to fund the government, saying a yes vote would sign a check for Trump’s agenda, including “an unwinnable war in Iran.” The word “unwinnable” in that statement is the same one he used in Thursday’s post.
Markey on Russia and Ukraine
Markey’s official statements on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine date to the first days of the escalation. On Feb. 23, 2022, he said his heart was with the people of Ukraine and praised then-President Joe Biden’s opening sanctions as a response to Putin’s aggression. On the invasion’s first anniversary in 2023, he joined the co-chairs of the Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group in condemning Putin’s “war of choice” and urging conventional military support for Ukraine and NATO allies. In February 2024 he said Putin “must be defeated” and that he was “steadfast” in his commitment to support Ukraine.
Fuel Prices and the Midterms
The price question at the center of Markey’s post is also a central issue in the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Gas was above $4.30 a gallon in early October, and diesel topped $6 a gallon for the first time in September. The International Energy Agency said in its October Oil Market Report that diesel supply is expected to stay tight into the second half of 2027 because of Iran war-related disruption, falling inventories and resilient demand. Markey’s post places responsibility for those prices on the war itself rather than on Ukraine’s strikes on Russian refineries.