President Donald Trump said Monday that Ukraine and Russia have each agreed to stop striking the other’s energy infrastructure, using the claim to argue that record-high diesel prices in the United States and abroad are being driven primarily by the war in Eastern Europe rather than the ongoing U.S. war with Iran. The announcement, posted to Truth Social with no supporting detail, came as neither Kyiv nor Moscow had publicly confirmed any such arrangement, and as fuel costs at American pumps climbed to their highest levels on record.
“Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do, likewise! The World’s Diesel price rise is mostly caused by the Russia/Ukraine War, not Iran,” Trump wrote in the Monday morning post.
The claim marked the second time in as many days that Trump had singled out Ukraine’s long-range strike campaign against Russian refineries as the primary force behind the fuel price surge, sidestepping the seven-month-old U.S. conflict with Iran that has disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and cut deeply into Gulf oil exports. Trump has repeatedly promised that the Iran war will end shortly after the midterm elections and that gas prices will fall once it does, even as he has, in the interim, increasingly pointed at Ukraine instead. His claim came as oil prices continued to soar in the seventh month of the Iran war, raising American fuel costs and inflation just weeks before the U.S. midterm elections.
A Demand Repeated
Trump’s Monday post followed comments he made a day earlier while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Irish Open golf tournament at his family’s Doonbeg club in Ireland. Asked whether he had spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky following a recent call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump said Zelensky needed to halt the drone campaign against Russian fuel facilities. “Mr. Zelensky has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,” Trump told reporters, adding, “Let him go after targets but not diesel fuel, because he’s causing a shortage of diesel fuel.”
Trump said the two had discussed the matter directly: “We spoke to Mr. Zelenskiy about it. There are plenty of other targets. Don’t hit diesel fuel. That’s hurting the world.” He went further in attributing the shortage away from the Middle East conflict he ordered the U.S. into earlier this year. “The global shortage isn’t done by the Middle East, this is done by what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine,” Trump said.
Ukraine Pushes Back
Roughly an hour after Trump’s Monday post, Zelensky offered a more conditional account of the supposed agreement, undercutting the president’s characterization of a done deal. Zelensky said Ukraine was willing to halt attacks on Russian energy targets if Russia agreed to do the same, but cautioned that “Ukraine is not convinced that Russia is willing to abide by any agreement.”
Zelensky wrote that if partners could ensure Russia “genuinely refrains from striking” Ukraine’s electricity system, energy facilities, critical infrastructure and food supply routes, Kyiv would be prepared to halt its own strikes in return. He added a pointed caveat aimed at Moscow’s track record on cease-fire commitments, saying any arrangement needed to be lasting and not timed to Russian political convenience. “So that it is reliable, long-term, has a real impact on people’s lives, and does not fall apart after the Russians hold their ‘elections’ and get an easing of pressure on gasoline and diesel precisely for that period,” Zelensky wrote, adding, “We expect specifics from our partners.”
The Ukrainian presidency separately declined to comment on Trump’s claim, and there was no immediate reaction from Moscow. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Zelensky’s statement, and as of Monday, Trump’s own social media post remained the only public confirmation that any agreement existed at all.
Record Prices at the Pump
The dispute over blame unfolded against a backdrop of fuel costs that have climbed steadily for months. The national average price of diesel reached $6.23 a gallon on Monday, according to Bloomberg, as global fuel supplies tightened. Diesel had already crossed $6.20 a gallon on Sept. 13, a new record, while regular gasoline was selling for an average of $4.31 a gallon, according to the American Automobile Association.
Analysts and international monitors have pointed to two overlapping causes rather than one. The International Energy Agency reported that diesel and oil exports from Gulf countries averaged just 390,000 barrels per day in August — roughly a quarter of pre-war levels — as restricted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz sharply reduced shipments tied to the Iran conflict. The same IEA report said Ukraine’s strikes on Russia’s refining system had compounded the supply problem, and that U.S. diesel prices had surpassed $200 per barrel in early September, a level 94 percent above where prices stood before the Iran war began.
Ukraine’s campaign against Russian refineries has intensified in recent months as part of what Zelensky has described as a long-range pressure strategy meant to degrade the Kremlin’s war economy. Kyiv has ramped up its attacks on Russian energy facilities as part of Zelensky’s “long-range sanctions,” which aim to grind down the Russian economy and hamper the Kremlin’s war machine, while Moscow has for years struck Ukrainian energy infrastructure in an effort to force Kyiv into submission, particularly during winter months. The toll on Russia’s own output has been significant. A government draft forecast seen by Reuters put Russian oil output this year at a 17-year low, with Moscow revising its fuel export projections for 2026 and 2027 downward because of the war.
Diplomacy in the Background
Trump’s public pressure on Zelensky came just days after senior U.S. officials had traveled to the region in an attempt to advance a broader settlement. Last weekend, U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff held talks with Putin in Moscow, followed by a meeting with Zelensky in Kyiv, though the core demands of the two sides — particularly over territorial concessions — remained far apart. Trump has separately signaled he may meet with Zelensky again around a possible engagement in New York, where Ukraine’s president has indicated he intends to press for a broader energy and maritime cease-fire. Zelensky has said he wants to push for an energy and Black Sea cease-fire at any such meeting, stating, “We are open to a maritime ceasefire, as well as an energy ceasefire.”
The timing of Trump’s renewed focus on Ukraine has drawn attention given the political stakes at home. Fuel costs have climbed just weeks before crunch U.S. midterm elections, a period in which rising prices at the pump carry direct political consequences for the party in power. By attributing the diesel spike chiefly to the war between Russia and Ukraine, Trump has effectively moved the political liability for high fuel costs away from a war he ordered the United States into and onto a conflict Washington has sought to end through diplomacy rather than direct military involvement.
What Remains Unconfirmed
Even if the reported understanding holds, officials and outside observers have noted it would represent a narrow, limited step rather than any broader cease-fire. Key details remain unresolved, including which specific installations would fall under the arrangement, whether any verification mechanism exists, and how long either side intends to observe it. Neither government had issued a formal statement confirming the terms of the deal as described by Trump, and Zelensky’s own comments suggested Kyiv views the arrangement as, at most, a proposal still awaiting Russian follow-through rather than a signed commitment.
For now, the practical effect of Monday’s exchange was rhetorical rather than operational: American drivers and businesses reliant on diesel-powered trucking, shipping, rail and farm equipment continue to face record costs, with the source of that pain still contested between the White House, Kyiv and international energy analysts. Whether the reported truce on energy targets translates into a durable de-escalation — or fades as quickly as it was announced — is expected to become clearer in the days ahead as Moscow and Kyiv respond to the terms Trump laid out.