President Donald Trump said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin would “immediately” release hundreds of thousands of tons of diesel fuel onto the global market. Trump made the announcement on Truth Social and said the action would will help bring diesel prices down. Since its illegal invasion of Ukraine, wide-ranging sanctions have been applied to Russia.
In order to get the diesel fuel moved, the Treasury Department simultaneously announced Friday that it would be easing sanctions on Russia through April 7. A document posted to the Treasury’s website said that “the sale, delivery, offloading, or importation, including importation into the United States, of diesel fuel of Russian Federation origin are authorized through 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time, April 7, 2027. Since the start of the Iran war in February, the price of diesel fuel has soared almost 70%, and economists have warned that the price hikes will have wide-ranging inflationary effects on the global economy.
In recent weeks, sharp escalations in the Russia-Ukraine war have caused diesel to spike even further, and for multiple weeks the price of diesel set repeated all-time records. After multiple Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy assets earlier this year, the Kremlin in July imposed a diesel fuel export ban. It has since been extended through the end of October.
Trump has publicly pleaded with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop bombing Russia’s diesel refinery plants. Ukraine, he added, has “Got to stop.” On Sept. 14, Trump claimed that Zelenskyy and Putin had agreed to stop targeting energy infrastructure. Zelenskyy, however, denied that he had agreed to stop targeting Russian energy assets, telling CBS News he would only stop striking oil and gas targets if Russia agreed to the same terms.
But the Kremlin has increased its targeting of Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure this summer and fall. Just hours before Trump’s announcement Friday, Zelenskyy welcomed a delegation of U.S. senators to the presidential palace in Kyiv. This is not the first time Trump has tried to use U.S. sanctions relief for Russia to help slow rising oil prices.
The Treasury Department issued a series of 30-day sanctions waivers for Russian oil on the water this spring. But they expired and largely did not impact the trajectory of oil and gas prices, which have continued rising for months. Diesel futures fell 4% Friday in the wake of Trump’s announcement, but they remain higher by more than 110% since the start of this year.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
