According to the American publication Axios, an informed source said that during a phone call on Sunday, September 20, Donald Trump asked Vladimir Zelensky several times to stop strikes on Russian oil refineries (refineries). Axios’s interlocutor added that the word “diesel” was mentioned many times during the call, and that such attacks lead to rising global diesel fuel prices.
The American Automobile Association (AAA) reported that on September 20 diesel fuel in the United States rose to a record $6.49 per gallon (3.79 l). Over the year, the price of diesel in the country has nearly doubled.
Earlier, Trump said in a conversation with journalists from the American TV channel Fox that Zelensky needed to stop strikes on Russian oil refineries because of a “diesel shortage”. He claimed that fuel supply problems were not related to U.S. military actions against Iran, but to the Russian-Ukrainian war, and urged Kyiv “not to strike diesel fuel” because it “harms the whole world”.
After that, Trump said that Ukraine had agreed not to strike Russian energy facilities, while Russia, according to him, would not attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. However, the exchange of strikes continued. Zelensky, in turn, proposed that the Russian leadership “put on the table” a list of facilities that the Ukrainian army should not strike as part of an energy truce.
In the Kremlin, the refusal to strike energy infrastructure was called a “good idea”, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that ensuring the safe operation of refineries and increasing output of petroleum products would not help deal with the shortage. He clarified that the main problem lies in getting petroleum products onto global markets, including because of strikes on tankers and international sanctions.
Since the beginning of 2026, the AFU have carried out more than 70 strikes on Russian refineries and knocked several dozen of them out of service. In August alone, six major plants were shut down for repairs, and according to the analytics company EA Analytics, the interruption of refinery operations lowered oil refining in Russia to its lowest level since 2002. This, in turn, led to a fuel shortage in the country and a ban on its export.
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