Trump urged Zelensky to “ease up” on strikes against Russian oil refineries

U.S. President Donald Trump said he personally urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to stop striking Russian oil refineries.

He made the statement on Fox News.

“I spoke with Zelensky, I told him: ‘you should ease up on the [Russian] oil refineries.’ He said: ‘perhaps we will,'” — Trump said.

This is not the first such appeal from the American president. In mid-September, Trump had already called on Zelensky to abandon strikes on Russian facilities linked to diesel fuel.

“Don’t strike the diesel fuel, because it hurts, it hurts the whole world. We don’t want him striking the diesel fuel,” — Trump said at the time.

The Kremlin responded positively to Trump’s appeal, stating that it “can only be welcomed” against the backdrop of a deteriorating situation on global oil markets. At the same time, Moscow linked the energy issue in part to new escalation spirals in the Persian Gulf.

On September 14, Trump said that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to mutually halt strikes on energy facilities. At that point, neither Moscow nor Kyiv had officially confirmed the reaching of such an agreement. Later, the Kremlin reported that in the early hours of September 15, Ukrainian forces attempted to strike one of Russia’s energy facilities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had previously stated that strikes on energy infrastructure create problems but do not affect the situation at the front.