Donald Trump has personally urged Volodymyr Zelensky to halt Ukraine's drone campaign against Russian oil refineries, warning that the strikes are driving up diesel prices worldwide. According to the Financial Times, citing two Ukrainian officials, Trump made his case to the Ukrainian president in a Sunday phone call in a single repeated word: "diesel, diesel, diesel." The pressure comes as US diesel prices hit record highs ahead of November's midterm elections — and as Ukraine's refinery strikes are inflicting their heaviest damage yet on the Kremlin's war economy.
A refinery hit every three days
The scale of Ukraine's campaign is now visible in hard data. According to the International Energy Agency, a Russian refinery was struck on average once every three days during the first eight months of 2026, helping drive Russian oil refining production to its lowest level in more than 20 years. Russian diesel production is estimated to have fallen by nearly 30 per cent over the past year, while petrol output has fallen by 20 per cent — with some refineries close to Ukraine hit more than a dozen times.
The damage has rippled through the Russian economy. Fuel rationing has spread across the country, Moscow banned diesel exports in July — removing Russian supply from an already tight global market — and a Russian government draft forecast seen by Reuters downgraded the country's oil output forecast to a 17-year low.
Trump's "diesel, diesel, diesel" call
Trump's frustration has been building for weeks. On September 13, speaking on the sidelines of the Irish Open, he told reporters that Zelensky "has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia," adding: "There are plenty of other targets. Don't hit diesel fuel. That's hurting the world." The next day he claimed on Truth Social that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to a truce on energy strikes — though no such deal was ever announced by either country, and it remains unclear why he announced one.
Sunday's call, reported by the FT, took the pressure further. On Monday, Trump posted that "Russia has unfortunately lost control of its Diesel Oil Industry due to its War with Ukraine," writing that "a large number of their Diesel refineries have been blown up and are, at least temporarily, out of commission," and declaring: "This ridiculous and never ending War with Ukraine must be ended." He also claimed that 25,000 people, mostly soldiers, are being killed each month — his own figure.
The politics are transparent: US diesel prices soared past $6 a gallon for the first time last week, according to price tracker GasBuddy, and fuel costs are weighing on American voters as they prepare for November's midterms.
Kyiv offers a deal; Moscow goes silent
Zelensky has not refused Trump's appeals outright — but he has set a condition Moscow will not meet. On Monday he said Ukraine would take steps toward de-escalation if Russia halted its attacks on Ukraine's energy sector, critical infrastructure, and Black Sea shipping. There was no response from the Kremlin.
After meeting Trump in New York on Tuesday, Zelensky said Kyiv was ready for "any format" of an energy ceasefire — while pointedly noting there had been no discussion of Ukraine unilaterally halting its own refinery strikes. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov publicly welcomed Trump's suggestion as a "good idea," even as Russian drones kept striking Ukrainian energy and fuel infrastructure — including jet-drone attacks on Kyiv petrol stations on Wednesday morning that killed one person and injured seven, according to Reuters.
Who is really behind the diesel crunch?
Here the picture gets more complicated for Trump's argument. Analysts at Ukraine's Kyiv School of Economics Institute said recently that the US-Iran war has done far more damage to global oil and petrol supplies than Ukrainian drone attacks. An IEA report published Friday found that net exports of diesel and gasoil from Gulf countries in August stood at "just over a quarter" of what they were before the war on Iran began in February, after fighting curtailed oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
In other words, the global diesel squeeze is driven primarily by the Middle East conflict — while Ukraine's strikes remain the single most effective economic weapon Kyiv has against the Kremlin's war machine, choking the fuel revenues that fund Russia's invasion.
The bottom line
The choice Trump is presenting to Kyiv amounts to asking Ukraine to surrender its most successful weapon in exchange for nothing: Moscow has not agreed to spare Ukraine's own grid, which Russia is systematically hammering ahead of winter. Zelensky's conditional offer — mutual restraint on energy strikes — went unanswered, which tells its own story about who actually wants de-escalation. As long as Russia keeps bombing Ukraine's power plants and fuel stations while demanding its own refineries be left alone, the pressure is pointed the wrong way.
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