President Trump said Sunday that Ukraine should stop striking Russian diesel facilities, singling out one category of target while leaving the rest of Ukraine’s campaign against Russian infrastructure untouched.
Speaking to reporters at the Irish Open golf tournament in Doonbeg, Ireland, Trump said: “Zelensky has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia.”
He added: “Let him go after targets, but not diesel fuel because he’s causing a shortage of diesel.”
Trump said he had raised the point directly with the Ukrainian president, telling him there were “plenty of other targets” available and that the strikes on diesel were “hurting the world.”
Ukraine has repeatedly hit Russian refineries and oil infrastructure as part of a strategy aimed at degrading the war economy funding Moscow’s invasion.
Those strikes have contributed to global diesel shortages.
U.S. diesel prices passed $6 a gallon on Friday, a record high, according to Fox News.
The remarks place Trump in the position of asking Kyiv to spare a class of Russian targets on the grounds of its effect on world fuel supply rather than on the battlefield.
Fox News reported no response from Zelenskyy, Ukrainian officials, or the White House to the comments.
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