Trump's Russian diesel deal draws fire as tanker arrives with fertilizer, not fuel

The deal and the Kremlin response

Trump announced on Friday, 9 October that he had agreed by phone with Vladimir Putin that Russia would immediately deliver more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel to the American and world markets, with 500,000 tonnes following in November and 1 million tonnes later. Moscow confirmed the agreement. On Monday, 12 October, Energy Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told Russia's Rossiya 24 television that Russia could resume diesel exports by the end of the year at 3 to 3.5 million tonnes a month, which he said matched normal export volumes. Novak also said Russia had supplied energy worth $21.3 billion to the European Union this year, and that deliveries continued in areas exempted from sanctions.

Trump defended the decision on Monday. In a Truth Social post he wrote that the European Union had paid Russia $250 billion for energy and that fake news media would not report it. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News on Sunday that Europeans had given Russia more money than they had given Ukraine, and that their energy policy had failed.

Senators and the sanctions law

Six senators, three of them Republicans, said the decision was a direct violation of the law. They cited legislation Congress passed in 2022, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which bans imports of Russian energy resources. In a joint statement, the senators, including Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Thom Tillis, said the United States cannot import Russian oil until Moscow ends its aggression against Ukraine and stops threatening NATO allies. Asked about the criticism on Fox News, Bessent said the government intended to act using all available legal powers and that anyone in Congress claiming the action was prohibited was mistaken. Business Insider reported that a temporary Treasury authorization removed this shipment from sanctions. In September, Trump signed a law named after the late Republican senator Lindsey Graham that obliges him to impose tariffs on the largest importers of Russian oil and gas.

The tanker that carried fertilizer

The Minerva Zen left St Petersburg on 11 September, according to AIS data cited by Business Insider, and reached the US port of Wilmington on the morning of 12 October. Vortexa analyst Michelle Wiese Bockmann had posted on X that the vessel was approaching and would arrive within 48 to 72 hours. The ship arrived, but its cargo was a urea and ammonium nitrate solution, not diesel. Bockmann later confirmed the delivery was fertilizer and said there was no large volume of Russian diesel available for sale, so exports were unlikely to ease the global shortage or significantly move US domestic prices. Business Insider noted that Russian fertilizer exports to the US are not covered by a ban. Critics accused Trump of a backroom arrangement with Moscow, because the tanker sailed before the Treasury issued its exemption.

Fuel prices and the by-elections

Trump has made fuel prices central to his campaign ahead of the by-elections to Congress on 3 November, arguing that gasoline will soon return to pre-war levels. AAA put the average price of regular gasoline at $4.36 a gallon, against $3.09 a year earlier, and diesel reached $6.28 a gallon at the start of October. Brent crude fell to about $103 a barrel but remained more than 40% above its level before the war with Iran, Business Insider reported. The Telegraph calculated that the first 300,000 tonnes, about 2.2 million barrels, was just over half of daily US distillate demand. Analysts quoted by wnp.pl said the volumes could cover only a few days of US oil needs.

Europe, Ukraine and the trade data

Opposition Democrats in the United States and officials from EU and NATO member states criticised the announcement. Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the easing of sanctions as an absolutely terrible step, describing it as a birthday present for Putin that would bring billions more to fund the war. Axios, citing a US official, reported that Trump made the deal because Ukraine had ignored US requests to stop attacks on Russian refineries, six of them according to the report. Zelensky said he supports protecting energy infrastructure but had not been informed in advance of the 'Energy Ceasefire' Trump announced on Truth Social, and Kyiv has not confirmed that agreement.

The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air estimated that EU states have spent about 238 billion euros ($265.5 billion) on Russian energy products since the full-scale invasion. Spending fell to $85 billion from 2023 after the EU embargo on seaborne Russian oil, and Hungary, Slovakia and France are now named among the largest importers. Deliveries of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline were halted from 27 January to 23 April 2026 after infrastructure in Ukraine was damaged, and an exemption still allows Slovakia and Hungary to import oil under certain conditions.