Trump calls on Ukraine to halt strikes on Russian diesel, saying attacks are causing shortage

KYIV: US President Donald Trump on Sunday called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to halt strikes on Russian diesel, saying attacks are causing a shortage.

Trump responded by calling on Zelenskyy to halt strikes against Russia.

“Mr Zelensky has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,” Trump told reporters on the sidelines of the Irish Open, which is being played at his Doonbeg golf club.

“Let him go after targets but not diesel fuel, because he's causing a shortage of diesel fuel.”

Ukraine's long-range strikes have been targeting Russia's oil and gas industry for months, which Kyiv says both funds and directly fuels Moscow's more than four-year-old invasion of its neighbour.

The Ukrainian drone campaign has caused fuel rationing across Russia, despite the country being a key oil and gas exporter. Other Ukrainian strikes targeted major Russian online retailers, bringing the war ever closer to the public.

Russia has also ramped up its air campaign against Ukraine in recent weeks, using ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones to pierce Ukraine's defences. Moscow's attacks have targeted Ukraine's power grid ahead of winter in what officials say is meant to demoralise civilians.

Civilians were killed and injured overnight into Sunday as Russia and Ukraine exchanged large-scale drone strikes.

Two people were killed and 14 more injured near an oil and industrial hub in Russia's Tatarstan, according to local officials, while Ukrainian authorities reported on Russian drones pummelling the Black Sea port of Odesa and starting a fire near a border crossing with Poland.

Ukraine targets more Russian oil facilities

The two Russian civilians died after a drone slammed into a tree near their parked car in the city of Nizhnekamsk, according to the office of regional head Rustam Minnikhanov.

Nizhnekamsk houses a key cluster of oil refineries and petrochemical, rubber and polymer plants, including some of Russia's largest facilities of their kind. Mayor Radmir Belyaev said that a fire had broken out at an unspecified “enterprise.”

Ukraine also claimed on Sunday to have hit a major oil refinery in Sloviansk-on-Kuban, in Russia's Krasnodar region, across from Crimea. The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) agency said its drones struck a key oil processing unit and the refinery's tank farm overnight.

Krasnodar authorities said the strike on “an enterprise” in Sloviansk-on-Kuban injured three people, damaged an oil pipeline and started a blaze. They did not directly respond to the Ukrainian claims.

Russian forces shot down 389 Ukrainian drones during the night, Russia's defence ministry said Sunday.

Russia targets Odesa and western Ukraine

At least nine people were injured in a “massive” Russian nighttime attack on Odesa, according to Serhii Lysak, who heads the city's military administration. The city is home to Ukraine's main port hub on the Black Sea and has for months faced sustained drone and missile strikes, with Kyiv accusing Moscow of trying to choke off its exports.

A Russian drone attack on Saturday struck a residential high-rise in Odesa, killing two people and injuring 26 others, Ukrainian officials said.

Russian strikes also pounded western Ukraine throughout the night, though there were no immediate reports of casualties. One drone struck near the Yahodyn-Dorohusk border crossing with Poland, setting fire to a petrol station, according to Ukraine's top diplomat and a spokesperson for the local customs force.

“This is Putin's terror knocking directly on the doors of the EU and NATO. Russian barbarians are at your gate, dear partners,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote in a post on X.

Ukraine's border crossings with Poland are a conduit for a large proportion of the military and humanitarian aid sent into the country by Western allies.

Valentyna Chernysh, a spokesperson for the Volyn Customs Office, told The Associated Press that the Yahodyn crossing was intact and no one was harmed.

Earlier this week, two people died when Russian drones hit the Starokozache border crossing between Ukraine and Moldova on Tuesday. The following day, a “direct threat” to a Polish-Ukrainian crossing point was avoided due to the cooperation between Warsaw and Kyiv, according to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Tusk gave no further details of the incident on Wednesday, or any evidence of Russian involvement. But he warned of potential intensified provocations by Moscow at border crossings between Ukraine and Europe.

Ukraine's air force said its air defences shot down or suppressed 409 Russian drones of various types overnight, including a newer jet-powered version that is faster and more difficult to intercept. It said Russia had attacked Ukraine with 453 drones in total.

Kremlin says peace talks could restart in October

Also on Sunday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow is open to restarting peace talks in autumn featuring Russia, Ukraine and the US

“We are not ruling out that possibility. We are specifically talking about the foreseeable future. That is, October cannot be ruled out,” Peskov told reporters.

Last weekend, US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, followed by a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. Despite the latest diplomatic push, the core demands of Moscow and Kyiv remain mutually exclusive, especially over territorial concessions.