According to Washington and Moscow, Russia must deliver 300,000 tonnes of diesel from October to the United States and the world market and then increase these deliveries to 1 million tonnes in December.
“Russia expressed its thanks for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhia,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. He earlier denounced a “weak decision” on the part of the United States and a lucrative opportunity for Russia to replenish its treasury and continue its financing of the war.
The announcement of the agreement cast uncertainty over the continuation planned for Saturday of discussions started the day before between Ukrainian and American negotiators in Miami, Florida, to try to relaunch diplomacy still in an impasse after more than four years of Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Kremlin said on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “welcomed with understanding” American proposals “for measures aimed at de-escalation” in Ukraine during the telephone call with his American counterpart which led to the diesel export agreement, without further details.
Russia has intensified its strikes against Ukrainian territory in recent months, causing an increasing number of civilian casualties.
“They didn’t survive.”
In Zaporizhia, a town located only a few dozen kilometers from the front line, Daniil Pichkin, a volunteer, arrived early to help the victims of the dawn strikes. Two people were rescued from the rubble, “unfortunately, a little girl died,” he told AFP.
Iryna, 69, a resident of one of the buildings hit by the strike, said she barely had time to take refuge in her toilet after receiving a warning of imminent bombing. His neighbors, a couple of friends, were killed. “They were 75 years old. They were thrown like that, into the street. They did not survive to the hospital,” she testified.
The head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, estimated on Saturday that “suspending sanctions on Russian diesel offers Moscow more revenue to wage war.”
Explosions rang out on Saturday in kyiv where Russian strikes caused massive power outages and a temporary suspension of metro operations, a foretaste of what awaits kyiv residents this winter.
Six people were injured in these daytime strikes, including five hospitalized, said the mayor of the capital Vitali Klitschko.
“This needs to be corrected”
“What it means to allow Russia to sell oil products has just been made very clear in kyiv,” the Ukrainian president denounced on X.
“The signals that Russia received yesterday … suggested that it could simply continue to attack. And this must be corrected,” demanded Mr. Zelensky.
He said he had discussed “the difficulties posed by the reduction of sanctions on Russian petroleum products” by telephone with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron. The French president spoke on Saturday with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to “show solidarity” with France “in the face of ongoing attacks” from Russia.
A major military ally of kyiv, Berlin limited itself to “taking note” of the American decision, but reaffirmed its support for kyiv and said it was working “jointly with its European partners on new sanctions”.
On Friday, President Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, described discussions in Miami with Ukrainian negotiators as “constructive”, in the presence of national security advisers from several European countries, the European Commission and NATO.
But the Ukrainian president denounced “a smokescreen” after the announcement of the diesel agreement.
