US diesel prices hit record amid Iran and Ukraine conflicts
Donald Trump is scheduled to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly high-level week in New York and press him to agree to an energy ceasefire with Russia, according to a Guardian report. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is also in Washington this week and is expected to meet Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The diplomatic push comes against a backdrop of record US diesel prices and escalating attacks on both countries’ energy infrastructure. Average US diesel prices reached $6.50 per gallon on Monday, up from $3.19 per gallon a year earlier, before the United States and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran and Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz to most international trade. Trump said Monday that the war in Ukraine is exacerbating an energy shortage affecting the whole world.
“Russia has unfortunately lost control of its Diesel Oil Industry due to its War with Ukraine,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Monday morning. “A large number of their Diesel refineries have been blown up and are, at least temporarily, out of commission,” he added. He called the war “ridiculous and never ending” and said it “must be ended,” writing that “the whole World suffers as 25,000 people, mostly soldiers, are being killed each month. What a shame!”
Ukraine stepped up attacks on Russia’s energy sector over the weekend, launching its largest reported strike yet on the Moscow region. The barrage struck a major Moscow oil refinery and killed three people, according to the Guardian.
Zelenskyy said Monday that negotiations were continuing and that there were “ideas on the table for bringing peace closer, starting with strong de-escalation steps.” Ukraine’s “energy sector, critical infrastructure, and our food exports must stop being targets for Russia,” he said in a statement, adding that “this will lead to matching de-escalation steps on our part” and that “solutions are possible.”
Trump has blamed Kyiv for the escalating energy war even as Russia has decimated Ukraine’s economy and continued to strike Ukrainian cities with night barrages of drones and ballistic missiles. During a trip to Ireland last week, Trump told Zelenskyy directly that he had 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.”
A phone call between Trump and Zelenskyy on Sunday focused on the same issue, with one senior Ukrainian official telling the Financial Times the conversation was about “diesel, diesel, diesel.”
Trump is expected to deliver a speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday morning and to meet with major energy producers including the Gulf Cooperation Council and Venezuela’s recently installed leader Delcy Rodríguez. Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, previewed Trump’s remarks by saying the president would speak about how he has “confronted complex problems head-on around the world” and driven “many of the peace deals … to conclusion, or is in the process of driving to conclusion.”
Trump said last week that Ukraine had agreed not to hit Russian energy targets and that “Russia has agreed to do likewise!” The Guardian reported that the deal had not been agreed and that Russian strikes against Ukrainian energy and other critical infrastructure had continued.
The rise in diesel prices is seen as a liability for Trump’s Republican Party ahead of the November US midterm elections.