“There is now a strong US proposal for a mutual halt to strikes on critical infrastructure,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday night. He stopped short of calling it a deal.
Hours earlier, US President Donald Trump had gone further on social media. “Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do, likewise!” he wrote. Both Kyiv and the Kremlin later described the idea as a proposal, not a firm agreement.
Kyiv’s conditions
Zelensky attached terms. Earlier on Monday he said Ukraine would stop its own strikes if partners could ensure that Russia “genuinely refrains” from hitting Ukraine’s electricity system, other energy facilities, critical infrastructure and food supply routes. Any arrangement, he added, must be “reliable, long-term” and must not “fall apart after the Russians hold their ‘elections’ and get an easing of pressure on gasoline and diesel precisely for that period.”
If the proposal became a first step toward ending Russian strikes on Ukraine’s infrastructure and Ukraine’s strikes in response, he said, Kyiv was ready to support de-escalation.
The Kremlin’s answer
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the proposal “a very good idea” on Tuesday. He did not confirm an agreement. Russia was in contact with the American side, he said, and “will continue that dialogue.”
Peskov also argued that a pause in energy strikes would not fix global supply. He called for lifting sanctions on Russian energy exports and “unhindered access for these petroleum products to global markets.” Before Trump’s post, he had blamed the fuel market’s troubles mainly on instability in the Persian Gulf region and declined to say whether Russia would stop hitting Ukraine’s economic and energy infrastructure.
Why fuel is at stake
Ukraine has been hitting Russian fuel infrastructure for months, cutting Moscow’s refining capacity and causing supply shortages. A CNN analysis from July counted more than 300 Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil facilities since the war began in 2022, and said gas stations had been forced to ration supply. Russia, the world’s second largest diesel exporter behind the US, has banned foreign sales of its diesel. In August it exported about 150,000 barrels a day, 81% below its five-year average, according to Vortexa.
Ukraine says refineries are a legitimate target because hitting them cuts funding to Moscow and weakens domestic support for the war. Russia has also repeatedly struck Ukraine’s own energy network.
Trump has said repeatedly that Kyiv’s attacks on Russian diesel sites are causing a shortage, and he blamed Russia and Ukraine rather than the Middle East for the rise in diesel prices. The war with Iran is pushing oil higher. AAA data showed US diesel above $6 a gallon on Friday for the first time ever, with global oil above $108 per barrel.
The fighting did not pause while the proposal circulated. Ukraine’s military said it hit the TANECO refinery in Nizhnekamsk, in Russia’s Tatarstan republic, overnight into Sunday, working with the Security Service of Ukraine and the Main Intelligence Directorate. Tatarstan officials said two civilians were killed. On Tuesday morning, officials said Russia struck two gas stations on busy Kyiv streets, while Zelensky said Ukrainians hit a refinery in Syzran.
