No decision on an energy truce was made during the latest talks in Moscow between the U.S. delegation and Vladimir Putin, a source familiar with the negotiations told Agentstvo.
Details. «An impromptu move by Trump,» the source told Agentstvo.
- ️Moscow has not officially responded to Trump’s announcement.
- ️On Monday, the U.S. president wrote on Truth Social that Ukraine and Russia had allegedly agreed to stop striking each other’s energy infrastructure. «Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do, likewise!» Trump wrote. He also attributed the rise in global diesel prices primarily to the Russia-Ukraine war rather than the U.S. war with Iran.
- ️Later, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was prepared to halt its strikes if its partners could ensure that Russia stopped attacking Ukraine’s energy system, critical infrastructure and food transportation routes. «Ukraine is not confident that Russia has the desire to comply with any agreement,» Zelenskyy wrote. Kyiv is waiting for concrete guarantees from its partners.
- ️The Financial Times reported that Trump’s announcement caught Ukrainian officials off guard. At the same time, the idea of an energy truce has been under discussion for some time. Officials involved in talks between the United States, Russia and Ukraine told the FT that the issue was first raised at trilateral meetings and, after those talks broke down in February, in separate negotiations and through back channels. For months, Ukraine had proposed that Moscow agree to a reciprocal halt to strikes on energy facilities, ports and other critical infrastructure, but Russia rejected those proposals while intensifying its attacks, the newspaper’s sources said.
- ️A source familiar with Russia’s position confirmed to the FT that Moscow and Kyiv had resumed discussions on a possible energy truce. However, people familiar with Kremlin thinking told the newspaper that Putin does not want to reach such an agreement before winter. According to them, Moscow believes that strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during the colder months could increase pressure on Kyiv and force it to make concessions.
Context. Trump’s announcement came after he publicly criticized Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries. On Sunday, the U.S. president demanded that Zelenskyy «stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,» saying such attacks were contributing to shortages and higher prices. On Monday, the Kremlin welcomed Trump’s remarks.
- ️According to the FT, two senior Ukrainian officials believe Trump’s announcement was also driven by domestic U.S. political considerations: the president wants to show American voters frustrated by high fuel prices that he is trying to bring them down.
- ️However, an assessment by the KSE Institute obtained by the FT contradicts Trump’s claim about the main cause of the price increase. According to the institute, diesel and gasoil exports from the Persian Gulf fell by 152 million barrels between March and August, compared with a 68 million-barrel decline in Russian exports. The loss of supplies from the Gulf was therefore about 2.2 times larger.
Machine-translated from Russian
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