KYIV, Ukraine — U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop targeting Russian diesel supplies, saying Ukraine’s strikes were contributing to a fuel shortage in Russia.
Trump was asked by a reporter whether he had spoken with Zelenskyy after his recent conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Rather than directly addressing the question, Trump used the exchange to call on Zelenskyy to end attacks on targets in 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 at his Doonbeg golf club.
“Let him go after targets but not diesel fuel, because he’s causing a shortage of diesel fuel.”
For months, Ukraine has used long-range strikes to hit Russia’s oil and gas sector, which Kyiv says helps finance and directly support Moscow’s invasion, now more than four years old.
Ukraine’s drone campaign has led to fuel rationing in parts of Russia, despite the country’s status as a major exporter of oil and gas. Kyiv has also struck major Russian online retailers, bringing the effects of the war closer to the Russian public.
Russia, meanwhile, has intensified its aerial assault on Ukraine in recent weeks, deploying ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones in efforts to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses. Moscow has targeted Ukraine’s power grid ahead of winter, in attacks Ukrainian officials say are intended to weaken civilian morale.
Civilians were killed and wounded overnight into Sunday as Russia and Ukraine exchanged large-scale drone attacks.
Local officials said two people were killed and 14 injured near an oil and industrial center in Russia’s Tatarstan region. In Ukraine, authorities reported that Russian drones struck the Black Sea port city of Odesa and ignited 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 Slavyansk-on-Kuban, in Russia’s Krasnodar region, across from Crimea. The Defense 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 Slavyansk-on-Kuban injured three people, damaged an oil pipeline and started a blaze. They did not directly respond to the Ukrainian claims.
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Russian forces shot down 389 Ukrainian drones during the night, Russia’s defense 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.
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 defenses 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 U.S.
“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, U.S. 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.
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