CNN’s Boris Sanchez expressed shock Friday after President Donald Trump announced a new agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin that he said would put massive quantities of Russian diesel on the global market.
“This is shocking for a number of reasons,” Sanchez said, pointing to the timing of the deal.
The reaction came after Trump said Russia had agreed to “immediately” supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel and another 500,000 tons in November, with additional shipments planned in the coming months. Just eight days earlier, Putin had said Russian diesel could not reach international markets because of sanctions, according to TASS.
CNN senior White House correspondent Kevin Liptak said the agreement could deliver a major blow to Ukraine.
“I think in a lot of ways this will be seen as a slap in the face to the Ukrainians,” Liptak said Friday.
Trump has repeatedly blamed Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russian refineries for soaring fuel prices, and last month he publicly urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop hitting them.
Liptak also noted the timing of the agreement comes as Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner prepare to meet with Ukrainian officials in Miami for talks aimed at ending the war.
“The other reason I think this is somewhat shocking is that Russia is known, according to American intelligence, to be supplying information to the Iranians amid that war, which is still ongoing,” Liptak said.
The new Trump-Putin deal comes just 25 days before the midterm elections, with Trump facing pressure to bring down diesel prices that have surged above $6 a gallon. Earlier this week, he signed an order opening tax-deferred red-dye diesel to truckers.
Hours after Trump’s announcement, the Treasury Department issued a general license authorizing the sale, delivery and importation of Russian-origin diesel, “including importation into the United States,” through April 7, 2027. The move delivers the kind of relief the Kremlin had sought. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last month that “the second necessary step is, of course, to lift the sanctions,” according to CNN.
Sanchez also noted that Trump had previously indicated he would discuss the unexplained death of a laboratory researcher during his call with the Russian president.
But Liptak said the president made no mention of the scientist’s death in his account of the conversation, instead focusing on the diesel agreement.
“Clearly, I think a major step by the president here, trying to bring down prices,” Liptak concluded. “But at the same time, allowing Russia to profit from its sales of its oil on the global market.”