Diesel Shipments and Ceasefire: US Fuel Supply and Ukraine Talks Move Ahead
Three Russian tankers carrying 500,000 tonnes of diesel are bound for US ports as a ceasefire in Oleshky takes hold and peace talks are scheduled for early November.
By Carolina Wood ·
Three ships loaded with Russian diesel are crossing the Atlantic toward the US coast, Russian deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said Friday. The tankers carry fuel that Russian companies are permitted to sell to US and global markets in October under an arrangement announced this month by US president Donald Trump. Under the deal, Russia sends diesel to world markets to lower fuel prices, and Trump temporarily lifts US sanctions on Russian fuel in return.
Novak said the first three vessels were underway with support from the Russian Direct Investment Fund. Reuters reported that the Malta-flagged tanker Agioi Fanendes carries ultra-low sulphur diesel and is expected in the United States on 7 November.
The fuel shipments coincide with a ceasefire in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied city in southern Ukraine. The White House said Friday that Russian and Ukrainian officials agreed to halt all military operations there starting 27 October. Aid deliveries and preparations to evacuate civilians can proceed during the pause. Oleshky has been under Russian occupation since February 2022. About 2,000 people remain in the city, where food, water and power are scarce. Some residents are eating weeds, boiled grass and bread.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the US agreed to technical-level meetings in the first half of November in Abu Dhabi. A US official said the three countries could meet again in a couple of weeks in Abu Dhabi or Switzerland. Zelenskyy said he hoped a leaders' summit would follow.
The talks follow weeks of tension between Washington and Kyiv and a series of Trump decisions viewed as favoring Russia, including limits on the Starlink system Ukraine uses to detect incoming attacks. Trump said Friday that if Ukraine still has trouble reaching the system he would fix it and, if needed, raise it with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
EU leaders pressed new UK prime minister Andy Burnham at a Brussels summit to increase support for Ukraine's defense. The UK budget under Burnham is due next week. EU officials also said Canada and Japan should contribute more.
The IAEA said Friday that repairs to power infrastructure near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant finished under a temporary ceasefire the agency brokered. Work on the plant's sole remaining external line, Ferosplavna-1, was completed, reducing the risk of losing off-site power at Europe's largest nuclear station.
