Kyiv: Russian strikes killed at least eight people in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, officials said Saturday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a deal to buy Russian diesel that Kyiv warned would help bankroll Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Three children were among the eight people killed when Russian aerial bombs hit residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia, Ivan Fedorov, co-chair of the region’s defence council, said Saturday. At least 16 people were wounded in the attack.
Russia and Ukraine are locked in a long-range aerial war while their armies remain largely deadlocked on the front line, more than 4 1/2 years since Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Ukraine is struggling to counter escalating Russian bombardments that have killed more than 55 people over the past four days.
The latest attacks came a day after Trump said he had struck a deal to obtain diesel from Russia, a stunning reversal of years of U.S. pressure on Moscow over its war with Ukraine and an attempt to address high fuel prices ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.
Trump said on social media on Friday that he struck the deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call in which he had been expected to discuss a suspected case of plague in Russia.
Instead, Trump announced that Russia will immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, followed by an additional 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons “immediately thereafter.” Russia will deliver an additional 3 million tons “within a short period of time” after that, he wrote.
Trump’s shocking announcement was in stark contrast to a sweeping Russia sanctions law he signed last month that aimed at clamping down on the oil and gas revenues that fuel Russia’s war against Ukraine.
In a lengthy post online reacting to the deal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia would repay it “with further terror and perfidy.” He cast it as an investment in the war, allowing it to be prolonged.
“It plays into Russia’s hands – allowing it to kill more, wage war for longer, have even less respect for America, and inflict even greater losses and damage on the world,” he said.
According to a statement released by the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, Zelenskyy called it “a weak decision, unfortunately, a weak decision by strong partners.”
Trump announced the deal as his envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were meeting with Ukrainian officials in Miami to discuss a proposal to end the war.
“I believe our team is simply being used as a smoke screen. And that is certainly not fair. It is certainly not how partners should treat each other,” Zelenskyy said.
