First Russian diesel shipment heads to US

A first tanker carrying Russian diesel to the United States under a new import agreement has set sail, the Kremlin said on Friday, two weeks after President Donald Trump said he struck a deal with President Vladimir Putin despite Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The first oil tanker has sailed off to customers, and regular supplies will continue,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said without elaborating. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said earlier this week that the first shipment would amount to 40,000 tons of diesel, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.

Marine intelligence firm Kpler said the vessel was signaling it was headed to New York to arrive November 7 and would be the first Russian diesel delivery to the United States since July 2023. The abrupt reversal of US sanctions policy on Russia over its invasion of its neighbor was seen as an attempt by Trump to address high fuel prices ahead of the midterm elections.

The diesel shipment of 40,000 tons amounts to around 300,000 barrels, or about 7 per cent of the roughly 4 million barrels of diesel the US economy consumes in a single day.

The import agreement, which Trump says foresees millions more tons of Russian diesel reaching the U.S. in coming months, is unlikely to make a dent in painfully high prices at the pump or elsewhere, energy policy experts say.

Russia’s diesel production has come under strain from repeated Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on its oil refineries. The attacks caused fuel shortages, which now have eased.  Trump last month asked Kyiv to stop the attacks. The US diesel decision caused alarm and dismay in Ukraine, which has pleaded with foreign countries to tighten sanctions on Moscow and deny it revenue for its invasion launched in February 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Trump’s decision “a weak decision by strong partners.”

The diesel agreement was a sudden policy reversal, coming just weeks after Trump signed into law a sweeping sanctions package that directed him to impose up to 100 per cent tariffs on the top five importers of Russian oil or natural gas. He later put the measures on hold. The development is the latest twist in the at times volatile relationship between Trump and Zelenskyy, which in recent weeks has reached a new low.

Meanwhile, Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, said  on Friday afternoon that all four Moscow airports —Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky - stopped flights arriving and departing for security reasons.

At Sheremetyevo airport, passengers were told to take shelter, Russian news agency Interfax reported. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that air defenses downed 17 Ukrainian drones targeting the Russian capital. Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war for the first time since August.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said each side released 270 prisoners. Ukraine said 270 of its soldiers and civilians were freed, most of them held in captivity since 2022.