President Trump has instructed Ukraine to cease attacking Russian refineries, arguing that the strikes are creating a diesel shortage, while at the same time Russia is stepping up its own assaults on Ukraine’s power grid in preparation for winter.
From Ireland, where he is taking in the Irish Open at one of his golf courses, Trump was questioned about whether he had talked with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after his recent exchange with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The U.S. president replied by urging Zelenskyy to stop the strikes against Russia.
“Mr. Zelensky has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,” Mr. Trump said. “Let him go after targets but not diesel fuel, because he’s causing a shortage of diesel fuel.”
Strikes Continue Overnight
Overnight, Russia and Ukraine launched waves of drone attacks against each other, while the U.S. president was speaking. These exchanges mark part of a wider intensification on both sides.
Local officials in Russia’s Tatarstan say two people died there. Ukrainian authorities said separately that Russian drones struck the Black Sea port of Odesa and caused a fire close to a border crossing with Poland.
Russia has ramped up its air campaign in recent weeks, using ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones to pierce Ukraine’s defenses. Moscow’s attacks have targeted Ukraine’s power grid ahead of winter, which officials say is meant to demoralize civilians.
Diplomatic Train Narrowly Escapes Strike
Trains carrying some of the West’s most important figures had just passed through when a Russian drone struck a train close to the Ukraine-Poland border. The attack was aimed at Ukraine’s rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia said in a statement that the strike hit the train’s engine at Yahodyn.
No casualties were reported after the Russian strike. All the passengers had been evacuated, Ukrainian authorities said. Russia said it struck “railway infrastructure” in western Ukraine.
“Quite possibly, the target of this drone could have been the diplomatic train, which had left the station earlier than expected because of the timetable change… due to constant threats of Russian strikes,” Ukrzaliznytsia said.
According to CBS News partner BBC News, Johnson, Petraeus and other European senior security advisers took the same train line on their return from a conference in Kyiv.
In a post on social media, Johnson denounced the assault as “random and senseless”.
“I don’t know what warped logic drove Putin to blow up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border this morning,” Johnson said. He asked, “When are we going to give them the air defences they need?”
Russia said Sunday it struck “railway infrastructure” in western Ukraine used to “transport military cargo” from Europe, Agence France-Presse reported.
“Strikes have continued on railway infrastructure in the western regions of Ukraine, which are used to transport military cargo from European countries,” Moscow’s defense ministry said in a statement.
Diesel Shortage and the War’s Reach
Ukraine’s recent long-range strikes have targeted Russia’s oil and gas industry, which Kyiv says funds and fuels its war on Ukraine. The Ukrainian drone campaign has caused fuel rationing across Russia, despite the country being a key oil and gas exporter.
The war came closer to the public when other Ukrainian strikes hit major Russian online retailers.
Ukrainian infrastructure keeps getting hit by Trump’s call for Ukraine to stop hitting diesel fuel comes as Russia”s own strikes. Each side is targeting the other’s industrial base, and both sides are issuing warnings about the fallout.
Peace Talks Remain Stalled
On Sunday, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, said that Moscow is willing to restart peace talks in the autumn involving 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.
Over the past weekend, American representatives Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow before traveling to Kyiv for a separate meeting with Zelenskyy. Even after these latest diplomatic exchanges, the two capitals’ fundamental positions still do not align, particularly regarding territory.
Kushner, who is Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, said Sunday that “territory is going to be the main issue, and, you know, that’s where the sides are still apart.”
“Our job as the mediator is to figure out how can we come up with a creative solution that doesn’t violate [Ukraine’s] desires and that helps them achieve, you know, their objective and does it in a way that we can get Russia to end the conflict in a way that hopefully, you know, allows both parties to move forward in a framework where this doesn’t happen again,” Kushner said.
Key Facts Box
- Diesel shortage: Trump cites Ukraine’s strikes on Russian refineries as the cause.
- Casualties: Two people killed in Tatarstan, per local officials.
- Train strike: Engine hit at Yahodyn; no casualties reported.
- Peace talks: Moscow open to restarting in autumn, October not ruled out.
- Diplomatic train: Passed through shortly before the strike.
- Power grid: Russia targets Ukraine’s ahead of winter.
What This Means
Trump’s remarks put the U.S. president in the position of telling one ally to stop striking another country’s fuel supply while that other country’s air campaign continues. The timing is awkward for Washington, which is also trying to broker talks between the two sides.
These walkouts are not unprecedented, but the way they are being presented to the public is. The railway stoppage adds an extra layer of strain. A diplomatic train barely escaped being struck, and the timing of the strike was close enough that Ukrzaliznytsia suggested it might have been the intended mark. That no one was reported killed brings little relief against the deaths in Tatarstan.
Neither side has shown much desire to move from their positions, and the difference between them remains wide, with territory being the main source of disagreement. The diplomatic effort keeps going, yet the distance between the two parties stays significant.
In both nations, the conflict has drawn closer to daily life, with Ukraine targeting online retailers while strikes on infrastructure hit train lines used by diplomats. The public has been drawn into the fighting.
See the video the story is built around at Cbsnews.