First Russian diesel shipment since 2023 sails for New York

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Retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro discusses President Donald Trump's diesel deal with Russia as a tanker heads to the US on 'America Reports.' foxbusiness.com

A person is seen grabbing the nozzle for diesel fuel at a gas station. foxbusiness.com

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens during a meeting at the Kremlin foxbusiness.com

President Trump delivers remarks at Florida rally foxbusiness.com

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A tanker carrying 40,000 tons of Russian diesel has left for New York, the first Russian diesel delivered to the United States since 2023. "The first oil tanker has sailed off to customers, and regular supplies will continue," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

The cargo executes the fuel deal Donald Trump reached with Vladimir Putin after an October 9 discussion. By Trump's account, Putin agreed to release more than 300,000 tons of diesel immediately, another 500,000 tons during November and a million tons thereafter — three million tons in all once the condition of Russia's refineries is factored in, Trump wrote on Truth Social. To make the shipments lawful, Trump waived most sanctions on Russia and on buyers of Russian fuel under the Graham Act, the sanctions regime backed by the late senator Lindsey Graham.

American diesel had passed $6 a gallon, and Trump had been under pressure from Republicans to bring prices down before the midterms. Lower costs for "farmers, ranchers, and truckers," he wrote, is his "Greatest Priority." The same statement declared that the US has "TOTAL CONTROL of the Strait of Hormuz" — the waterway where attacks claimed by Iran left tankers burning this week — and predicted that prices would fall "in record numbers, and fast."

Retired Marine Corps major general Arnold Punaro did the arithmetic on Fox News: 40,000 tons covers a "couple of hours" of American diesel consumption. The cargo itself is a gesture. The substance of the deal is the waiver — a sanctions statute set aside by executive arrangement, and a government that punished others for buying Russian fuel now buying it itself.

Punaro noted that the day before he spoke, Russia's military had carried out a ballistic missile attack on Kyiv that killed women and children and knocked out Ukraine's energy grid. The diesel supplier and the missile launcher are the same state. Putin's aim, Punaro said, is to recover the territory of the former Soviet Union: "He was never going to stop with Ukraine. That's why we've got to stop him in Ukraine."

The first tanker carried a couple of hours' worth of American diesel use. Regular supplies, Peskov said, will continue.