US senators urge Trump to drop Russian diesel deal, use Graham's sanctions law

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Oct. 13 called on U.S. President Donald Trump to rescind his deal to buy Russian diesel, joining other colleagues in Congress who lambasted the controversial agreement.

"This deal is a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies; it should be rescinded," says the letter signed by six Democratic and six Republican senators, including Democrat Richard Blumenthal and Republican Mitch McConnell, and shared with the Kyiv Independent.

The lawmakers instead urged Trump to deploy sanctions under the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham's law, which was passed in September and authorizes the president to impose up to a 100% tariff on the top five countries buying Russian gas and oil, among other measures.

"These authorities require you to apply economic pressure on Russia and the chief enablers of its war, in particular China," the senators wrote.

The news follows a deal announced Oct. 9 between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump, allowing Moscow to export diesel fuel to the U.S. and other markets despite sanctions imposed due to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. Treasury Department said that, following Trump's direction, "the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is immediately issuing a temporary general license to allow the supply of Russian diesel to the global market."

In response to the deal, the Russian government partially lifted the diesel export ban, permitting the sale of 500,000 metric tons of diesel to foreign markets, effective Oct. 10.

"Granting Moscow the ability to sell Russian diesel freely in global markets damages American security interests and is a betrayal of the people of Ukraine, who continue to defend themselves from Putin's murderous, illegal war," the letter read.

The agreement was announced as Trump ramps up pressure on Kyiv to halt attacks against Russian refineries as part of his unilaterally announced energy truce, with his administration threatening to cut off intelligence and arms shipments to Ukraine.

Ukraine has said it had paused attacks against Russian refineries, despite Russia continuing to strike the Ukrainian power grid, most recently overnight on Oct. 14.

In the letter, the senators said they recognize the need to lower energy costs for U.S. families, but warned that the Russian diesel deal will have a "negligible impact on fuel prices" while filling the Kremlin's war chest.

Earlier, on Oct. 11, seven bipartisan members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee released a statement condemning the decision, urging the White House to "immediately reverse course."