KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian strikes killed at least 15 people in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, Ukrainian 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 those killed when Russian aerial bombs hit residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine's State Emergency Service 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 60 people over the past four days.
Trump said Friday 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.
“Today, Russia expressed its thanks for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote Saturday on X.
He said the attacks show Moscow understands “any easing of pressure to mean they can keep fighting, to mean they can keep dropping bombs on cities," adding that “different signals are needed.”
Trump had been set to discuss a suspected case of plague in Russia with President Vladimir Putin in a phone call.
Instead, the American leader announced Friday 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.
In Kyiv, people gathered at a memorial to fallen soldiers on Independence Square greeted the deal with a mix of anger and resignation.
“Trump has once again shown his true face,” said Oleksandr Petrenko, 26. “He didn’t care about the situation, the shelling or the destruction of our homes. All he’s interested in is oil or the fuel prices and how much Americans have to pay.”
“Knowing Trump, he tries to manipulate the markets. He’s got an election coming up soon,” Petrenko said. “So he needs to emphasize to his voters that gasoline will be cheap. But it won’t be effective.”
For Oksana Yakunina, a financial adviser from Kropyvnytskyi, the announcement “didn’t really come as a surprise.”
“Trump has been working with Putin for a long time,” she told The Associated Press.
Trump’s 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 on Friday, Zelenskyy said Russia would repay it “with further terror and perfidy.” He framed it as an investment in the war that could prolong it.
“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 met 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.
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Associated Press journalist Bela Szandelzsky in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
