"Zelenskyy has gone too far," Musk backed Trump on Ukraine’s strikes against Russian oil refineries
American billionaire Elon Musk has sided with US President Donald Trump, who is insisting that Ukraine cease its attacks on Russian oil refineries.
This was reported by Censor.NET, citing a post by Musk on the social media platform X.
He has reposted a video in which Trump criticises the Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally.
What does Trump say?
"We said: you can do whatever you want with Russia, but don’t strike oil refineries, because that creates a global problem, and he wants to cause problems for the whole world. He wants to cause problems for our farmers over diesel fuel, because Russia supplies a significant proportion of it to the global market. We told them: do whatever you want, but don’t strike facilities linked to diesel fuel, because that creates a major problem, a major danger. And what does he do? He goes and strikes these facilities. He’d better, for God’s sake, stop," Trump says in the video.
Musk’s reaction
"Zelenskyy has gone too far," Musk comments on the video.
What led up to this?
- On 9 October, US President Donald Trump stated that he had held talks with Russian dictator Putin, with whom he had agreed on the supply of diesel fuel from Russia to US and global markets.
- According to him, Russia will "immediately" supply over 300,000 tonnes of diesel to the US and global markets, a further 500,000 tonnes in November, and another million tonnes "immediately afterwards".
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The US Treasury Department announced that, on Trump’s instructions, the Office of Foreign Assets Control is immediately issuing a temporary general licence to permit the supply of Russian diesel fuel to the global market.
- In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Russia’s authorisation to sell petroleum products as an "investment in war" and called on the US to hold firm talks with Moscow and impose sanctions under the Lindsey Graham Act.
- It should be recalled that, against the backdrop of Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries, the Russian authorities have repeatedly extended the ban on diesel fuel exports until at least the end of October.
- The US President has publicly stated that Ukraine must cease its strikes on the Russian energy sector, as this, he claims, is leading to a diesel fuel shortage. According to him, the shortage has arisen precisely because of the war in Ukraine, and not because of the US war against Iran.
- Similar statements have been made by other US politicians. For instance, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Ukrainian strikes on the Russian energy sector were causing an energy crisis. He cited the war with Iran as the second cause of the crisis.
