Trump on diesel deal: Europe bought $250 billion in energy from Russia, I made "right choice"

US President Donald Trump responded to criticism of the diesel deal with Russia, reiterating his claim that the European Union had paid Russia $250 billion for energy.

He wrote this on his social media platform Truth Social, Censor.NET reports.

Trump defends the deal

"The European Union paid Russia 250 Billion Dollars for Energy, and the Fake News Media doesn’t want to get near that story," he wrote.

He then added: "I made the right choice for the American People — ALWAYS, AMERICA FIRST!"

Trump did not explain what period the figure covered.

Background

On October 9, US President Donald Trump said he had spoken with Russian dictator Putin and reached an agreement on Russian diesel supplies to US and global markets.
According to him, Russia would "immediately" supply more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel to US and global markets, another 500,000 tonnes during November, and a further one million tonnes "immediately after that."
The US Treasury Department announced that, at Trump’s direction, the Office of Foreign Assets Control was immediately issuing a temporary general license authorizing Russian diesel supplies to the global market.
In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called permission for Russia to sell petroleum products an "investment in war" and urged the US to hold firm talks with Moscow and impose sanctions under Lindsey Graham’s legislation.
Axios reported that, during talks in Miami, US presidential special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had allegedly warned the Ukrainian side that access to US intelligence could be cut off if Ukraine continued striking Russian oil refineries.
On October 11, President Zelenskyy said Ukraine would be ready to halt strikes on Russian refineries if Russia stopped attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
That same day, US President Donald Trump announced the start of an energy truce between Ukraine and Russia.
In comments to Axios, Zelenskyy said US President Donald Trump’s announcement of the start of an "energy truce" had come as a surprise to the Ukrainian side.
The president later said Ukraine was ready to refrain from striking Russia’s energy sector provided Russia took similar steps.