Trump defends plan to import Russian diesel as bipartisan senators say it breaks 2022 ban, warn of aid to Putin

President Donald Trump defended a plan to import 300,000 tons of Russian diesel, saying he had an agreement with Vladimir Putin to "immediately" supply that fuel to American and global markets and asserting he would use the legal authorities at his disposal. Trump told Fox News he would proceed despite congressional objections, saying lawmakers who cite an older bill or the current Lindsey Graham bill as prohibiting the imports were wrong. The quantity Trump named — 300,000 tons — was presented as an immediate shipment to U.S. and international markets. A bipartisan group of senators — four Republicans and three Democrats — issued a joint statement calling on the administration to reverse the decision. The lawmakers said the White House did not consult Congress or provide an explanation, and they argued the move runs "directly counter" to a 2022 congressional ban on Russian energy imports. Their statement warned that U.S. purchases would hand Vladimir Putin a "financial lifeline" while, they said, "Russia continues to kill Ukrainian civilians."

The White House position, as described by Trump in his Fox News interview, is that existing legal authorities permit the imports; the senators presented their view as a legal and policy objection, saying the administration failed to seek congressional input. The senators framed their demand not only in legal terms but also on moral and strategic grounds, linking the proposed purchases to Russia's continued attacks in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, cited in the same reporting, said Russian strikes overnight and into the morning included attacks on energy facilities and that 33 people were wounded. The article contrasted Washington’s announced plan with actions in Europe: Kaja Kallas, the EU foreign policy chief, said European foreign ministers adopted nearly 1,600 new sanctions aimed at Russia's military-industrial complex, and Latvia's Baiba Braže said the EU position had "not changed."

The pushback from the bipartisan senators focuses on legal compliance and consultation with Congress, while Trump stressed executive authority to secure diesel supplies. The dispute pits the administration’s stated emergency purchase plan against congressional insistence that a 2022 law banning Russian energy imports prohibits such transactions, and against recent European sanctioning actions targeting Russia’s military-industrial sector. How the administration will respond to the senators’ demand and whether it will provide a formal legal rationale or reverse the plan remained central questions in the reporting. The core documented elements are Trump’s statement of an agreement for 300,000 tons of diesel, his claim of legal authority, the bipartisan senators’ written demand to reverse the decision, and the contemporaneous accounts of Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure and European sanctions activity.