Tech billionaire Elon Musk has lashed out at Vladimir Zelensky, siding with President Donald Trump, who has warned that Kiev’s continued attacks on Russian oil refineries are worsening a global fuel crisis and hurting American farmers.

Trump has also called for a change of leadership in Kiev, accusing Zelensky of repeatedly rejecting opportunities to end the conflict and deliberately ignoring Washington’s requests.

“We told him, do whatever you want, but don’t hit the diesel fuel, because there’s a big problem, a big shortage. And what does he do? He goes and hits the diesel fuel,” Trump told reporters outside the White House on Saturday. “He wants to make problems for the world… for our farmers, our ranchers, with diesel fuel.”

“Zelensky has gone too far,” Musk wrote on X on Sunday, directly responding to a White House video of the remarks, which were part of Trump’s broader criticism of Zelensky, including his suggestion that “it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.”

The latest spat erupted after Washington agreed to temporarily lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports following a phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, a move intended to ease a global fuel shortage that has pushed up prices in the US and elsewhere.

Trump reached a diesel deal with Putin after Zelensky ignored at least half a dozen requests from Washington to stop striking Russian refineries, according to Axios. Zelensky denounced Trump’s move as a “weak decision,”while Ukrainian negotiators left the talks in Miami a day early.

Musk’s criticism carries particular weight given Ukraine’s heavy dependence on Starlink, the satellite internet network operated by his company SpaceX. Since 2022, tens of thousands of Starlink terminals have become central to Kiev’s battlefield communications, drone operations and coordination between military units. A complete loss of Starlink access could severely disrupt those capabilities and potentially trigger a major battlefield crisis.

Musk has repeatedly called for a negotiated settlement between Moscow and Kiev, and resisted Kiev’s attempts to expand its use of Starlink for attacks on Russian territory. In 2022, Musk refused to activate the network near Crimea to support a Ukrainian strike on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, warning that doing so would make SpaceX complicit in a major escalation.

More recently, Zelensky personally appealed to Trump to persuade Musk to authorize Starlink-guided drone strikes deep inside Russia. He also sought a face-to-face meeting with the billionaire during a visit to Washington in July, but Musk refused, The Atlantic reported, citing a source familiar with the discussions.

“Elon keeps saying it’s time to make a deal,” an associate of former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov told the magazine.

In an apparent effort to court the billionaire’s favor, Zelensky awarded Musk the Order of Freedom, one of Ukraine’s highest state honors, in August, praising his contributions to protecting lives and strengthening Ukrainian-American relations.

https://www.rt.com/news/647036-musk-zelensky-gone-too-far/

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A Thimble for a Flood: Trump’s Russian Diesel Deal… Why the announced volumes barely register against the global distillate shortage

by Larry C. Johnson

On Friday night Donald Trump announced that, after a call with Vladimir Putin, Russia would ship diesel to the United States and world markets. Treasury followed with a temporary general license lifting sanctions on Russian diesel until April 2027. The President promised that diesel prices would fall “in record numbers” and “fast.” With the midterms three weeks away and diesel at $6.23 a gallon, up from about $3.67 a year ago and just off the record $6.52 set on September 22, I understand the political appeal. But when I put the numbers next to the size of the shortage, the deal is a rounding error.

According to Trump’s own post, Russia will supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel “immediately,” 500,000 tons in November, 1 million tons “immediately thereafter,” and a further 3 million tons “within a short period of time.” Converting at roughly 7.45 barrels per tonne, that comes to [NOT MUCH]....

.........

That money arrives when Moscow needs it. Russia’s budget was built on $59 Urals crude; in early 2026 Urals was selling in the mid-$40s to mid-$50s at deep discounts imposed by sanctions, and Bloomberg reported that, at those prices, the shortfall in oil and gas revenue would push the deficit to almost 2.2 trillion rubles, about $29 billion. On my numbers, the full diesel package alone would cover roughly a fifth to a quarter of that gap.

The sanctions relief is worth more than the announced tonnage. Treasury’s general license is not limited to fuel bound for the United States. It allows Russian diesel to be sold on the global market, and any cargo loaded while the license is in force is exempt from US sanctions until April 2027. That means:

• Every exportable barrel benefits, not just the announced tranches. Once Russia lifts its own export ban, all of its diesel can be sold openly for six months, not just the volumes in Trump’s post. If Russia exported even 0.5 million barrels a day over that period, a figure I use only for illustration, it would earn roughly $14 billion to $18 billion at the same prices.
• Smaller discounts. Sanctioned Russian crude sold at a discount of about $26.50 a barrel to Brent in February. Diesel sold legally to mainstream buyers, with conventional shipping and insurance, does not need to be discounted the same way. Each dollar of discount removed is a dollar more for Moscow.
• A crack in the sanctions wall. This is the first diesel license longer than the standard 30 days since the war began, and it comes weeks after Trump signed a law calling for tariffs of up to 100% on the biggest buyers of Russian oil and gas. Moscow and its customers will draw the obvious conclusion: US sanctions are negotiable, and enforcement of the new law is now in doubt.

This deal is politics, not supply. It gives the White House a talking point before the midterms and gives Moscow billions of dollars in hard currency plus a six-month sanctions reprieve it has sought since the war began, but it does not move the needle on the global diesel shortage. At best it offsets two weeks of a deficit that, on Miller’s assessment, will persist for years while the Gulf rebuilds. Lower pump prices, if they come, will come from demand destruction, stock draws or a reopened Strait of Hormuz, not from 35 million barrels of Russian diesel trickling in over the winter.

The larger cost is strategic. Easing sanctions for a volume this small hands Russia a financial lifeline for its war budget and trades away leverage over Moscow, and strains relations with Kyiv and Brussels, for a benefit that disappears in the noise of a 3 million barrel-a-day hole.

https://sonar21.com/a-thimble-for-a-flood-trumps-russian-diesel-deal-why-the-announced-volumes-barely-register-against-the-global-distillate-shortage/

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….