Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump on sidelines of UN General Assembly in New York, September 22, 2026

Saturday’s Coverage: Trump — Putin Is Selling Diesel Fuel to US

UPDATE 0734 GMT:

Western intelligence agencies are warning CEOs and other senior employees at defense companies that they are being targeted by Kremlin operatives, including efforts at assassination.

“Officials from five European intelligence agencies” spoke with the Financial Times about the plots as companies increase personal security around top executives.

Executives at smaller companies, especially those making drones or components, are also being targeted.

Sinan Selen, head of Germany’s domestic intelligence service BfV, told German legislators on Monday:

Russia is engaged in the deliberate planning of acts of violence against individuals by state or state-controlled actors. We are observing a further development of these actions in terms of the targets, the methods and the actors involved, including the use of organized crime structures.

An intelligence official said, “The main goal from the Russian perspective is still psychological. Just by making people feel they might be a target, they are having their effect. They want individuals to think twice before doing business with Ukraine.”

UPDATE 0714 GMT:

Sources say Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have offered the Kremlin up to $100 billion in unfrozen assets, in return for a partial ceasefire in Ukraine.

The offer is in addition to the $22 billion sale of the overseas assets of Russian energy giant Lukoil. The coalition of buyers is linked to Trump, Witkoff, and Kushner.

The envoys also reportedly proposed the lifting of sanctions on potash from Belarus.

UPDATE 0711 GMT:

Ukraine’s air defenses downed 94 of 116 drones, including 74 of 95 jet-powered UAVs, launched by Russia overnight. Strikes were recorded at seven locations.

Russian forces attacked Ukraine with strike drones from five directions overnight on October 11. Ukrainian air defenses managed to shoot down most of the enemy drones, but some strikes were recorded, the Ukrainian Air Force reports.

Overnight, Russian forces attacked Ukraine with 116 strike drones, including Shahed-type drones (95 of them jet-powered), Gerbera drones, and Parody decoy drones. They were launched from the directions of Orel, Kursk, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia, as well as the temporarily occupied Donetsk region and Hvardiiske in occupied Crimea.

According to preliminary data as of 8:30 a.m., Ukrainian air defenses had shot down or suppressed 94 enemy drones, including Shahed-type drones (74 of them jet-powered), Gerbera drones, and other types of unmanned aerial vehicles.

UPDATE 0703 GMT:

Following Donald Trump’s agreement to purchase fuel, the Russian Government has partially lifted its ban on diesel exports.

The Kremlin is permitting the sale of 500,000 tons of diesel to foreign markets.

Trump said the US will buy 300,000 tons in October.

The Russian ban was introduced in July amid Ukraine’s strikes on refineries.

UPDATE 0658 GMT:

An 11-year-old boy was murdered and five people injured, including two children, by Russian drone and missile attacks on the Dnipropetrovsk region in southeast Ukraine on Saturday.

The Russian attack on the Pokrovske community in the Nikopol district was one of more than 30 throughout the day with drones and artillery. Homes, a gas station, an ambulance, and infrastructure were damaged.

UPDATE 0654 GMT:

For the third time in four days, Ukraine has struck a data center of the Russian internet services company Yandex.

The center in the Vladimir region has been shut down completely.

“There are power interruptions in the ru-central1-a availability zone. The team is working to resolve the issue,” the company posted.

Ukraine struck centers in the Ryazan and Kaluga regions on Thursday and Friday.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Having undermined Ukraine’s resistance against Russia’s invasion with an agreement to buy Moscow’s diesel fuel, Donald Trump is calling for the replacement of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal because he could have made many deals and for some reason he never does,” Trump said.

Zelensky has criticized Friday’s statement by Trump effectively suspending US sanctions on Moscow, amid high diesel prices caused by the US War on Iran. He said of the happy birthday present for [Vladimir] Putin”: “It is certainly not honest, it is certainly unworthy of our partners, and it is, in my view, a weak decision.”

Trump made the comments as Russia murdered more Ukrainian civilians in airstrikes. In Zaporizhzhia city in southern Ukraine, 20 civilians were killed, including three children, and 18 injured by Russia’s bombing of a residential neighborhood early Saturday.

Russian attacks also cut power to much of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.

Zelensky responded on social media:

Today, Russia expressed its thanks for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia.

Last night confirmed once again that in Russia, they take any easing of pressure to mean they can keep fighting, to mean they can keep dropping bombs on cities. Different signals are needed.

European Support for Ukraine

European leaders reaffirmed support for Kyiv. European Union foreign policy head Kaja Kallas noted the diesel deal “provides Moscow with more revenues to wage war”: “This is not the time to ease pressure on Russia, and Europe won’t.”

Kallas said EU foreign ministers will add 1,600 individuals and entities to the sanctions blacklist on Monday.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson expressed “regret” as energy revenues are “a vital source of funding Russia’s war of aggression”. German Government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said Berlin “remains committed to the sanctions imposed on Russia and is working with its European partners on further sanctions”.

In a call with Zelensky, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he recognized that “the past 24 hours had been difficult for Ukraine” and reiterated “his complete solidarity”. The leaders discussed “the importance of maintaining pressure on Russia” with the UK continuing to “strengthen its sanctions on Russia and to take further action to constrain the Russian war machine”.

The leaders agreed to meet in person in the coming days.

Zelensky also spoke with Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre:

In contrast, Vladimir Putin’s chief financial advisor Kirill Dmitriev, who has manipulated Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner since spring 2025, said the call is “historic”.