Seven Republican and Democratic US senators signed a statement calling for US President Donald Trump to “immediately reverse course” on a plan to lift sanctions and purchase diesel from Russia as part of his effort to lower fuel prices for Americans, the Associated Press reported on Sunday.
The bipartisan group of senators pointed out that Congress passed a ban on all energy imports from Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 to “prevent American dollars from financing Putin’s brutal war against Ukraine.”
“Congress was clear: the US should not import oil from Russia until it ends its aggression against Ukraine and ceases threats against our NATO Allies,” the senators said in reference to the sanctions on Russian energy.
“President Trump’s decision to allow Russian diesel imports to the US runs directly counter to that law,” the senators said, referring to US sanctions on Russian energy.
In the senators’ statement, they claimed Trump’s administration "failed to consult with Congress or submit any explanation to justify its decision as required by statute."
“The United States should not provide Putin with a financial lifeline while Russia continues to kill Ukrainian civilians. The Administration must immediately reverse course,” they wrote.
Republican Senators call into question the legality of Trump's deal with Putin
Trump announced on Friday that Putin agreed to “immediately supply” more than 300,000 tons of diesel to global energy markets, with another 500,000 tons to be supplied by November.
Republican Senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina, along with Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and John Curtis of Utah, said in their statement that the deal with Russia would have “deadly consequences” by “giving Vladimir Putin any sense that we’re going to put our foot on the brakes versus put our foot on the accelerator to end this war and ensuring peace in Europe.”
Tillis told NBC’s Meet the Press that he believes there is a legitimate case for saying Trump did not follow the law if the deal with Russia goes through.
“We were very clear that Russia is the aggressor. Russia is the one who can end this war by backing out of territory that they occupied,” Tillis said.
Diesel deal follows bill passed to further isolate Russian energy market
Congress passed a bipartisan bill in September, spearheaded by the late Senator Lindsey Graham, to impose heavy sanctions on countries that import energy from Russia.
Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming said, “The president is balancing and has to make tough decisions… This is just another point of leverage for the president to use against Putin in an effort to get a long-term solution in that part of the world,” in an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued that Trump was acting within his legal mandate as president to cut the deal with Russia.
“President Trump came into office with a mandate to work for the American people, and this is good for the American people,” he said in an interview with Fox News.
Richard Nephew, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, told the Associated Press that the total amount of diesel Russia would release under the deal would be less than what the US uses in a day.
Trump has recently pinned rising diesel costs on Ukrainian strikes targeting Russian energy facilities.
“Ukrainian attacks are worsening diesel shortages and hurting farmers in the United States,” the president said.
On Sunday, Trump said Ukraine and Russia had agreed to an “energy ceasefire.” However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Axios that the ceasefire “was news for me.”