The Russian authorities have reproached this Friday that the president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, continues ahead with the offensive against Russian refineries, despite the fact that his American counterpart, Donald Trump, has urged him to stop these attacks. The criticism comes amid debate over the controversial energy agreement between Washington and Moscow, which temporarily softens financial and trade sanctions on diesel.
"They have disobeyed once again and I would say that they are simply ignoring him. Although Trump has insisted on this issue and continues to do so, they are not paying attention to him," the presidential adviser on foreign policy, Yuri Ushakov, has censured in an interview for the Russian state radio Vesti, coinciding with the news of new attacks this same Friday.
Russian and Ukrainian media have reported a new drone attack against a refinery located in the Samara region, as well as against the facilities in Briansk of a canned-food company in charge of supplying food to the Russian Army.
The governor of Samara, Viacheslav Fedorishchev, has confirmed a drone attack on the region, without offering too many details, except that part of the devices would have been intercepted by anti-aircraft defense systems.
The affected refinery is located in the city of Novokuibishevsk and belongs to Rosneft, Russia's largest oil company. These facilities have already been attacked on previous occasions by Ukrainian forces, the most recent in mid-August.
Ushakov has attributed to Kiev's European allies the "bravery" of Zelenski when it comes to disregarding Trump and continuing with this campaign of attacks. "They certainly would not have dared to do it on their own," Vladimir Putin's adviser has assessed.
At the beginning of the month, Trump and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, announced an agreement to resume diesel shipments at least until April 2027, a pact that has generated the discomfort of Volodimir Zelenski. Washington has increased in recent weeks the pressure on Kiev to put an end to these attacks, even coming to restrict the supply of armament and technology.
This controversial understanding, closed in the final stretch toward the November 3 midterm elections in the United States, seeks to contain the rise in the price of diesel and, with this, moderate inflation, which hits hard key sectors of Trump's electorate, such as transport, agriculture and livestock farming.