Trump says Putin will release diesel fuel onto global market amid unprecedented price surge

President Donald Trump said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will “immediately” release hundreds of thousands of tons of diesel fuel into the global market, arguing it would help bring diesel prices down. Trump made the announcement on Truth Social, but said it was not immediately clear how the move would work given the wide-ranging sanctions imposed on Russia since its illegal invasion of Ukraine. The context is a sharp fuel-cost squeeze: since the start of the Iran war in February, diesel prices have surged nearly 70%, and economists warn these increases could drive broader inflation worldwide. Escalations in the Russia-Ukraine war have pushed diesel to repeated all-time record levels for weeks.