Zelensky hits Russian oil hub hours after he hit out at Trump for agreeing diesel import deal with Putin

DAILYMAIL.COM • 2h ago

By WILL STEWART 09:28 10 Oct 2026, updated 09:30 10 Oct 2026

A furious Volodymyr Zelensky hit a key Russian oil hub hours after Donald Trump blindsided him by striking a major diesel deal with Vladimir Putin.

And in the immediate aftermath of the Trump-Putin call, the Russian dictator staged a new strike on sleeping Ukrainian civilians in Zaporizhzhia killing at least three children, all girls, among seven dead, with ten wounded and ’16 missing’.

It brings the total to almost 90 civilians killed by Russia in three days.

A heartbroken woman, Natalia, said: ‘When I ran to my mother, she was still gasping for air.

‘She had fallen face down, and her entire face was shattered. I couldn’t reach her. There was debris everywhere.’

Her mother died in the brutal Putin air strike.

The diesel pact between Mr Trump and Mr Putin stunned Kyiv, with the Ukrainian leader accusing the US president of ‘weakness’ in caving in to Mr Putin.

But Mr Trump accused Mr Zelensky of ignoring six pleas to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries which were raising prices especially for diesel in the US ahead of midterm elections, according to a report by Axios.

How Strictly's Graeme Hall has landed in the doghouse: KATIE HIND4.6K viewing now Ukraine hit Russia’s Novoshakhtinsk oil terminal – a key export hub – overnight It came hours after relations between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky soured over a major diesel deal for Russia to supply diesel to ease US pump pricesTwisting the knife, Mr Putin’s foreign affairs aide Yury Ushakov said the one-and-a-half hour call with Mr Trump was so friendly ‘neither side wanted to hang up first’.

Mr Trump said he was ‘ready to continue communicating with Vladimir Putin this evening, through the night, and into the next day’.

Mr Zelensky hit back after admitting being blindsided by the US suspending sanctions to buy Russian diesel.

In devastating overnight strikes, he pummelled the key Yug Rusi oil-loading terminal in Rostov-on-Don, which handles petroleum products from the Novoshakhtinsk refinery.

There were fires at the key exporting hub with a 3.5 million ton annual capacity after a 50-drone swarm.

A linked railway bridge in Rostov-on-Don was also damaged, with traffic halted in both directions, and two ships in the Sea of Azov were reportedly attacked.

Ukrainian officials defiantly threatened to keep striking Russian oil facilities.

Hitting back at Mr Trump, Mr Zelensky said overnight: ‘Russia is weaker on the front lines than at any other time during the war. That is why Putin relies on terror.

‘That is why he relies on attempts to reach backroom deals for one concession or another, to buy more time and opportunities for the war.

‘Any weakening of sanctions against Russia without a clear and lasting de-escalation agreement with Russia is an obvious sign of weakness.’

There are now fears that there is serious damage to the fragile relations between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky.

A Ukrainian official claimed that during eight-hour US-Ukrainian talks in Miami on Friday, Mr Trump’s negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner threatened that America could cut off Ukraine from its lifeline intelligence if Mr Zelensky kept up strikes on Russian oil facilities, reported Axios.

This was denied by a US official who was quoted as saying: ‘Zelensky is misreading the room.

‘By continuing to hit refineries, he is eroding the good will that he has built with Trump over the last six months.’

The Ukrainian negotiating team left Miami early after the diesel deal was announced.

Mr Trump gave the Kremlin despot a lifeline with an estimated £3.4billion deal soon after Mr Putin’s aircraft was disrupted in its return to Moscow by a Ukrainian drone swarm around the Russian capital.

Russia immediately lifted its export curbs on diesel.

A Russian guided aerial bomb strike hit a five-storey residential apartment building in Zaporizhzhia at 5am.

In all more than two dozen residential buildings were damaged.

An entrance section collapsed amid reports of seven dead including three under-age girls – continuing a recent savage Russian pattern of targeting Ukrainian civilians with terror strikes.

Russian air defences shot down 560 Ukrainian drones overnight.

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