Trump slams Ukrainian strikes on energy sites as oil price spikes
US President Donald Trump has claimed his Ukrainian counterpart doesn’t want to end the war with Russia as both sides traded strikes on energy sites.
In a Truth Social post on Sunday (Monday AEDT), Trump hinted Volodymyr Zelenskyy was hampering US peace efforts to end the conflict that has been raging for more than four years.
Smoke billows into the sky following Ukrainian drone strikes on an industrial zone in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Sunday, October 18. AP
“My decision on Russia is a very simple one. I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table,” Trump wrote.
According to the US president, Russia and Ukraine have made “great progress,” particularly in talks on hostages. Trump did not specify who he was referring to.
Trump also wrote that in his view, Russia is providing Iran with far less aid than it could, and he wants things to stay that way.
Trump also claimed that Zelenskyy deliberately targets Russian oil refineries, knowing this impacts the global diesel market.
This was causing higher bowser prices for Americans, while Russian energy plants were supplying cheaper diesel to the world.
A car burns after a Russian airstrike on a residential neighbourhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Saturday, October 17. Kateryna Klochko
“Zelenskyy doesn’t care, and frankly, with all of the money that Europe is famously giving him, and that Crooked Joe Biden gave him in the past, he doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did,” Trump wrote.
Ukrainian strikes set an oil export terminal and a depot ablaze in St Petersburg on Sunday as Kyiv launched more than 1000 drones at Russia in one of its largest aerial attacks of the war.
Trump last Friday came under criticism from both sides of American politics for suspending new sanctions on Russia.
He defended the move on Truth Social, writing he doesn’t “want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table”.
It came as a new report in the Wall Street Journal claimed Putin had floated a summit with Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to negotiate a possible end to the war.
Global oil price highest since May
The latest verbal stoush between Trump and Zelenskyy comes after the price of Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, hit $US110 per barrel on Friday.
It was the first time it has climbed so high since May 20, less than three months after Israel and the US began the Iran war.
President Donald Trump, right, and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. AP
Financial markets have been worried about an uptick in attacks by Houthi rebels on oil-rich Saudi Arabia, and the reliability of Russian refineries to supply diesel.
Saudi Arabia’s armed forces intercepted a missile heading for the Red Sea port of Yanbu last week. Yanbu supplies 4 per cent of global oil demand pumped through the East-West pipeline.
Experts warn any successful strike on Yanbu would likely mirror the market reaction when an attack on the East‑West pipeline forced it to shut down in September, sending oil prices rocketing.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia in an investor update on Monday, warned unless a peace deal was achieved between the US and Iran and fighting ceased, there was a real risk of world oil prices hitting $US150 per barrel.
The CBA says it would trigger “uncontrolled demand destruction” .
Simply put, it is where high prices force lower demand for emerging Asian economies. This occurred in 2008 when Brent prices hit about $US148.
What oil price spike means for Australia
Turbulent global prices are proving a major headache for the Reserve Bank of Australia, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.
Inflation, stuck 2 to 3 per cent above the central bank’s target range, shows no signs of falling with the ongoing Middle East war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The cost of living will be centre stage when the RBA board holds two crucial meetings in November and December.
Sources from the RBA, not authorised to speak publicly, are concerned global oil prices show no sign of falling as the war spreads to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf of Aden.
The jump in oil prices has played havoc with RBA forecasts, which were based on them being as much as $US20 a barrel lower. The forecasts are due to be updated in November.
The world price of diesel – essential for transport, manufacturing and agriculture – is back to levels when the Russia-Ukraine conflict erupted in February 2022.
The spike in August petrol prices was responsible for Australian inflation rising by 0.4 per cent that month.
Without the fuel crisis, the cost of living would have dropped.
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