Trump Blocks Russia Sanctions as Ukraine Pays

United States President Donald Trump defended waivers blocking numerous sanctions on Russia, saying he wanted Moscow to stay at the bargaining table. He also accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of not wanting to end the war. The decision puts presidential bargaining power ahead of pressure on Moscow, even as people in Ukraine face attacks on energy sites and power cuts.

Zelenskyy said waiving sanctions “will hurt Ukraine.” In an interview on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, he said the move would strengthen Russian President Vladimir Putin's war effort. “We can't compare me and Putin. He's [an] aggressor. He occupied us. He killed adults and children, his soldiers. He's a terrorist, and that's why I hope that President Trump will be very clear with this position.”

Who Gets to Set the Terms

Trump made his case on Truth Social on Sunday, Oct. 18, after criticism of his decision to block numerous sanctions just before they were due to take effect. “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,” he wrote.

The decision has triggered significant diplomatic fallout between Trump and Zelenskyy over the past week. Meanwhile, the people living with the war's consequences aren't deciding which pressure to apply or remove. Russia and Ukraine continued striking each other's energy sites. Moscow's attacks left thousands without power, while Kyiv carried out the largest drone attack on Russia, in St Petersburg, since the war began.

Trump repeated his accusation that Zelenskyy didn't want the war to end. He said Kyiv was attacking diesel refineries in Russia despite knowing it was “seriously hurting the world diesel markets.” “Zelenskyy doesn't care, and frankly, with all of the money that Europe is famously giving him... he doesn't want to end this war, and probably never did,” Trump wrote. Those are Trump's claims, not established facts in the account of the dispute.

Fuel, Sanctions and Bargaining Power

On October 9, Trump announced plans for Russia to supply more than 300,000 metric tonnes of diesel to U.S. and global markets. He cited fuel prices that had risen since the United States and Israel launched a war on Iran in late February. The move led Tehran to effectively close the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of global energy exports had transited before the war.

Trump's embrace of Russian energy angered Kyiv, European partners and many U.S. officials. They said it rewarded Moscow while it continued its four-and-a-half-year war against Ukraine. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour in 2022. The sanctions dispute plays out through decisions made by presidents and officials; the article reports no grassroots organizing, mutual-aid effort or community-led response.

Zelenskyy said on X on Sunday that he had spoken with U.S. presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as part of “virtually non-stop communication” between the countries' teams about the “next steps in diplomacy.” “We are doing everything on our part to make this happen, and to ensure that America's position is strong and helps bring peace closer. Peace that everyone, except Russia, has been waiting for over the past four and a half years,” Zelenskyy wrote.

Diplomacy From the Top

The reported exchanges came as the two countries continued attacks on energy sites, leaving thousands in Russia without power. The source describes negotiations among presidents, envoys and national teams, not a public process in which people affected by the war set the terms.

Trump and Zelenskyy were pictured greeting each other at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on December 28, 2025. In the current dispute, Trump says sanctions relief is a bargaining tool; Zelenskyy says it will hurt Ukraine. Diplomacy keeps moving above the people living with its costs.