Russian attacks kill at least seven people in Ukraine after Trump-Putin diesel deal

Russian attacks kill at least seven people in Ukraine after Trump strikes diesel deal with Putin In short: At least seven people have died after Russian aerial bombs hit residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Saturday. The strikes came a day after US President Donald Trump announced a deal to buy Russian diesel, in stark contrast to sanctions he signed last month. What's next? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Mr Trump's deal with Russia would allow the war to be prolonged. Russian strikes have killed at least seven people in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, authorities say, as rescuers continue to search for more people under the rubble. Ukrainian national police said Russia had targeted residential neighbourhoods in the city with "five guided aerial bombs" early Saturday morning, hitting two residential buildings. At least ten other people were wounded in the attack, said Mykhailo Semikin, head of Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration. He said rescuers were continuing their search for people under the rubble. Russia and Ukraine are locked in a long-range aerial war while their armies remain largely deadlocked on the front line, more than four and a half years since Moscow's full-scale invasion. Ukraine is struggling to counter escalating Russian bombardments that have killed more than 55 people over the past four days, including in a bus stop attack that killed 33 people on Thursday. Trump's Russian diesel deal The latest attacks came a day after United States President Donald Trump said he had struck a deal to obtain diesel from Russia. The deal is a stunning reversal of years of US pressure on Moscow over its war with Ukraine, and an attempt to address high fuel prices ahead of the US midterm elections. Mr Trump said on social media on Friday that he struck the deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call in which he had been expected to discuss a suspected case of plague in Russia. Instead, Mr Trump announced that Russia will immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, followed by an additional 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons "immediately thereafter." Russia will deliver an additional 3 million tons "within a short period of time" after that, he wrote. Mr Trump's shocking announcement was in stark contrast to a sweeping Russia sanctions law he signed last month that aimed at clamping down on the oil and gas revenues that fuel Russia's war against Ukraine. Trump deal a 'weak decision', Zelenskyy says In a lengthy post online reacting to the deal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia would repay it "with further terror and perfidy." He cast it as an investment in the war, allowing it to be prolonged. "It plays into Russia's hands — allowing it to kill more, wage war for longer, have even less respect for America, and inflict even greater losses and damage on the world," he said. According to a statement released by the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, Mr Zelenskyy called it "a weak decision, unfortunately, a weak decision by strong partners". Diplomatic efforts mediated by the US to end the war have so far yielded no results. Mr Trump announced the deal as his envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were meeting with Ukrainian officials in Miami to discuss a proposal to end the war. "I believe our team is simply being used as a smoke screen, and that is certainly not fair. It is certainly not how partners should treat each other,"Mr Zelenskyy said. AP/Reuters/AFP