Russian diesel tankers divert as Trump-Putin deal fails to deliver US cargoes
At least three tankers carrying Russian diesel have changed course after a deal between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to deliver cargoes to the United States. The shipments were meant to reach the American market under an October agreement, but none has arrived so far. The latest vessel-tracking data suggests the plan is now under strain.
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The supplied report says buyers are worried about legal exposure because Congress's ban on Russian energy imports remains in place. It adds that Russia has sent out four diesel tankers since the deal was agreed, with the Talisman and the Sierra Leone-flagged Leruo both leaving Primorsk last month for the US East Coast. One vessel is now heading toward Brazil, another toward the Mediterranean, and a third has switched from New York to a destination listed as "for orders".
The report also says a sanctioned tanker called Beast, loaded at Primorsk in late October, is still signalling "Atlantic" and appears to be heading toward the United States. Even so, the overall picture is one of delay and diversion rather than delivery. The article says US diesel prices have nearly doubled since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran, which helps explain why the agreement drew attention in the first place.
The episode matters because it sits at the intersection of energy trade, sanctions policy and US-Russia diplomacy. Trump announced the arrangement after a call with Putin on October 9, saying Russia would make more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel available immediately, followed by 500,000 tonnes in November and then 1 million tonnes after that. The deal was also described as allowing Russian diesel to be sold, delivered, unloaded and imported until April 7, despite the long-standing US ban on Russian energy imports after Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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The report says the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control has since issued a temporary sanctions exemption, but that has not removed concern among traders. It also notes that the arrangement reversed years of US policy and drew criticism from a cross-party group. That makes the shipments politically sensitive as well as commercially unusual, especially given the scale of the promised volumes and the fact that long-range product tankers can carry about 100,000 tonnes each.
What remains unclear is whether any of the vessels will still unload in the United States or whether the cargoes will be sold elsewhere. It is also not clear whether the exemption will be enough to overcome legal and commercial hesitation among buyers. The next developments to watch are the final destinations of the tankers and whether Washington or Moscow gives a fuller explanation of how the agreement is being implemented.
The first tankers scheduled to deliver Russian diesel to the United States under a deal between President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin have changed course and are no longer heading toward the American coast. The development appears to mark the collapse of an agreement that was announced with fanfare before the midterm elections. It also raises fresh questions about whether the politically sensitive fuel arrangement can still be salvaged.
The tanker Agioi Fanendes, which is carrying 40,000 metric tons of diesel, is among the vessels linked to the plan. It was described as the last chance for the deal to come to fruition, after the agreement was reached last month ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. The arrangement was presented at a time of high fuel prices and a cost-of-living crisis in the United States, making it politically significant as well as commercially unusual.
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The Talisman, a tanker on international sanctions lists, left the St. Petersburg area on October 22, according to the supplied report. After passing through the English Channel, it turned south, skirted the Bay of Biscay and the Portuguese coast, and then entered the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar.
A third vessel, the Leruo, is still crossing the Atlantic but is now listed as heading to Brazil rather than the United States. The reported change in course matters because the deal was meant to deliver a visible result at a moment of domestic political pressure in the United States. The agreement was announced before the midterms, when fuel costs were a major issue for voters, and it was intended to ease pressure on the White House.
Instead, the Republicans suffered a heavy defeat, with Democrats winning across the country, according to the supplied account. The episode also has wider significance because it touches on sanctions, energy trade and the state of US-Russia relations. Russian diesel shipments to the United States would have been notable in their own right, given years of pressure on Moscow over the war in Ukraine.
The fact that the tankers are now changing destination suggests that commercial, political and legal constraints may be overtaking the original plan. Moscow has rejected the reporting as false. Kirill Dmitriev, a Kremlin envoy and negotiator, said on Thursday that tankers destined for the United States were continuing on course, while Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin's spokesman, described the matter as commercial and said it could not be made public.
He added that all diesel would find buyers, indicating that the cargo may still be sold elsewhere even if the US route is abandoned. The timing is also notable because Trump met Dmitriev at the White House on Thursday, while the Kremlin envoy was in the United States for an event with first lady Melania Trump ahead of planned talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations. That sequence underlines how the diesel issue sits alongside broader diplomatic contacts, even as the shipment plan itself appears to be faltering.
It also shows how quickly a trade arrangement can become entangled with wider political negotiations. What remains unclear is whether any of the three tankers will ultimately deliver diesel to the United States, and whether the deal can be revived in another form. The reported destination changes suggest the original plan is no longer intact, but the final commercial outcome has not been confirmed.
The next developments to watch are whether the vessels continue toward alternative buyers and whether either government offers a more detailed explanation of the arrangement's collapse.
