Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin claims he is ready for peace talks after Kyiv’s refinery strikes spark fuel shortages

President Trump “enjoyed the sport” of watching Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick clash in front of him, a new book claims.

Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump recounts a meeting to discuss a proposed minerals deal with Ukraine, ultimately announced in May last year.

“I’m not a big fan of Ukraine,” Trump said, according to authors and New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. “Except their women. They keep winning Miss Universe.”

Lutnick reportedly went on to tell the president Bessent had “screwed up” the deal with the war-torn European ally.

In response, Bessent is said to have looked at Lutnick’s own proposal and told him: “This is a s****y deal. You’re an idiot”.

Russia is considering ​a diesel export ban, deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said, while a newspaper reported on possible fuel imports to ‌tackle shortages, especially in Crimea, which tightened restrictions on public services and activities.

Speaking at a televised government meeting headed by Vladimir Putin yesterday, Novak said Russia was considering the introduction of a ban on ​diesel exports and changes to tax legislation to help the domestic fuel market.

The Vedomosti newspaper said imports were raised as an option at a meeting chaired by Novak on Monday.

Novak also said that oil companies had delayed maintenance work at refineries and were using fuel reserves to meet demand.

“We are using reserves that were not previously tapped, and are also encouraging increased supplies of additional volumes to the domestic market. Relevant amendments ​to tax legislation have been prepared in coordination with the government,” he said.

Russia is losing its war against Ukraine. Proof of this has come from Vladimir Putin himself, who has issued a desperate call for a return to peace talks while his oil refineries burn and his bridges to occupied territory are pounded by Kyiv’s missiles.

Russia’s president has been badly rattled; his airports are closed, his military logistics chain has dangerously snapped, and public support is waning for a war he started, and for which Russia’s national media can no longer generate artificial enthusiasm.

His minions have been whining that an agreement they believe was struck with Donald Trump at the Anchorage summit with Putin last year – giving Moscow colonial ownership of 20 per cent of Ukraine – has been abandoned by the US president as he prepares to meet Nato’s secretary general Mark Rutte.

Our world affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:

Ukraine has said its strategy of targeting Russian energy facilities with long-range drones is aimed at sapping a key source of Russia’s war funds and showing Russians the four-year conflict launched by Moscow is no longer distant.

Seeking to stabilise the domestic fuel market by boosting supply, Russian lawmakers on Wednesday approved amendments to the Tax Code that included allowing lower-quality fuel to be used in gasoline production and delaying certain equipment modernisation at refineries.

Both sides say they do not target civilians but thousands of civilians have been killed in Russian attacks in Ukraine and fatalities have also occurred in Russia.

Russian deputy prime minister Alexander Novak has ordered priority fuel deliveries to regions where logistics depend on seasonal factors, the Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday, citing the Russian government.

The move comes as many Russian regions face shortages of gasoline and diesel – something which has led to some fuel price increases and long queues at filling stations – after Ukrainian drone strikes on oil refineries.

Russia wants to know if Donald Trump has really changed his stance on the Ukraine war after French president Emmanuel Macron suggested at this month’s G7 summit that the US president had done so.

This is according to foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who said on Wednesday: “As far as Ukraine is concerned, we want to understand what happened in Evian.”

Macron, host of the G7 summit in the French town of Evian-les-Bains, said Trump had acknowledged during the talks there that Russia did not want peace in Ukraine and that this marked “a real change in approach” from the U.S.

Trump himself urged Russia to make peace with Ukraine after having what he described as a “very good” meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, comments that sparked cautious optimism among G7 leaders that a peace deal could be struck.

“As far as Ukraine is concerned, we want to understand what happened in Evian,” Lavrov said at an event in Moscow.

“The Americans haven’t yet told us what they took away from the summit in Evian or what their future course of action will be,” he said.

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte is visiting Washington DC today as part of the final preparations for the 7-8 July summit in Ankara, Nato spokesperson Allison Hart said.

The summit “will focus on how Allies are delivering on the commitments made last year at the Nato Summit in The Hague, including on increasing defence investment, expanding defence industrial production, and continuing support for Ukraine,” Hart said.

The Nato alliance is ​under unprecedented strain, with some European countries concerned that Washington may withdraw outright, which would be an extraordinary move that would ‌throw into question the future of the alliance.

Trump has in ⁠the past threatened to do that.

Rutte is also expected to meet with members of Congress. His visit comes amid claims from the US that there is an “unhealthy co-dependence” by Europe on American forces.

Still, Rutte has maintained strong ties with Pentagon officials, and Hegseth spoke warmly of his leadership at the Brussels event last week.

Ukrainian forces struck a major natural gas processing plant and two key satellite communications centers in their latest nighttime attack on Russia, Ukraine’s General Staff said Wednesday.

The operation was part of Ukraine’s aerial campaign targeting energy facilities and military industries that has intensified as Kyiv builds bigger and better long-range weapons to defeat Russia’s all-out invasion, now in its fifth year.

The overnight attack hit the Orenburg Gas Processing Plant, which is part of a complex that also houses the only helium plant in Russia, the General Staff said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app. The attack set the complex on fire, it said.