Putin says first Russian diesel tanker sails for U.S. in 2-3 days
The cargo will be 40 000 metric tons, about 13% of what Trump promised as an immediate shipment, and the contracts are still unsigned.
The first ship carrying Russian diesel to the United States will sail "in two or three days," Vladimir Putin said Wednesday as he received U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg. That corrects Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who had spoken of a Thursday, Oct. 22, departure.
The cargo will be 40 000 metric tons, with more ships to follow, Putin said. Financial arrangements have to be settled first for the shipments to work, he added, without giving details. He did not name the departure port or an arrival date.
That is about 13% of the 300 000 tons Trump announced Oct. 9 as an immediate shipment.
The contracts remain unsigned. Novak described them as in their final phase, but on Oct. 14 Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, had promised they would be signed "in the coming days." The delivery schedule adds up to 300 000 tons for October, then 500 000 for November and up to one million in December.
To Vladyslav Vlasiuk, Ukraine's sanctions envoy, a ship that size is a "rounding error for the market": it would cover less than two hours of U.S. diesel consumption.
The deal, which Trump announced on Truth Social, has already drawn criticism from lawmakers of both parties and from Zelenskyy.
On Putin's timeline, the first ship would sail between Oct. 23 and 24.
