U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi led a team of congressional delegates on a recent trip to Kiev, Ukraine, to meet with President Volodmyr Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian leaders last week. The senator is now urging U.S. President Donald Trump to make a deal with Zelenskyy to stop Ukrainian strikes on Russian petroleum, which Trump has blamed for causing U.S. gas prices to rise.
Wicker, who is the chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, offered four facts in his plea to Trump.
“Fact 1: President Trump wants Ukraine to stop attacking Russian petroleum infrastructure,” Wicker wrote in an Oct 18 statement to Trump.
The Russian-Ukraine conflict has lingered for four-and-a-half years with no end in sight. Trump—who has gone back-and-forth on Zelenskyy in public—has turned critical of the Ukrainian president once again, blaming Zelenskyy for high diesel prices in the U.S. as well as accusing him of being a roadblock to a potential deal to end the war.
On Oct. 18, Ukraine attacked Russia with one of its largest drone strikes on the country this year, striking a key Russian oil facility, causing it to blow up in smoke and flames. Trump was furious with Zelenskyy for instigating the attack, saying on Truth Social that he did not want to do anything that would jeopardize Russia from making negotiations to end the war with Ukraine.
“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,” Trump wrote in the Oct. 18 post.
The president also said that farmers, ranchers and business owners are taking the hit from the Ukrainian strike on Russia.
“Farmers, ranchers, and businesses of all kinds are suffering greatly from this, but Russia is, nevertheless, sending, at a low price, millions of barrels of diesel to the World. Zelenskyy doesn’t care,” Trump added.
After Ukraine’s strikes on Russia, the country retaliated on Ukraine, attacking 28 substations and other “critical energy facilities,” and a strike in the Kharkiv region in a park near a café which killed six people, including two children, and injured six children and eight adults, Zelenskyy posted on X on Oct 19.
Russia also launched 16 ballistic missiles and more than 200 drones on Kiev and the surrounding regions around the same time. This attack damaged more than 10 energy infrastructure facilities, causing at least 500,000 families to lose power, Zelenskyy said on Oct. 19.
“Fact 2: President Zelenskyy wants access to U.S. targeting assistance to stop Russian missiles from being launched at Ukrainian civilians from inside Russia,” Wicker wrote in a statement to Trump. “Fact 3: President Zelenskyy has agreed not to hit Russian petroleum in exchange for this targeting assistance. Fact 4: President Trump can lower prices at the pump today by simply agreeing to this deal!”
On Oct. 9, Trump said the U.S. made an agreement with Russia to purchase diesel from it in a plan to attempt to lower global energy prices, uprooting years of pressure from the U.S. and the western part of the world for the Kremlin in Russia to end the war against Ukraine. Zelenskyy told Axios on Oct. 9 that this deal was “absolutely terrible” and “not fair and not honest.” Experts are also skeptical about the deal, noting any impact is likely to be limited because of the ongoing Iran War and the disruption of oil shipments in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s crucial energy chokepoints.
Trump signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 into law in September, a bipartisan bill that added several sanctions, duties and restrictions for Russia, slowing the influx of financial resources that Russia is using to fuel its war with Ukraine. Trump asked Congress to pause implementing the new law—which was set to go into effect on Oct. 18—in an executive order on Oct. 16, saying, “I have submitted to the Congress a certification that the issuance of such a waiver at this time is in the national interests of the United States.”
Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress heaped fresh criticism on Trump for the decision. But with both the House and Senate on recess until after Election Day, it is unlikely lawmakers will counter immediately.
The late Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was the main supporter of that law, which adds legal penalties to Russian officials, banks and its shadow fleet—a group of support vessels and tankers that use deceptive shipping practices to transport sanctioned or high-risk goods while hiding their true source, owner or destination.
The law also orders Trump to issue up to 100% tariffs on the five main importers of Russian oil and natural gas, giving an exception to countries that import less than 15% of Russia’s natural gas and are working to lower the number of imports they accept from the country.
“The American negotiating track will continue. We’re counting on them to put pressure on Putin, not on us. Otherwise, it’s simply unfair. … What matters is peace,” Zelenskyy posted on X on Oct. 17, saying he was willing and ready to meet in Ukraine or another European country or in the U.S. if Trump extends an invitation.
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