European and British officials were stunned by President Donald Trump’s unexpected announcement that he had made a deal with President Vladimir Putin to purchase Russian diesel fuel, which had been subject to U.S. sanctions. But they were in a bind on how to respond.

The arrangement, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine called “a gift” to Putin, directly undercuts years of effort by dozens of countries — including the United States — to cut Russia off from the money that fuels Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine.

Energy experts have said that the diesel agreement, if it goes ahead, could send some $4 billion of American money into the Russian economy.

Trump’s announcement Friday afternoon of his “highly successful discussion” with Putin was all the more shocking in Europe as it came after Russia conducted several brutal strikes in Ukraine, killing 22 people including three babies in an apartment block Wednesday and at least 30 people in a bus Thursday.

For European leaders, the dilemma over the past three days has been familiar: How to support Ukraine in a moment of acute diplomatic peril, without triggering Trump’s ire?

Complicating their response is the fact that Europe as a whole depended heavily on Russia for energy before 2022. And despite cutting purchases significantly since the invasion of Ukraine, several European nations continue to buy Russian natural gas — which does not yet face full sanctions — amid growing energy insecurity and limited supply.

Hungary and Slovakia, which have had pro-Russian governments in recent years, have continued to import Russian oil.

Both Trump and Russian officials highlighted the imports of Russian fuel to European nations over the past four years in the aftermath of the diesel announcement.

As European leaders scrambled for a response, they stopped short of directly criticizing the American president and coalesced around a single diplomatic message: We are not changing our own approach to Russia, and we stand by Ukraine.

On Saturday, Britain announced that Prime Minister Andy Burnham had spoken to Zelenskyy, noting that he had begun the call “by recognizing the last 24 hours had been difficult for Ukraine” — an oblique reference to Trump’s intervention — and had “reiterated his complete solidarity.” The statement added that Burnham would meet with Zelenskyy in the coming days.

A spokesperson for the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told reporters that the government was “standing by the sanctions decisions against Russia and is working together with its European partners on further sanctions.”

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, began her comments to reporters Monday with a conciliatory nod to the United States, before saying that the bloc was “continuing our path” of trying to keep Russia from enriching itself by blocking the sale of oil and gas on the global market.

“The U.S. is our biggest ally, but our message is clear,” she said while entering a meeting of foreign affairs ministers in Luxembourg. “If we want to end this war, the only way we can do this is by putting more pressure on Russia.”

Margus Tsahkna, the minister of foreign affairs for Estonia, was more blunt.

“We have had this kind of turbulence and also pressure from President Trump’s side to Ukraine before,” he said. “So we need to focus on what we can do.”

Trump responded to the European reaction on his TruthSocial site Monday afternoon.

“The European Union paid Russia 250 Billion Dollars for Energy, and the Fake News Media doesn’t want to get near that story,” the president wrote, possibly referring to European purchases of Russian oil since Russia invaded. “I made the right choice for the American People — ALWAYS, AMERICA FIRST!”

Since early 2022, the EU as a whole has imported 238 billion euros (about $266 billion) worth of Russian oil, coal and gas, according to a tracker led by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a research group.

But the bulk of those imports were in the first year after the war began, as Europe worked to cut its long-standing reliance on Russian energy. Since then, the bloc has imposed sanctions and implemented phaseouts, and the EU’s fossil fuel imports from Russia now stand at about 47 million euros of energy imports per day, a fraction of the nearly 800 million euros it imported on the peak day in 2022.

Russian natural gas, which is harder to replace than oil because of tight global supplies and because it is transported via pipelines or specialized terminals, has continued to flow to nations including Belgium, France and Spain. But Europe is tapering those remaining imports, and it is set to prohibit new long-term liquefied natural gas contracts from early next year.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Michael D. Shear and Jeanna Smialek/Alex Kent
c. 2026 The New York Times Company