The tanker Agioi Fanendes, carrying about 40,000 tons of Russian diesel, has been zigzagging some 400 nautical miles off New York since 9 November after turning away from the US coast, Bloomberg reported. By 10 November it had come to a halt, Reuters reported. Its Greek manager, Eastmed, told Reuters the ship was “still awaiting orders.”

The tanker left Russia in late October under the diesel deal that Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin struck on 9 October. Unlike Talisman and Leruo, the first two tankers to turn away, it is not sanctioned, tracker Windward noted. Yet Vortexa analyst Ellie Valencia told Reuters that its slowdown most likely means it “doesn’t yet have a specific buyer.” On 10 November, Energy Secretary Chris Wright was asked whether that worried him. “Not at all,” he said, adding that the cargo would “go to another port.” The deal was sold as relief at the pump, yet a month later no Russian diesel has reached the US, according to tracking data cited by Bloomberg.

Warnings before the halt

The ship had been due in New York on 7 November, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters. Earlier, on 27 October, Senator Richard Blumenthal demanded that its owner recall it. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill argued that the administration could not override the 2022 ban on Russian energy imports, AP reported. The Treasury, however, told AP that its license complies with all applicable laws.

“It’s clear there’s hesitancy here in bringing these barrels onshore just because of the implications of doing so,” Kpler analyst Matt Smith told AP.

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By Euromaidan Press’s tracking, the Agioi Fanendes is the sixth tanker to turn away from the US. Two of the earlier five, Hanna and Manta, were on a Ukrainian monitor’s list of tankers that could be US-bound.

Moscow insists, supply may shrink

On 5 November, Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev claimed on X that reports of diversions were “fake” and that “tankers destined for the US continue on course.”

Meanwhile, Bloomberg counts six Russian refineries attacked since early November. On 30 October, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak claimed that such attacks could push diesel exports below the 2.1 million tons planned for November, though only slightly, Interfax reported.

A fleet of Russian diesel tankers is steaming toward American ports. Kyiv is tracking eight ships carrying more than 300,000 tons of fuel, likely bound for the US. Seven of them already name US ports as their destination, Ukrainian government sources told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

The cargo is the first wave of Trump’s deal to pump Russian diesel back into the US market. At the same time, shipments test whether a president can reopen a tap Congress sealed in 2022, with New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill threatening to turn the ships away, bipartisan senators calling the imports illegal.

Eight ships, four under sanctions

The tankers loaded mostly at the Baltic port of Primorsk in October and are due in the US between 7 and 18 November, the sources said.

Four of them, the Leruo, Primorye, Manta, and Feliks, are already under EU, UK, and Ukrainian sanctions. The eighth, the Greek-flagged Athina M., appears to be making the same run.

President Donald Trump has said he agreed with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on a three-month supply of millions of tons of Russian diesel for the US and world markets.

US groups track 13, and one turns back

Two US advocacy groups, the American Coalition for Ukraine and Razom for Ukraine, say they are tracking 13 vessels that could deliver Russian diesel to American ports this week. They flagged two as the likeliest carriers.

The Taurus idled near the Port of Wilmington, North Carolina, on 1 November, then turned back out to sea the next day with no sign it had unloaded.

The Agioi Fanendes, carrying an estimated 35,700 to 40,000 tons of ultra-low-sulfur Russian diesel, is crossing the Atlantic westward with an expected arrival on 7 November, though the groups say they have found no US buyer or terminal for it.

A governor and a 2022 law

Meanwhile, New Jersey Governor Sherrill has warned port and terminal operators on 2 November that taking in Russian diesel could break federal law and expose them to civil and criminal penalties, saying neither Trump nor Treasury officials have the authority to override Congress’s April 2022 ban on Russian energy imports.

At the center of the fight is a clash between that 2022 law and the Treasury’s General License 135, issued on 9 October, which permits Russian-origin diesel transactions, including imports, until 7 April 2027. The 2022 Act allows the ban to be lifted only if the president certifies that Russia has agreed to withdraw its troops and halt the fighting, with a 90-day window for Congress to block the move.

A bipartisan group of senators, among them Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Thom Tillis, and John Curtis, says the imports violate the law, and Tillis said Trump was “possibly” breaching the ban. The White House defends the deal as a way to boost supply and lower fuel prices for Americans.

“Absurd in every sense”

Critics say the economics do not hold up. The diesel deal is absurd in every sense of the word, said Yevhen Honcharov, policy director at the American Coalition for Ukraine, noting that the US is itself a diesel exporter and that the imports would not cut prices for American consumers while funneling revenue to Moscow.

John Herbst, a former US ambassador to Ukraine now at the Atlantic Council, expects the fuel to arrive unless a new obstacle appears, but warned that buyers could face lawsuits under the 2022 law even with the administration’s blessing.

This is a serious political mistake, because the real interests of the US lie in defeating Russian aggression in Ukraine. Trump's diesel deal, in his view, makes it easier for Putin to continue that aggression, he said, adding that the episode feeds doubts in Kyiv and European capitals about Washington’s reliability.

Some European diplomats in Seoul are weighing whether they can still trust South Korea as a like-minded partner if it grows closer to Russia, the Financial Times reported on 28 October, according to South Korea’s Financial News. One European diplomat also told the FT that Seoul wants to resume trade with Russia as soon as the war ends.

As Russia presses its war against Ukraine, Kyiv’s partners count on each other to keep up the pressure on Moscow. The doubts about South Korea now come from its European partners, not only from Kyiv. The report lands eight days after Seoul said it would withdraw about half its staff from Kyiv over a dispute about two North Korean prisoners of war.

An Arctic voyage, a new adviser, and signals from Moscow

According to the FT, European diplomats saw a South Korean pilot voyage along Russia’s Arctic sea route as a sign of a tilt toward Russia, since the voyage required extensive cooperation from Moscow.

Meanwhile, on 1 October, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung appointed Song Young-gil, a six-term lawmaker and former chair of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, as his special adviser on peace diplomacy. Song once served as a special envoy to Russia, the FT noted.

On 20 October, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said Seoul had signaled it wants to normalize relations but says full normalization can come only after a change in the geopolitical situation, which he said means the end of the war in Ukraine.

Fuel for Russia loaded at South Korean ports, but Seoul denies direct exports

The FT also cited reports of fuel shipments to Russia. A Guardian analysis published on 6 October found that more than 176,000 tons of fuel, mostly diesel, were loaded at South Korean ports in July and August. The fuel went onto seven tankers bound for Russia’s Far East, three of them under UK and EU sanctions. The Guardian said the trade does not appear to breach South Korean law.

On 8 October, South Korea’s foreign and trade ministries and customs service said no diesel, jet fuel, or gasoline had been exported to Russia through customs. They said they would examine the tankers’ routes and any divergence from their declared destinations before judging whether the law had been broken.

Ukraine’s sanctions commissioner Vladyslav Vlasiuk said the shipments helped Russia offset refinery losses caused by Ukrainian strikes. South Korea’s presidential office called the claim inaccurate and inappropriate, saying the key facts of the transactions had not been verified.

Seoul rejects the criticism

In a statement to the FT, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said concerns in some quarters that the country was leaning too far toward Russia were not based on fact. It added that Seoul supports international efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

Seoul cuts its Kyiv embassy staff over the POW dispute

At the same time, relations with Ukraine have deteriorated over the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea, which Zelenskyy disclosed at the UN General Assembly in September. Seoul says the disclosure broke a confidentiality understanding. Dmytro Lytvyn, Zelenskyy’s communications adviser, wrote in a Facebook comment on 25 September that “there was no such agreement.”

On 20 October, Seoul said it would withdraw roughly half its diplomatic staff from Kyiv, citing Kyiv’s failure to take “positive steps” on the POW dispute and continued Russian airstrikes, Yonhap reported. A chargé d’affaires and all consular staff will stay.

Investors who buy idle sanctioned tankers and refit them could put the ships back into legal oil trade, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on 19 October, Bloomberg reported. He laid out the plan five days after a US official described it to Reuters.

That official said the aim was to cut record tanker freight rates. The Energy Department added that any relief would not help Russia move its oil. The plan comes weeks before the 3 November midterms, with voters worried about fuel costs after gasoline and diesel prices surged in the Mideast conflict. Yet the shadow fleet is also how Russia sells oil past sanctions, and those sales fund its war against Ukraine. In December 2025, Ukraine’s foreign intelligence counted more than 1,100 tankers serving Russia alone, 226 of them under US sanctions.

An approval process Wright didn’t detail

Many sanctioned tankers sit idle, Wright told Bloomberg’s Annmarie Hordern, and buyers keep approaching the administration offering to fix them up and carry only legal oil.

“We’re going to move some of the ships from what I call the ‘bad-guy fleet’ to the ‘good-guy fleet,’” he said. “They will not carry sanctioned oil anymore.”

The ships must go through an approval process, Wright said, but he gave no criteria. He insisted “there is no removing of sanctions.”

He put the global dark fleet at about 1,600 ships, a count covering vessels that hauled Venezuelan, Iranian, and Russian oil. Dozens or even hundreds could turn legitimate, he said. The ships are no longer needed for Venezuelan oil, Wright said, and no Iranian oil is moving. Russian oil exports, he added, “are certainly not growing.”

Diesel, a waiver, and the tankers

Earlier, on 9 October, the Treasury issued General License 135, allowing some deals in Russian diesel until 7 April 2027. On 16 October, US President Donald Trump waived sanctions and tariffs under the Graham Act, leaving earlier sanctions intact. That law had directed him to review and sanction shadow-fleet vessels. Trump defended the waiver as a way to keep Moscow at the negotiating table.

House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News host Larry Kudlow on 18 October that he had asked the White House team to “carefully consider the unintended consequences,” The Hill reported. He added that he thought “the right decision will be made” in the end.

The Trump administration is weighing looser sanctions on shadow fleet tankers that have hauled oil from Russia, Iran, and Venezuela, a US official said on 14 October, Reuters reported. An industry research group expects the change to do little for freight rates.

With Reuters calling high fuel prices a risk for Trump before the 3 November midterms, Washington has already eased sanctions on Russian oil and diesel this year and is now looking at the ships blacklisted for hauling sanctioned cargoes. In March, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a waiver on Russian oil at sea would bring Moscow no significant financial benefit, yet Russia’s seaborne oil income jumped by $890 million in the week to 15 March, Bloomberg data showed.

“Legal oil” on blacklisted ships

The talks center on letting “legal oil” sail on previously sanctioned vessels, the official said. Only crude or fuel free of US sanctions would qualify, not Russian or Iranian oil. Washington wants more crude and refined products moving out of the Gulf, the official added. Companies would need US Treasury approval to use the ships.

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Research group Energy Aspects said US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, in a video to the World Petroleum Congress in Riyadh, tied the easing to record freight rates. Those rates hit records after the Iran and Ukraine wars drove up inflation and left US crude too costly for Asian refiners, Reuters said. Energy Aspects itself expects the easing to do little for freight rates, since most tankers sanctioned over Russian or Venezuelan links have kept trading for the past three months.

The Energy Department said any relief would do nothing to help Russia ship its oil or refined products. Treasury referred questions to the Energy Department. Yet Reuters noted that both departments could face pressure to let these vessels carry Russian diesel, given Trump’s push to get it onto world markets fast.

Britain is pushing the other way. UK finance minister John Healey urged counterparts at International Monetary Fund meetings in Bangkok on 15 October to keep tough sanctions on Russia, “especially a tighter ban on shipping services” that keep Putin’s shadow fleet operating.

Diesel license criticism and an unconfirmed ceasefire

On 9 October, the US Treasury issued a license clearing Russian-origin diesel trade until 7 April 2027. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters it was a weak decision unworthy of Ukraine’s partners. Democratic Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Chuck Schumer, and Elizabeth Warren called it a “total betrayal of Ukraine.” Republican Senator Thom Tillis said there is “a legitimate case for saying the president’s not following the law.”

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Trump then pressed Kyiv to spare Russian refineries and declared an “energy ceasefire” on 11 October. A White House official told Axios it covers only oil refineries. Neither side confirmed a similar announcement Trump made in mid-September, AAP reported.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on 13 October that contacts on the ceasefire were continuing and referred further questions to Trump, Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported. He claimed the diesel deal was “a very mutually beneficial item of Russian-American cooperation” that serves the interests of Russia, the US, and world energy markets, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.

Europe keeps buying record amounts of Russian gas even as it plans to punish its war machine against Ukraine. The EU ports took in a record 12.18 million tons of Russian liquefied natural gas from January to September, 9.5% more than in the same period of 2025, according to a study by the German group Urgewald based on Kpler tracking data.

Europe spent about 7.88 billion euros on that Russian gas in nine months, revenue that helps fund a war Russia wages with daily missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities. The flow continues even as the EU prepares its largest-ever package of sanctions against Russia’s military industry.

The gas comes from Russia’s Yamal project, which sent 167 cargoes to EU ports over the nine months, roughly one every 1.6 days. Europe took 85% of the project’s recorded deliveries by volume, remaining by far its biggest market, Urgewald reports.

Europe’s share grew even as Yamal’s worldwide deliveries fell 1.3%, so the EU absorbed a larger slice of Russia’s Arctic output. In September alone, EU ports received 792,440 tons worth an estimated 818 million euros, nearly three-quarters of it going to France.

Washington could pull the plug by 18 October

The imports run up against a looming US decision. The Trump administration has until 18 October to complete its first review under the Lindsey Graham sanctions act, signed into law on 18 September, which allows Washington to sanction this gas trade at any time, the group notes.

However, after the US allowed Russian diesel to enter the US and global market, the decision will likely remain stalled.

Originally, the law covered Yamal’s leadership, foreign vessels that knowingly carried Russian LNG, and foreign ports that serviced US-sanctioned ships. Yamal depends on specialized Arc7 ice-class tankers and on nearby European ports where they can unload and quickly return, so closing that route would make the Arctic trade far harder to sustain.

Europe’s own ban is still months away

The EU’s measures so far have barely dented the trade. A ban on short-term LNG contracts took effect in April and has had no visible effect, while the full import ban under long-term contracts only starts on 1 January 2027, Urgewald says.

Every month of largely uninterrupted trade means more revenue for Russia while Ukraine suffers daily attacks, sanction campaigner Sebastian Rötters says. The next EU package should close the remaining loopholes, above all those keeping the Arc7 tanker fleet running.