Berlin, Oct 12: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday that the recent agreement between the United States and Russia regarding diesel exports is “out of the question” for Germany and Europe. Speaking at a press conference in Berlin, Merz said Germany is adhering to the sanctions against Russia and pledged continued support for Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky can fully rely on both Germany and Europe, said Merz. On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump and then Trump announced an agreement with Putin for Russia to supply diesel fuel to the United States and global markets.
On Saturday, the Russian government partially lifted restrictions on diesel fuel exports that had been in effect since the beginning of 2026. Trump also announced an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine. However, Merz dismissed prospects of immediate peace negotiations under current conditions.
He said EU leaders will continue working toward a just and lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine at an upcoming EU summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday. The remarks were made following a two-day leadership retreat of Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party. European Union (EU) foreign ministers on Monday adopted nearly 1,600 new sanctions listings targeting Russia’s military-industrial complex, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.
In a post on social media platform X, Kallas said more than half of the new listings were linked to the production chain for ballistic missiles, adding that it was the largest single expansion of the bloc’s sanctions list since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Xinhua News Agency reported.
The measures are aimed at making it significantly harder, slower and more expensive for Russia to produce weapons used against Ukraine, she said. Speaking ahead of the Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg, Kallas said the new listings would also address what she described as “sham elections in Russia regarding the occupied territories of Ukraine.”
Kallas reiterated the EU’s position that continued pressure on Russia was necessary to end the conflict. She also called for greater coordination with the United States on sanctions against Russia, saying that such alignment would strengthen pressure on Moscow.
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