Donald Trump declared today that Russia has 'lost control' of its diesel industry after a Ukrainian blitz, with his own war on Iran driving US diesel to its highest price ever.

'A large number of their Diesel refineries have been blown up and are, at least temporarily, out of commission,' Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday morning.

'This ridiculous and never ending War with Ukraine must be ended,' he said, claiming 25,000 people, 'mostly soldiers', were being killed every month. 'What a shame!'

The statement came hours after Trump pressed Volodymyr Zelensky to halt Kyiv's strikes on Russian refineries during a Sunday phone call, the Financial Times reported. 

The President's message was 'diesel, diesel . . . diesel', a senior Ukrainian official on the call told the paper. A second official said Trump wanted Russian fuel flowing back on to the world market to push prices down.  

Trump claimed a week ago that Moscow and Kyiv had agreed to stop striking each other's energy sites, while blaming the global diesel spike on the Ukraine war rather than his conflict in Iran. Ukrainian officials said no such truce existed. 

The US and Israel's strikes on Iran in February effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil supply normally passes. US diesel hit a record $6.51 on Monday, according to AAA, up from about $3.76 before the war. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading at more than $100 per barrel.

The squeeze has become a headache for Republicans weeks before the midterm elections. Diesel prices are particularly important to the economy because the fuel powers trucks, trains and farm machinery that move food and goods. 

Trump's call with Zelensky came hours after Ukraine launched what Russian officials said was the largest drone attack ever on Moscow, setting a major oil refinery ablaze and killing at least two people.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 450 drones were shot down.

Kyiv's drone crews have increasingly targeted the intricate distillation towers that are among the longest parts of Russian refineries to repair. 

Around a third of Russia's refining capacity has been knocked out, forcing Moscow to restrict refined-fuel exports and turn to imports from India.

The pressure comes as the war with Iran expands into Yemen, where Saudi Arabia urged Trump over the weekend to strike Iran-backed Houthi targets.  

Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized territory in Yemen in weekend fighting with Saudi-backed forces. The fighting has further threatened shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key route for global energy supplies.  

The route has become more important as the conflict has disrupted other energy corridors, including Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, which carries Aramco oil around Hormuz. 

Putin said this month he had ordered his forces to prepare a mass air strike campaign in retaliation for Kyiv's attacks on Russian energy sites.

'They are hitting ours. They'll get an answer. That's basically how it is,' he said.

Putin is unlikely to agree to an energy truce before winter, when his forces are expected to resume attacks on Ukraine's power grid, people briefed on his thinking told the FT.

One senior Ukrainian official told the FT that Trump may be holding the sweeping Russia sanctions law he signed last week as leverage to get Kyiv to stop the refinery strikes. 

Zelensky, who meets Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, defended the campaign Monday, calling the strikes 'part of the pressure that is actually working and the world can feel it.'