European nations are criticizing US President Donald Trump over his surprise diesel deal with Russia even as they pay Moscow billions for continued energy supplies, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said.
Speaking on Dutch TV program Pauw & De Wit on Thursday, Rutte acknowledged that some European countries “panicked” over the Russia-US agreement last month, admitting that he himself “raised an eyebrow for a while.”
However, he pointed out that Europe continues its own energy trade with Russia despite sweeping economic sanctions and pledges to reduce dependency on Moscow.
“Meanwhile, in the first half of this year, Europe purchased €6 billion in LNG from Russia. That’s much more than that diesel deal will ever yield. So, Europe is not holy either,” Rutte said.
When pressed to address criticism that the diesel deal would provide Moscow with money to fund its military, Rutte responded: “Will weapons come from the €6 billion that Europe spends on LNG?”
Rutte nevertheless said he understood Vladimir Zelensky’s concerns about the deal, but argued that only Washington can currently provide some of the crucial military support Ukraine needs, including US-made Patriot interceptors.
Rutte also defended the importance of maintaining direct ties between Washington and Moscow, pointing to their vast nuclear arsenals. “We experienced the Cuban crisis in the 1960s when that hotline did not yet exist, and we reached the brink of a nuclear Armageddon as a world,” Rutte said. “It’s important that those two have a good relationship.”
Trump announced the diesel agreement after speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 9. Moscow pledged more than 300,000 tons immediately, another 500,000 tons in November, and 1 million tons afterwards, with another 3 million potentially following. While Russian officials said that the supply price is “a subject of commercial negotiations,” some estimates put the total value of the deal at several billion dollars.
The diesel deal drew fierce criticism from Zelensky, who called it a “weak decision,” while EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the agreement would provide Moscow with “more revenues to wage war.” Trump later responded by suggesting that Ukraine should have a new leader willing to sign peace with Moscow while pressing Zelensky to stop attacks on Russian refineries.
Despite vowing to fully wean itself off Russian energy by 2027, EU states bought an estimated €5.96 billion worth of LNG from Russia’s Yamal project in the first six months of 2026, rising to €7.88 billion by the end of September.
Last month, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak estimated that the bloc had spent more than $320 billion on Russian energy since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, despite claiming to have sharply reduced its imports.
Rutte has also faced ridicule over what was widely seen as attempts to flatter Trump, particularly after joking at the 2025 NATO summit that “daddy has to sometimes use strong language” after Trump compared Israel and Iran to fighting children. Pressed during the interview on the widely mocked phrase, Rutte admitted that “daddy was an incredible mistake. I have to own it for the rest of my life.”
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