President Trump’s surprise diesel deal with Russia and decision to waive sanctions on Moscow have become a headache for Republican candidates with just two weeks to go before the midterms.

terviews and town halls, Republicans are being pressed on why now is the time to go soft on Vladimir Putin. Some of them are breaking with Trump rather than defend his string of Russia-friendly decisions.

Diesel prices haven’t fallen significantly, adding to the challenge in an election heavily focused on affordability. The result is a new political hurdle for Republicans who are uncomfortable with the idea of easing sanctions on Putin’s Russia and have yet to see the hoped-for economic gains.

Republicans, who worked to pass a sanctions package targeting buyers of Russian oil and gas just over a month ago, are now questioning Trump’s decision to hold off on implementing it. The move has thrust Trump’s handling of the war in Ukraine—which he once vowed to end swiftly after returning to the White House—back into the political spotlight.

Mike Rogers, the Republican Senate candidate locked in a tight race against Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, has said he opposes buying Russian diesel fuel. On Sunday he also made clear that he objects to the president’s decision to pause the sanctions package.

“It’s just not where I would be,” Rogers said on Sunday on CNN. “I would have voted for the sanctions bill. If the president has a better idea to get diesel prices down, I’d be for it. I’m just a little skeptical that this will work in the way that the administration wants it to work.”“I don’t think we can give Putin an inch,” Rogers added.

Trump defended his recent decisions in a social-media post Sunday, saying he was in the process of “negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine” and didn’t want to do anything that will “drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.”The president provided no details about any diplomatic progress being made.

Other Republicans echoed Rogers’s qualms.

On Saturday, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, who is facing a competitive re-election contest, said he would tell Trump not to buy Russian diesel fuel. Instead, Sullivan called for continued efforts to expand energy production in Alaska and strengthen the U.S. military, which he referred to as “hard power things Putin understands the most.”Iowa GOP Senate candidate Ashley Hinson said during a debate last week that the president should consider alternative measures to lower energy prices at home. “We need to lower gas prices in this country. We need to lower diesel prices, but I don’t think we need to be making a deal with Russia to do it,” Hinson said.

The midterms have often been described as an “affordability election,” as voters contend with rising inflation and higher fuel costs. Analysts say that stems in large part from the stalemated war with Iran and Tehran’s continued threats to international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

As the midterms approach in early November, Trump has moved away from the longstanding U.S. policy of using economic pressure on Russia to end its war in Ukraine. Instead, he struck a deal to buy Russian diesel in a phone call with Putin and instructed the Treasury Department to lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports until early April.

Trump heralded the deal in a social-media post earlier this month. “Between our TOTAL CONTROL of the Strait of Hormuz, and this great announcement on Russian Energy, Diesel Prices for Americans and, indeed, the World, will be COMING DOWN, IN RECORD NUMBERS, AND FAST!,” he wrote, adding that millions of tons of Russian diesel fuel would flow into the world market.

Trump administration officials argue that fostering economic cooperation with Russia could moderate Putin’s behavior and improve the prospects for a peace settlement. “This is a carrot to try to end a war. It’s not an economic lifeline for Russia,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday on the ABC News program “This Week.”But the war has continued. Putin ignored Trump’s call a week ago for an “energy ceasefire” under which Russia and Ukraine were to pause strikes on each other’s energy facilities. Ukraine paused its attacks on Russian refineries after Trump called on Kyiv to stop those strikes. But Ukraine resumed them several days later after Russia continued its widespread attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Ukraine carried out a large drone attack this weekend on an oil terminal and data center in St. Petersburg, in what Russia media called one of Kyiv’s biggest drone strikes this year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in a social-media post that same day that discussions with U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff have continued.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday defended Trump’s decision to halt implementation of the new sanctions as a prudent step while the administration weighs the implications of moving ahead with the measures amid pressure on the U.S. and global economies from multiple fronts. They include the Iran conflict, Russia’s war with Ukraine and hostilities between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia.

Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the president is “trying to walk this fine balance between trying to be able to put pressure on Russia but also to be able to help the American people.”He said Trump’s decision to suspend Russian energy sanctions is an effort to get Russia to the negotiating table, while at the same time continuing to support Ukraine.

Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University professor, said Trump’s diesel diplomacy risks backfiring by conveying the impression that the White House has neither a viable plan to reduce fuel costs nor an effective foreign policy to quell the fighting in Ukraine.

The dilemma for many Republicans in the midterms, he said, is that their party is led by a president who insists on loyalty but is also “the greatest source of their electoral vulnerability.”House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has rarely deviated from Trump’s positions, signaled that the president’s decision to waive sanctions would be a subject for further discussion with the White House.

“Congress voted on this decisively several weeks ago. We understand Putin can’t be trusted,” Johnson said on “Sunday Morning Futures” on Fox. “But I told the White House team that we need to talk about it and I think carefully consider the unintended consequences that may ensue from that. So I know the president’s evaluating this, as he does everything else.”