The paper said last month’s request followed US alarm that Ukraine was destabilising oil markets and ​harming US firms by targeting tankers carrying crude piped from ​Kazakhstan to a Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal at the ⁠port.

Ukraine agreed not to target CPC infrastructure or non-Russian vessels ​as long as the latter were not under Ukrainian sanctions and ​were not carrying Russian oil or cargo, the newspaper added.

The White House, State Department and Vance’s office did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for ​comment outside business hours. Reuters could not immediately verify the ​report.

Ukrainian forces recently stepped up strikes on Russian energy infrastructure and other sites ‌in ⁠an effort Kyiv says aims at depriving Russia of resources to fund its military.

Black Sea drone attacks took out as much as a fifth of CPC oil loadings in July, four sources familiar with ​the data said, ​as the Russia-Ukraine ⁠war spilled over to hit sales by Kazakhstan and western oil majors.

Kazakhstan, which relies on the ​CPC route for crude exports, suffered a drop ​of 14% ⁠in oil production in July versus June, the sources said.

Chevron and Exxon Mobil are among the major Western oil companies operating there.

A ⁠US ​official confirmed to the paper that the ​administration had warned Ukraine to stop attacking non-Russian vessels in the Black Sea.