Trump is helping Putin, and Ukraine is paying for it. Five ballistic missiles hit Kyiv overnight, and Zelensky says no partner warned him they were coming.
The help is the diesel. Trump came off a call with Putin on Friday and announced that Russia would send up to 4.8 million tons of it in stages. The same afternoon his Treasury signed a license that lets Russian diesel into American ports for six months, through April 7, 2027. Trump sanctioned Rosneft and Lukoil a year ago.
The payment is Ukraine. Zelensky called the deal "a happy birthday present for Putin" on Friday and said it means "millions, billions" for Moscow. Trump declined to answer him on Friday. On Saturday he did: Zelensky had "better damn well stop" hitting Russian refineries, and "it's time for Ukraine to get a new President." Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner told Ukraine's team in Miami on Friday that Trump could cut Kyiv's intelligence if it kept hitting Russian refineries, a Ukrainian official told Axios; a U.S. official denied any threat was made. Overnight Russia fired five ballistic missiles into Kyiv, and no warning came.
Putin can read that sequence. A president who buys your diesel while your missiles are in the air is not a president who will stop you. Putin's confidence to hit Kyiv grows with every day the deal stands, and Trump is the reason.
The Kremlin says the diesel is for "the American and global markets." The market Trump needs is at home. Diesel was $6.20 a gallon on Oct. 5. A year earlier it was $2.49. The vote is Nov. 3. Trump is buying diesel for the voters turning on him over the price, and he is paying Putin with Ukraine's security.
Six senators of both parties said Sunday the deal "runs directly counter to that law," the 2022 act that bans Russian oil products and gives a president one exit: certify to Congress that Russia has agreed to withdraw. No certification is on record. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and John Curtis signed with Thom Tillis, who went further on "Meet the Press": "I do believe there's a legitimate case for saying the president's not following the law."
Freedom, democracy and justice, traded for a price at the pump. A free United States does not enlist its enemies against its allies. A regional power that answers to Moscow and Beijing does. Trump's policy makes sense only for the second kind of country. He is handing Putin the guns.
Trump never lifted the sanctions. He found a way around them, and the way around runs through the two companies he sanctioned.
