Trump’s use of Russian diesel fuel, at Ukraine’s expense, sparks controversy in the US

Now meanwhile Donald Trump's decision to lift a ban on Russian diesel exports is drawing fierce criticism. Critics say it hands Putin a financial lifeline while allowing Trump to bring down fuel prices ahead of the midterms. They also accused the US president of hypocrisy given his recent warnings to China and India against buying Russian oil. Donald Trump's supposed energy ceasefire appears dead on arrival with Ukraine's president accusing Russia of continuing to strike energy targets. For more on all of this, we can bring in our foreign affairs commentator, Douglas Herbert. Doug, good to see you. Will this really help Donald Trump ahead of the midterms? Well, for those who see it as Donald Trump simply looking for any quick fix to patch up what is a disastrous situation for him on the home front right now, a war that he started in Iran, which is the main culprit, perhaps the absolute primary culprit in the high energy prices that Americans are feeling at the pump, that pinch at the pump right now. He's looking for anything that could conceivably bring those prices down, because Iran is certainly not going to be his ally in his own, in Donald Trump's bid to salvage Republican chances in the November midterms. So he's looking for some culprit. Ukraine is an easy target, blaming Ukraine for striking at Russian oil refineries, not mentioning, completely ignoring the day-after-day heavy Russian bombardment, missile-drawn bombardment of targets across Russia day after day, which continued, continue and continue and continue. What people see in this move is signature Trump cynicism. That is looking after his own interests, his own political skin, a cynicism really that throws a political lifeline to another man that he admires along the lines of a Kim Jong-un, along the lines of Xi Jinping, an authoritarian, perhaps dictatorial figure in Vladimir Putin, a man that many say is at the helm of a murderous regime who initiated an illegal war, and that Donald Trump essentially is blowing any shred of credibility that he may have had left with anyone in the world community by throwing this financial lifeline to Putin at a time when Putin wants to basically be able to continue financing his war machine. And just a case in point. Just in the past few hours, the deputy Russian minister, Alexander Novak, basically said that by year's end, Russia's diesel supplies, diesel exports will recover to between 3 million and 3.5 million tons. That is per month, per year end. And that would really bring it up to the export level that was typical, you know, before the recent distress. So basically, he's thanking, you know, thanks to the deal agreed by Trump, Russia's diesel, he says, will be able to help partially balance global supply and demand. So he's actually, Russia's crediting Donald Trump for helping pull Russia out of a tough situation. And Doug, how have European leaders reacted to this deal, given that in recent days, Donald Trump has really sharpened his rhetoric against Vladimir Zelensky, saying it's time Ukraine gets a new president? Yeah, European leaders are aghast, and Zelensky himself says he learned about it via the media. He wasn't, Trump never came to him, never consulted with him. Zelensky even sort of, you could say it's tongue in cheek, but it's serious. He said, why didn't Trump, you know, we could have done a diesel deal with Trump too. Why didn't he come to us with a diesel deal? There was no consultation. There was no real consultation with the US Congress either. So there's a lot of outreach on all sides. And what the European point is that you mentioned hypocrisy at the outset, the hypocrisy of this and that the US had been, Donald Trump's administration had been up until very recently, imploring, urging, warning Russia and China not to buy oil, India and China, excuse me, not to buy any oil from Russia. And here, Donald Trump about-face flips and starts allowing buying diesel fuel from Russia. But beyond that, the Europeans are essentially saying the only thing that to quote the Lithuanian, top Lithuanian official in the Baltics, pressure, pressure, pressure. That is the key word, the buzzword you hear across Europe. Sanctions, keeping Moscow isolated, keeping pressure on Russia. Those are the only things, that's the only language Putin's going to understand. Thank you very much for that.