WASHINGTON PRESSURES UKRAINE TO STOP HITTING RUSSIAN OIL—WHILE RUSSIA KEEPS HITTING UKRAINE
President Donald Trump reached his diesel agreement with Vladimir Putin after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reportedly ignored at least six American requests to stop striking Russian oil refineries.
According to an American official, Trump wanted the attacks stopped because Ukraine’s highly effective refinery campaign was contributing to rising fuel prices in the United States.
Zelenskyy did not simply refuse. He offered a reciprocal arrangement: Ukraine would stop striking Russian refineries if Russia stopped attacking Ukrainian power plants. Trump rejected that condition because he reportedly did not consider Russia’s destruction of Ukraine’s electrical grid equivalent to Ukrainian strikes against the industry financing and supplying Moscow’s war.
That is the heart of the problem. Ukraine was asked to surrender one of its most effective means of pressuring Russia, while Russia was not required to stop attacking the infrastructure keeping Ukrainian civilians alive.
A Ukrainian official also claimed that Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, threatened to cut Ukraine off from American intelligence if the refinery campaign continued. An American official denied that an explicit threat was made, although separate reporting indicates that Washington warned intelligence cooperation could be placed at risk. The wording is disputed; the pressure on Kyiv is not.
Ukraine is the country under invasion. Its cities, apartment buildings and power plants are attacked repeatedly. Yet instead of forcing the aggressor to stop, Washington is pressuring the victim to abandon a campaign that has damaged Russia’s fuel supply, weakened its export revenue and placed strain on its military logistics.
Putin offered no equivalent concession and even declined to commit to restarting peace negotiations. Nevertheless, Russia received sanctions relief and a new diesel agreement, while Ukraine received another warning about how it is allowed to defend itself.
That is not reciprocal diplomacy. It is unilateral restraint imposed on the country being attacked—and relief granted to the country responsible for the war.