Trump and Zelenskyy relationship soured after meeting in New York — WSJ

Filed 1h ago · Via NV · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: gdsteam · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

The Wall Street Journal reports that tension between Trump and Zelensky traces back to their September 22 meeting at the UN, where Trump pressed Zelensky on why Ukraine was striking Russian oil refineries. Energy analysts largely attribute rising diesel prices to the Iran conflict, though Ukraine's strikes have knocked 40 to 50 percent of Russia's refining capacity offline.

Since that meeting, the US reportedly asked Ukraine six times to halt the strikes; Ukraine said it would accept a mutual truce but Russia refused, so strikes continued. Trump grew increasingly frustrated, and by early October his envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were in Miami floating a deal to import Russian diesel, which stunned Ukrainian and European officials present.

Trump announced the Russian diesel import deal on October 9 after a 90-minute call with Vladimir Putin, and the Treasury Department later licensed the sale through April 2027. Several Republican senators called the move counter to a 2022 law requiring congressional consultation before importing Russian energy.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A president who blames Kyiv for diesel prices while cutting a deal to buy diesel from Moscow is not exactly working from a consistent ledger. The administration's own senators are calling foul on the legal grounds, which is usually a sign the deal didn't pass the smell test even among friends. Somebody down the road would call that buying from the arsonist to put out the fire he started.

Source: Read the original at NV → Scored: Relent · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0