Our View: Yet another Trump decision that is difficult to understand

The energy ceasefire President Donald Trump claimed to have brokered between Russia and Ukraine does not seem to apply to Russia. On Monday, a day after the American president’s so- called energy ceasefire, which was imposed without informing the Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy (he said he had heard about it from the media), Russia struck six Ukrainian power facilities. Zelenskiy claimed that on Monday night Russia had hit petrol stations and energy infrastructure, which caused blackouts in a part of the country. While Ukraine had stopped strikes on Russian oil refineries for two days, honouring Trump’s ceasefire announcement, “Russia did not heed the American president,” said Zelenskiy, who also pointed out that Ukraine had ‘no early warning’ on one of the strikes on Kyiv, implying that the US had not provided intelligence information. Russia suggested that the energy ceasefire only applied to Ukraine, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov saying on Monday night that Kyiv did not deserve the ‘respite’. Trump’s only concern, it appears, is to protect the Russian refineries producing diesel, the price of which has rocketed as a result of the US strikes on Iran. Hailing his Russia deal, President Trump posted that “diesel prices for Americans and indeed the world will be coming down, in record numbers and fast.” Would this happen by the time of the November midterm elections for Congress? Most probably not, because the US would not be able to import Russian diesel. According to the Ending Importation of Russian Oil Act 2022, no Russian diesel can be imported into the US unless Russia has withdrawn from Ukraine and acknowledged Ukraine’s sovereignty. The irony is that the US faces no shortage of diesel as it is one of the world’s major exporters. Prices at the pumps have increased because American producers prefer to sell diesel to Europe where prices are higher, according to an article in The Spectator magazine, which also said that “the volumes of Russian diesel under discussion are too small to make much of an impact on global prices.” If Trump was really concerned about diesel supplies “he could have just increased imports from oil-rich Canada by just 4 per cent to match the entirety of the additional Russian supplies,” article pointed out. Trump’s decision, under the circumstances, is difficult to understand. He has betrayed Ukraine and once again shown his disdain for Europe and his Nato allies for no obvious benefit to the United States. All that his energy ceasefire, which only Ukraine is expected to comply with, will achieve is to provide more funds for President Putin’s war chest. Diesel prices are unlikely to fall as a result of the deal between Trump and Putin that will benefit no-one apart from Russia.