Trump’s Deal with Putin Stabs Ukraine in the Bac

A staggering sell-out of Ukraine by President Donald Trump, with the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announcing a license to allow Russia to sell diesel to the US and on global markets. This comes in a week when Russia launched brutal attacks on Ukraine, which saw over 70 Ukrainian civilians killed by Russian missile strikes.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. I sense here that this has been Trump’s game plan for years – to normalize economic ties with Russia and do deals with Putin. Perhaps the cover for all this was the furor over the Nobel Prize for International Criminal Court (ICC) judge Pillay and then US sanctions lodged against the ICC. Trump is obviously desperate for prices at the pump to drop before midterms but given the success of recent Ukrainian deep strike drone attacks on Russian refineries and shortages at home in Russia, I question whether Russia can meet the export volumes. Russia has moved from a diesel exporter to an importer in recent months. President Zelensky responded in a furious post this evening, calling out Trump’s weakness. I would expect Ukraine to now step up deep strike drone attacks against Russian refineries and energy infrastructure. Trump’s move today is a body blow to Ukraine but also to Europe. This move is another blow to the Transatlantic relationship. It must be even clearer to all now that, under Trump, a chasm exists between the interests and values of the US and Europe. Other Topics of Interest Putin Touts 90% Dollar-Free CIS Trade as Russia Sidesteps Western Sanctions Moscow promotes alternative payment networks to withstand Western sanctions, even as former Soviet republics distance themselves from Russia. And all this comes as a team of Ukrainians meets Kushner and Witkoff in Miami for the latest round of discussions on a potential new peace process. After Trump’s latest move on Russian diesel, it is hard to see these talks going anywhere. See the original in the author’s @tashecon blog here. The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post. Timothy Ash is a London-based senior emerging markets sovereign strategist for Bluebay Asset Management Company.