Why Trump’s diesel woes are playing right into Moscow’s hands

Faced with record diesel prices and less than two months to go until the midterm elections, Donald Trump has reverted to a default setting in his turbulent and abortive campaign to end the Ukraine war: blaming the victim. His timing could not be worse for Ukraine, or more beneficial to Russia.

“Mr. Zelensky has to do one thing: He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,” the US president told reporters Sunday, referring to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky. “It’s hurting the world.” Trump’s attitude is at best inconsistent, coming less than a year after sources told CNN the US had increased intelligence-sharing with Ukraine so it could hit Russian energy sites (back when oil prices were low), and barely a week after he claimed gas prices would come down when the Iran war ends (without mentioning the Ukraine war). It’s also incorrect, according to analysts, to claim that if Ukraine stopped attacking Russian refineries, the price problem would be solved. Andy Lipow, from Texas-based Lipow Oil Associates, estimates that Russia’s decision to ban exports in response to Ukrainian attacks has taken 800,000 barrels per day of diesel off the market. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, meanwhile, has affected 1.2 million barrels a day.