Zelenskyy won’t fold so he needs someone willing to. Feels like the negotiated Russian diesel agreement was to make it seem like their infrastructure is critical to global diesel supply to strong arm a deal.
Politico says Trump's diesel deal "is actually a relative pittance compared to what would be needed to meaningfully bring prices down, market analysts said."
There are also questions of how much more diesel Russia can ship out given that Ukraine has already destroyed a large number of that country’s fuel refineries. This is now the third time Trump has announced plans he said would cut diesel prices down to size but that upon closer look don't live up to the hype. More diesel flooding the market from European allies? [But no]. Allowing freight carriers to use tax-extempt "dyed diesel" that farmers already have access to? A great, big meh. Overall, the past few weeks have shown "the White House flailing across all manner of desperate measures" to bring down prices, Rory Johnston, oil analyst at analyst firm Commodity Context, wrote yesterday.
They decided on this a full four days after he signed the Graham sanctions package into law. This smells to high heaven, but I'm 100% sure that the Republican led congress won't do anything to stop him.
This is good for Europe imho, stokes efforts to invest domestically in military production capacity while investing less in US treasuries. The more it’s proven publicly the US cannot be trusted, the faster this goes. Also, second order, speeds electrification, and therefore energy sovereignty, globally.
That is true. At the same time: the USA used to be a formidable ally and it is all happening too fast to be able to adjust properly. But a lot of people have been saying this since Grozny: that our collective response should have been far harsher.
Meanwhile: Trump can still do a lot more damage than he has done so far and it does not seem to me that there are any guardrails around this. November will be very interesting, it is essentially the moment when it will be decided whether the USA will step back from the edge or jump.
Better to get stabbed in the back when you can do something about it versus when you cannot. You cannot trust the US electorate, full stop. Derisk and decouple accordingly.
Worst case, you don’t end up like Ukraine: trying to cash promises made by those who said they’d protect you. The cost is cheap, a bit more of annual EU GDP into the future.
At least it is clear now. The USA that stood for something is over and done with. There are a couple of things that really get me:
(1) It is all so blatantly false and yet people seem to lap it up.
(2) The people that expect the rest of the world to put Trump in his place, he is their problem, the rest of the world can only deal with the fall-out.
(3) The people that claim that because they didn't vote for Trump that they are not responsible. If you're not protesting or striking then you too are responsible. All these feeble excuses have no weight, either you concede your responsibility or you do something about it.
Trump should have called for Zelenskyy to be replaced ages ago.
Remember when this was all supposed to end on day one of his presidency?
Oh that sweet summer child.
Zelenskyy won’t fold so he needs someone willing to. Feels like the negotiated Russian diesel agreement was to make it seem like their infrastructure is critical to global diesel supply to strong arm a deal.
Ukraine claims its strikes have taken out more than half of Russia's oil refining capacity - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/ukraine-claims-its-strike... - October 5th, 2026
Politico says Trump's diesel deal "is actually a relative pittance compared to what would be needed to meaningfully bring prices down, market analysts said."
There are also questions of how much more diesel Russia can ship out given that Ukraine has already destroyed a large number of that country’s fuel refineries. This is now the third time Trump has announced plans he said would cut diesel prices down to size but that upon closer look don't live up to the hype. More diesel flooding the market from European allies? [But no]. Allowing freight carriers to use tax-extempt "dyed diesel" that farmers already have access to? A great, big meh. Overall, the past few weeks have shown "the White House flailing across all manner of desperate measures" to bring down prices, Rory Johnston, oil analyst at analyst firm Commodity Context, wrote yesterday.
Seems like Putin's angle is to use this tiny trickle to push the US away from supporting attacks on Russian oil refineries.
Which will be a difficult double-standard to apply, but only entry-level mental gymnastics for the Trump administration.
They decided on this a full four days after he signed the Graham sanctions package into law. This smells to high heaven, but I'm 100% sure that the Republican led congress won't do anything to stop him.
This is good for Europe imho, stokes efforts to invest domestically in military production capacity while investing less in US treasuries. The more it’s proven publicly the US cannot be trusted, the faster this goes. Also, second order, speeds electrification, and therefore energy sovereignty, globally.
That is true. At the same time: the USA used to be a formidable ally and it is all happening too fast to be able to adjust properly. But a lot of people have been saying this since Grozny: that our collective response should have been far harsher.
Meanwhile: Trump can still do a lot more damage than he has done so far and it does not seem to me that there are any guardrails around this. November will be very interesting, it is essentially the moment when it will be decided whether the USA will step back from the edge or jump.
Better to get stabbed in the back when you can do something about it versus when you cannot. You cannot trust the US electorate, full stop. Derisk and decouple accordingly.
Worst case, you don’t end up like Ukraine: trying to cash promises made by those who said they’d protect you. The cost is cheap, a bit more of annual EU GDP into the future.
At least it is clear now. The USA that stood for something is over and done with. There are a couple of things that really get me:
(1) It is all so blatantly false and yet people seem to lap it up.
(2) The people that expect the rest of the world to put Trump in his place, he is their problem, the rest of the world can only deal with the fall-out.
(3) The people that claim that because they didn't vote for Trump that they are not responsible. If you're not protesting or striking then you too are responsible. All these feeble excuses have no weight, either you concede your responsibility or you do something about it.
Another thought. If it's only to help with the election in November, maybe in four weeks Trump will stop caring about attacks on Russian diesel.