Trump Calls Ukraine Hitting Russian Refineries a 'Disgrace' While Buying Russian Diesel

The Quote That Says It All

Here's what Trump told Newsmax's Rob Finnerty late Thursday: "If you tell me that Zelenskyy is again shooting at refineries, all he's doing is making the world oil price higher. I think that's a disgrace. There's plenty of other targets; they don't have to hit."

Plenty of other targets. The president of the United States is out here offering target selection advice to a country defending itself against a full-scale invasion, and the advice is to leave the Russian oil industry alone. That is a sentence you would have expected to hear from Moscow, not from the Oval Office. Which brings us to the next part.

The Kremlin agreed with him. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday it was clear that "Zelenskyy doesn't want to take responsibility and move toward a peaceful resolution." When the Kremlin and the White House are reading from the same script, you should at least check who wrote it.

Buying Russian Diesel, Blaming Ukraine

Let's lay out the sequence, because it matters. Last week, Trump announced a deal to buy diesel from Russia, reversing years of U.S. policy. That came days after he eased sanctions on Russia's diesel exports. The apparent goal, per NBC News, was relieving pressure at the pump for American consumers before the midterm elections.

Then Trump demanded that Kyiv stop all strikes on Russian oil infrastructure. He also said Zelenskyy had to be replaced as Ukraine's leader. Replaced. By whom? He didn't say, and nobody in Ukraine appears to have been consulted.

Now he's blaming Ukraine's strikes for destabilizing global diesel prices. This is despite the impact of his own war in Iran, which is apparently a footnote in the story of why oil is expensive. Gas prices are climbing, Republicans are sweating, and the explanation on offer is a Ukrainian drone.

The Energy Ceasefire Nobody Asked For

Trump announced an "energy ceasefire" to the apparent surprise of both sides in the war. Both sides. The two parties to the conflict learned about their own truce from the news. That's not diplomacy, that's a surprise party nobody wanted.

On Thursday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was "done" with it. His reasoning was simple: Russia refused to stop attacking Ukraine's power grid. A ceasefire where one side keeps bombing your electricity while you politely leave their refineries alone is not a ceasefire. It's a hostage situation with a press release.

Ukraine then hit a Russian oil refinery Thursday. Neither Moscow nor Kyiv reported new refinery strikes on Friday. Zelenskyy, meanwhile, accused the U.S. of costing civilian lives by striking deals with Moscow and withdrawing support Kyiv needs to defend itself.

Starlink, Starshield, and Some Very Convenient Timing

Here's where it gets murky, and also where the timing gets hard to ignore. Ukrainian officials sounded the alarm after restrictions on Starlink disrupted military operations. Starlink terminals are critical for the Ukrainian army's communications, drone missions, and aerial defenses. Kyiv said Starshield, the military version of the technology used by its troops, was limited without any warning.

Elon Musk, the billionaire Trump ally, said such decisions were up to the U.S. military and ultimately Trump. After repeated requests for comment about that statement, a senior U.S. official told NBC News that "no such request was ever made by the president." Trump has also denied restricting military intelligence for Ukraine.

Kyiv said Thursday that Starshield service was being restored. But Ukraine also said a pair of major Russian strikes earlier this week came without the usual advance warning from its partners. So you can see why people in Kyiv are suspicious. The denials are on the record. The gaps in service and intelligence are on the record too.

Europe Has Seen This Movie

European and Ukrainian officials told NBC News they believe the moves were most likely aimed at pressuring Kyiv into concessions at the negotiating table, with peace talks stalled. The diesel deal, the eased sanctions, the attacks on Zelenskyy, the shaky support: officials read it as a package, not a coincidence.

That's not a conspiracy theory. That's what the people on the receiving end concluded after watching the last few days. When your ally buys fuel from your invader, calls your leader the problem, and then your battlefield communications and early warnings get flaky, you stop assuming everything is a bureaucratic accident.

Zelenskyy flew to Brussels on Friday to rally European allies at a crucial summit, calling them "real leaders." Read that again. He's out there publicly distinguishing real leaders from the other kind, and he doesn't need to name the other kind.

The Leverage Trump Wants Ukraine to Give Up

The real story under the story is that the refinery strikes work. Ukraine's campaign deep inside Russian territory has sparked a major fuel crisis inside Russia. That is leverage, and Kyiv hoped it would strengthen its hand at the negotiating table.

So the U.S. president's response to Ukraine finally holding a card is to demand it fold the card, because the card is making his midterms harder. Russia's fuel crisis is Ukraine's bargaining chip and America's gas price headache. Trump picked a side on that, and it wasn't the side with the drones that are working.