By Mel Gurtov
In the past week the President of the US has revealed his true colors on Russia’s war more clearly than ever. The rift between Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has grown very wide—much wider than in February 2025 when Trump admonished Zelensky in the White House for being ungrateful about US aid–and might not be bridgeable.
Ukraine: Now Putin’s and Trump’s Common Enemy
The signs of the rift are clear enough:
- Trump is putting money in Russia’s hands with a major oil deal that involves both family members (Jared Kushner), members of his inner circle (Steve Witkoff), and various Middle East sheikhs and investors. The deal is backed by the US International Finance Development Corporation, the same agency that manages the 2025 US-Ukraine minerals deal. The deal will involve a takeover of the Lukoil conglomerate’s refineries, distributors, and gas stations.
- Trump’s plan to import Russian diesel oil will provide Russia with billions of dollars that can be used to support its war effort. It’s a major shot in the arm for Russia’s failing economy. The ink was barely dry on the recent bipartisan bill that is supposed to impose sanctions on Russia–named for Sen. Lindsey Graham—when Trump eviscerated it. By executive order, he waived sanctions on Russia.
- Trump’s proposal for a Ukraine-Russia “energy cease-fire” was greeted with bewilderment by Zelensky, since Russia has never agreed to any kind of cease-fire and, to the contrary, has significantly expanded its missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s cities. Vladimir Putin has not hidden his strategy of making the upcoming winter so miserable for Ukrainians, by attacking electricity and power stations, that they will force the government to sue for peace on Russia’s terms.
- Trump has said Ukraine needs a new president—obviously, one more compliant than Zelensky. Trump has said it’s “a disgrace” that Ukraine is continuing to attack Russian fuel depots and thus creating US and global diesel shortages. Evidently, Russian attacks on Ukraine that have caused electrical outages affecting hundreds of thousands of households, not to mention lives, are not a disgrace. (Also disgraceful is that Trump has failed to acknowledge that it’s his war on Iran that is the primary reason for fuel shortages.)
- The Pentagon, evidently at Trump’s order, has limited intelligence sharing with Ukraine on incoming Russian missiles (though it claims to have restored it), demanded that countries with Patriot air defense systems stop providing them to Ukraine, and, at Elon Musk’s urging, has limited Ukraine’s use of the Starlink system for military communications.
It’s Up to Europe
All these developments have made all-out European support of Ukraine absolutely essential. The Trump administration cannot be relied on even for those few things—such as sales of weapons to European countries for turnover to Ukraine—that are still supposedly part of US policy. NATO’s role in European security now has to mean Europe alone; Trump, a longtime critic of NATO (and all other security coalitions), is oblivious to Russia’s threat to Europe and cannot be counted on to help confront Russia’s intensifying hybrid warfare.
Europe will have to do much more than it is now doing. Up to now, it has contributed about €228 billion since the start of the war in 2022, including nearly €100 billion in military aid. Assistance for humanitarian and economic reconstruction programs adds to these figures. Germany and the UK are among the top donors. If aid as a proportion of GDP is the standard, Denmark and Estonia are the most generous. In comments over the weekend, European leaders vowed to step up aid to Ukraine and maintain sanctions on Russia. But if right-wing political parties prevail in German, French, and other European elections, the European Union will have great difficulty mustering additional support for Ukraine.
With winter coming, life in Ukraine will be more difficult than ever. Russian attacks will create major power outages, blockages of truck traffic to deliver goods, and more obstacles to obtaining health care and education for children. And there will be many more casualties. On the battlefield, unless the Starlink system is fully restored, Ukraine’s military, which had kept Russian forces from advancing over the past year, may have to give up territory. Its one source of leverage will be the ability to attack Russian oil refineries, causing long lines at the pump for Russians and potentially anger at Putin for pursuing his aggressive war.
In Putin’s Pocket
A Washington Post report on October 21 said that at a meeting in Oslo with European representatives as well as Witkoff, a US official said: “Ukraine brought forward new ideas and proposals, which were discussed in detail. The parties made meaningful progress in aligning on a coordinated approach to engaging Russia and advancing the diplomatic process.” The official also said that there was “strong alignment” among the US, Ukraine, and Europe on the next steps, and that Witkoff and Kushner would push Putin to hold “direct trilateral” talks with Zelensky and Trump. I have serious doubts that “strong alignment” exists, that Putin is being pushed, or that Russia will be interested in direct talks so long as Trump keeps providing new incentives for it to win “peace” on Russian terms.
Besides, Trump keeps singing a different tune, saying (like Moscow) that Ukraine is the main obstacle to a peace agreement and that Russia is winning the war on the ground: “What’s happening is that Russia would like to get it done,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday after the meeting: “Russia is a big machine. They just keep grinding forward. … They’ve taken a very large piece of land, and you know, you can say that Ukraine is doing well or poorly, but the land gets bigger and bigger all the time, week by week.” Speaking outside a campaign rally, Trump also said: “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine. They haven’t been doing much.” On the other hand: “We’ve given a lot to Ukraine. They’ve given nothing to us. Remember that.” Can you imagine such callous indifference to reality?
Make no mistake: the Trump administration has become partners with Putin in this aggression. To have Witkoff call Putin a “humanitarian” in the mold of Trump seals the deal. Trump will rant and rail at Zelensky for causing a diesel shortage and rejecting a cease-fire, but even many of Trump’s allies in Congress now see clearly that Trump is Putin’s key enabler—that Trump is not merely siding with Putin on diplomatic matters and ignoring the horrific damage Russian attacks have caused in Ukraine; his administration is directly funding Russia’s war. As Zelensky has said, “At this very moment, while we are talking about peace, America is allowing Russia to export diesel… all of that money goes toward the war against people, against Ukraine, against all of us.”
That betrayal, to my mind, constitutes treachery and should be part of impeachment proceedings after the November elections.
Mel Gurtov, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Portland State University.