Rift Turns to Fracture: Ukrainian Delegation Beats Town After Don’s Diesel Decree
Disaster has struck the Ukrainian-American relationship at a moment meant to be a turning point in peace efforts to end the war. Just as a delegation sent by Zelensky touched down in Miami for a private sit-down with Trump capos Kushner and Witkoff, the godfather himself made a stunning pronouncement: the ban on Russian diesel is to be lifted.
And the reason left Zelensky grinding his gold-capped molars: The Ukrainian head’s refusal to obey the Don’s demands to halt strikes on Russian oil sites, at least according to Axios:
Axios: Trump made a diesel fuel deal with Russia after President Zelensky ignored half a dozen U.S. requests to stop attacking Russian oil refineries, a U.S. official said.
“Zelensky is misreading the room. By continuing to hit refineries, he is eroding the good will that he has built with Trump over the last six months,” the official said.
Zelensky offered to stop the strikes if Russia halted attacks on Ukrainian power plants. But Trump wanted Ukraine to stop unilaterally, blaming the strikes for high U.S. gas prices and arguing they weren’t equivalent to Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid.
The justification exposes a putrid double-dealing game: Trump’s failures in Iran have led to economic woes in the US which now threaten midterm elections. In order to redeem one folly, Trump is forced to burn bridges in Kiev—no pun intended—once more exposing the erratically unstable and disingenuous American foreign policy on which no country in the world can count.
It’s The Midterms, Stupid
Why burn this much goodwill with Kyiv over nine days of diesel? Because fuel prices are what’s moving the ballot. Goldman’s political economists Alec Phillips and Abhay Duggirala wrote in their latest US Election Monitor that “Gasoline prices and the Democratic generic ballot have moved together this year - the Democratic lead widened gradually after the gasoline price spike at the onset of the Iran war.” Democrats now lead the generic ballot by an average of 8.9pp, and “Inflation and the economy rank highest for voters, and Trump’s net approval on both is deeply negative.”
Back in palmy Miami, the sit-down between borgatas turned hairy as the news “blindsided” Zelensky’s lieutenants, turning their stomachs like a bad batch of gabagool, or gefilte fish as it were:
"But the meeting was derailed when the Ukrainian team was blindsided by Trump's announcement that he had cut a deal with Russia's Vladimir Putin to release diesel, according to three people with direct knowledge of the talks. During the Miami meeting, Trump’s envoys Steve …
7:42 AM · Oct 10, 2026 · 78.7K Views
32 Replies · 175 Reposts · 790 Likes
Even worse, according to the above report Kushner and Witkoff put the shake-down on the Z-team by threatening to cut all intelligence sharing, which would cripple Ukraine’s ability to take out Russian oil sites.
Ukraine relies on US sat intelligence to target Russian refineries that US doesn’t want Ukraine to hit. Witkoff threatens to cut off US help if Ukraine doesn’t stop hitting refineries. Ukraine says “Make me” walks out of the meeting and hits another Ru refinery—with Trump’s help.
"But the meeting was derailed when the Ukrainian team was blindsided by Trump's announcement that he had cut a deal with Russia's Vladimir Putin to release diesel, according to three people with direct knowledge of the talks. During the Miami meeting, Trump’s envoys Steve
7:56 AM · Oct 10, 2026 · 23.4K Views
18 Replies · 69 Reposts · 369 Likes
For those wondering why: it’s not because Ukrainian drones need the GPS coordinates for Russian refineries—that’s the easy part. It’s because they need real-time satellite tracking of Russian active radars in order to map a perfect flight route that bypasses radar coverage.
After marvelling at the size of the Kushner team’s brass, the Ukrainians reportedly flew the coop, with the relationship in tatters:
That official added that the Ukrainian team was cutting its trip short instead of holding a second round of talks on Saturday.
Zelensky immediately went on the offensive, for the first time openly calling out Trump with accusations of “weakness” against Russia:
Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський@ZelenskyyUa
What allowing Russia to sell oil products means was heard most clearly in Kyiv just now, when, after repeated attacks on energy facilities with jet-powered “shaheds,” Russia launched a ballistic missile attack as well. Some of the missiles were intercepted. This once again…
7:58 AM · Oct 10, 2026 · 366K Views
1.22K Replies · 1.97K Reposts · 10.9K Likes
Tracking sites reportedly are already tailing the first Russian “shadow fleet” diesel shipments to mainland America:
Given that the ship has already crossed the entire Atlantic Ocean, it’s clear—if the above is accurate—that the deal had already been in the works for some time. However, some claim it is not diesel in this tanker but rather fertilizer, which had already been allowed.
Like Trump, Putin too can be accused of his fair share of awkward backtracking, but one supposes it’s all for good cause when it comes to squeezing Ukraine between the swelling US-Russian relations.
Ultimately, however, the new deal seems more a headline-grabbing stunt and public castigation of Zelensky for Trump than anything else. The total diesel amounts to be imported are a tiny fraction of US’s needs and, at least according to experts, would not shift prices at the pump in a noticeable way.
More than likely, the deal is just another rash spur-of-the-moment lash-out by Trump, rooted more in ego due to his growing frustrations at his own failures in the Iran war and at being disobeyed by Zelensky.
Now Trump has really put his foot on Zelensky’s neck by openly calling for Ukraine to get a new president in what appears to be a final severing of the erstwhile relationship with the Bankova honcho:
Blaming Zelensky for the hardships now being experienced by American “farmers and ranchers” is a new low—anything for the lame Don to deflect from his Iranian quagmire.
More interestingly, Trump appears to issue an ultimatum to Zelensky in the clip above: “He better damn well stop.” Ever-defiant Zelensky has already declared his intent to continue hitting Russian refineries, and so we can only expect a culminating showdown between the two former “partners” sometime in the near future.
Here Zelensky begs the US to shut down Russia’s economy and let Ukraine use Starlink deep inside Russian territory so it can control Russian skies as “Israel did over Iran”:
Now all focus shifts on to how long a defenseless Ukraine with dwindling options and narrowing friend-circles will be able to last against Russia’s sustained winter campaign of infrastructure attacks.
As of this past week, things have already begun to look grimmer for Kiev, with daily power and service outages, with worse being forecast. Various Ukrainian experts assess the situation:
Here the director of Ukraine’s Energy Research Center outlines Russia’s likely winter plan:
Russia will focus its winter strikes on high-voltage substations and distribution hubs in order to cut off power to Kiev, stated Aleksandr Kharchenko, Director of the Energy Research Center.
According to him, Kiev and Odesa are particularly vulnerable due to their reliance on external electricity supplies. During peak demand, Kiev consumes up to 15% of the country's total electricity.
Klitschko and other key figures are urging people to even begin leaving the capital city as civil services break down:
Residents of Kiev and other cities should prepare for a worst-case scenario and consider moving out of the city, renting apartments in the suburbs, or staying with their parents due to potential issues with basic utilities.
This was stated by volunteer Taras Chmut.
The official energy authority of Ukrenergo announces the destruction of facilities:
Ukraine’s largest metallurgical plant has initiated a shutdown after attacks:
Ukraine's largest metallurgical plant, "ArcelorMittal," is initiating a complete shutdown of production and preservation of its facilities after four attacks.
▪️The reason for the shutdown is four missile attacks, which resulted in the deaths of 6 workers, more than 18 injuries, and the cessation of the main metallurgical production.
▪️The process of cold shutdown will take approximately 2 months. The company plans to resume operations after the end of the war.
➖"Based on our current assessment, safe operation is impossible as long as the war continues," said Mauro Longobardo, CEO of the company.
In light of all this, after the day’s dreary developments Zelensky took comfort in the arms of his European savior-enablers, immediately retreating into calls with top leaders and colleagues who offered consolation in the form of more empty rhetoric.
One thing becomes ever-clearer: that the Iranian war has fully entered into the mix of the global poly-crisis as its own interconnected theater of the expanding “world war” of East vs. West. Iran’s actions in drawing out the Hormuz crisis will now increasingly affect the resolution of all other theaters as the global economy takes on increasing strain, which ultimately gives Iran more leverage than ever before. We’re seeing that now even as of this writing, as Houthi attacks pound Saudi Arabia and Iran expands its blockade zone to begin striking ships much farther away from Hormuz Strait itself.
As the midterms get nearer, Trump will have an ever-shrinking reserve of patience for any thorns in his side, while seeing the resolution of the Ukraine conflict as a potential coup de grace that could pump his political sails on the eve of the elections. We can thus only expect Trump to get even more heavy-handed with Zelensky in browbeating him into submitting to Russia. At the same time, it’s clear Zelensky will remain defiant and take shelter in a willing Europe’s arms, thus helping to drive a deeper wedge between the declining political parties of the Old Europe elites and the US.
Either way, for Russia it is a boon—and for Ukraine, the most dismal winter yet awaits.
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