NEVER in the field of human conflict was so much risked by one man for so little. Donald Trump is threatening to cripple Ukraine in its fight for survival—and to expose Europe to Russian aggression—seemingly for the pitiful prize of minimising his losses in next month’s midterm elections. The hard question is what Ukraine and its allies should do.
Mr Trump declared an energy ceasefire that Russia will not observe. His people demanded that Ukraine should stop targeting Russian refineries, suggesting that America would withhold intelligence and weapons sales if they refused. On the night of October 13th a Pentagon-controlled part of the Starlink satellite system was degraded for fast-moving Ukrainian drones—stopping them hitting hard-to-spot targets in Russian-occupied territory. But Ukraine does have options. The White House has suggested that Mr Trump’s energy truce covers only refineries—of which Ukraine has the grand total of one. Ukraine and its allies are rightly seeking to expand the ceasefire to all energy infrastructure. Even if they fail, highlighting this injustice bolsters efforts to seek help from the Senate in interceding with Mr Trump. They should remind him that losing Ukraine could brand him as a weak president. After the midterms, when Mr Putin’s diesel is worth less, Mr Trump may be prepared to move on, or simply become distracted.
On October 9th Mr Trump said he and Vladimir Putin had agreed that Russia will export 2.2m barrels of diesel, with the promise of more later.
