According to Le Monde, the White House chief took this step amid the prospect of a Republican defeat due to inflation caused by his war against Iran. The American leader decided to purchase Russian diesel fuel, hoping to drive down prices at gas stations in the United States.

The War Against Iran and the Shortage of Air Defense Missiles

The U.S. military campaign in the Middle East has already helped Putin shore up his economy thanks to a sharp rise in energy prices.

In addition, while defending its partners in the Persian Gulf from Iranian attacks, Washington has depleted its critically important stockpiles of air defense missiles.

Faced with the prospect of defeat in the November 3 midterm elections – largely due to inflation caused by his war against Iran – Trump decided to sacrifice Ukrainian civilians… The consequences of this betrayal will be measured in human lives – the lives of people killed in cities subjected to relentless bombardment,
– the publication noted.

Kyiv found itself without the necessary protection at the height of the most intense airstrikes. At the same time, Donald Trump ignored intelligence reports that explicitly pointed to the transfer of Russian logistical support to the Iranian regime.

When the compromise on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz collapsed and fuel prices in the U.S. spiked again, the White House chief blamed Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Donald Trump publicly stated that the rise in oil prices was caused by successful Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries.

The publication noted that calls for a change of government in Ukraine, energy agreements with Moscow, and reports of disruptions in the Starshield military communications system are turning the world’s leading power into a de facto ally of the Kremlin.

Attempts to justify these moves as a desire to sever Moscow’s strategic partnership with China are contradicted by the facts on the ground. Such concessions to the aggressor only fuel the Russian offensive and weaken the position of the Western alliance.

For Trump, this is not a strategic shift. In fact, the Russian shadow has loomed over his presidency for a decade. A direct line runs from the disastrous 2018 Helsinki summit – where the U.S. president shamefully sided with Putin’s position – to the Anchorage summit in August 2025. There, Trump eagerly rolled out the red carpet for his Russian counterpart, receiving nothing in return. Until very recently, U.S. presidents took pride in serving as the “leader of the free world” – a legacy of the Cold War era. However, during the Trump era, the word “freedom,” like “democracy,” disappeared from Washington’s lexicon. History will not forget this,
the authors of the article concluded.

Incidentally, as The Guardian noted, Putinordered that Ukraine's major cities be rendered uninhabitable. The occupiers have even included high-risk facilities on their list of targets, specifically distribution substations at several nuclear power plants.

The Russian leadership resorted to this new tactic due to a lack of military success on the front lines and the recent counteroffensive by the Ukrainian Defense Forces.