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Gitanole · 10-17-2026 07:11 AM

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Ukrainian soldiers setting up communications

A stark new reality for Ukraine as it fights for its life: Trump’s drive to defray the politically ruinous energy costs of his war in Iran is making it harder and more dangerous for Ukraine to win its own.
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In a 2019 phone call, the president used the prospect of military aid to try to pressure Zelensky into opening an investigation into Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The move led to Trump’s first impeachment.

Ukraine’s latest entanglement in US politics is fueling concerns in Washington and Europe that the president is not just prioritizing his own political needs but is now taking a series of steps to actively help Putin.
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Amid a furious backlash, including among many Republicans, Trump announced a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine covering energy installations—but later signaled that he hadn’t informed the mystified combatants about it beforehand.

Ukraine observed the pseudo-truce, only for Russia to launch devastating air and drone strikes against its energy plants that left 600,000 people in the dark. On Tuesday, Zelensky said his government had not received its usual early warning from the US before a Russian ballistic missile attack hit a major power plant in Kyiv and damaged a residential building.

The showdown with Washington left Ukraine especially embittered because it came against a backdrop of relentless missile attacks on civilians that drew no significant US condemnation.
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A residential building in Kyiv after a Russian strike

Ukrainian generals were shocked by the limits on the Starshield system, which is owned and controlled not by Musk but by the US government.

The restrictions effectively limited the speed of Ukrainian military hardware, including drones, and reduced the military’s capacity to communicate and to operate war planes and helicopters. These curbs amounted to a significant military advantage to Russia’s forces on the battlefield.
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The Starshield episode followed recent moves and rhetoric by Trump that have dismayed allies who believe the only path to ending the war lies in pressuring Putin — who launched an illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022 in a bid to crush the former Soviet republic’s sovereignty.
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Trump’s US critics argue that the diesel deal is just the latest example of his habit of appeasing Putin, since it will do little to lower prices before the midterm elections. But if followed through in its entirety, the agreement will inject billions of dollars into the Russian economy after years of international sanctions and will likely be used to bolster the Russian war machine.
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As a strategic matter, the diesel deal is especially puzzling because, as CNN reported in March, Russia provided Iran with intelligence about the locations of US ships, aircraft and personnel earlier in the war. It also comes as Russia is accused of sabotage and harassment operations against US NATO allies. The head of MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence service, this week warned Moscow had become “aggressor number one” and was conducting a campaign of hybrid warfare against the United Kingdom and its allies.
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Tom Keatinge, director of the Center for Finance and Security at the Royal United Services Institute in London, told CNN International on Thursday: “Donald Trump (80) is putting his electoral position ahead of the security, the safety, the lives of Ukrainian people, and this should not be lost on viewers and on policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic.”

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/10/16/polit...a-starlink

Threaded Mode \| Linear Mode Trump and Iran war now impair Ukraine’s defence
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