Trump Blames Ukraine Again While Putin Keeps the Receipt

Lede

Trump is blaming Ukraine for damaging the invader’s fuel supply while the invasion itself somehow keeps escaping the front of the blame queue.

Hermit Off Script

Trump did it again. Not that this is something new, because blaming Ukraine for consequences created by Russia’s invasion has become less an occasional mistake and more a habit. This time Zelensky was told to stop hitting Russian diesel infrastructure because, according to Trump, Ukraine is causing a global diesel shortage. Apparently Ukraine is allowed to defend itself, but preferably without damaging anything Russia might find economically useful.
This is the same upside-down logic that has followed Ukraine for years. Ukraine is somehow responsible because it did not surrender to Putin, give up territory and accept whatever Moscow decided its future should be. It wanted independence, freedom and the Western democratic values that Western countries spent decades advertising. Then, when Ukraine actually fought for those values, some of the same world started behaving as if the inconvenient part was that Ukrainians took the promise seriously.
At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, many people expected Ukraine to fall quickly. Days became weeks, weeks became months, and months became years. Ukraine survived. Yet there are still people acting as if the easiest route to peace is for Ukraine to lose enough land, weapons and bargaining power that Putin finally becomes satisfied. Maybe afterwards he will sing kumbaya, cheap energy will return and everyone can pretend authoritarian expansion has discovered retirement.
I see the same moral weakness in parts of the Middle East debate. These are different conflicts and should not be lazily merged, but the political habit is familiar. Choose your preferred side, excuse what that side does, condemn the other side and call the result principle. Stopping shooting matters, but a lasting peace also has to confront terrorism, attacks on civilians, state violence, oppression and impunity. Otherwise the people who pay are usually ordinary families while the people making decisions remain behind security, money and flags.
So yes, when I say “Trump is evil”, I am not claiming access to the man’s soul. I am judging a pattern of conduct where the invaded country repeatedly receives the lecture while the invader receives another conversation about what it wants. What troubles me even more is that he is allowed to keep doing it. Statements and behaviour that might once have destroyed a president politically now become another day’s clip, another argument, another shrug, another headline.
The frightening part is not one politician saying outrageous things. It is a democratic system becoming accustomed to hearing them.

And then there is the free press

There is another part of Trump’s world that worries me – the increasing hostility towards a free press when that press refuses to agree. A free press is not supposed to be friendly to the president. It is supposed to ask uncomfortable questions, investigate government actions and occasionally annoy everyone in power. That is rather the point.
Yet the Trump administration has increasingly treated critical journalism as if disagreement itself were misconduct. Trump has repeatedly attacked reporters personally, including calling CNN’s Kristen Holmes a “fake reporter” after a difficult question in August 2026. The White House later went further and brought her children into its public attack. The Justice Department has pursued journalists while investigating leaks, including subpoenas seeking testimony from reporters, while the FBI searched the home of a Washington Post journalist and seized electronic devices in January. The Pentagon has also imposed new restrictions on journalists’ access, including turning its press office into a classified space reporters cannot freely enter.
I don’t need the press to agree with me, Trump, Democrats, Republicans or anyone else. I need it to remain capable of disagreeing without wondering whether access, investigations or government power will be used as punishment. Otherwise “free press” slowly becomes “approved press”, and authoritarian governments already have plenty of that.

“Trump is evil”

What does not make sense

Russia launched the full-scale invasion, yet Ukraine is repeatedly treated as the difficult party because it refuses to surrender territory.
Ukraine’s attacks on Russian fuel infrastructure are presented as an unacceptable economic problem while Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure continue.
Trump said the diesel shortage was not caused by the Middle East, while current energy reporting identifies both the Iran conflict and Ukrainian refinery strikes as significant supply pressures.
A country is encouraged to defend itself, provided its defence does not become inconvenient for international prices.
“Peace” increasingly seems to mean asking the smaller country what it will surrender rather than asking the invader what it will return.
Democracies warn about authoritarianism while repeatedly discovering reasons to accommodate authoritarian demands.

Sense check / The numbers

On 13 September 2026, Trump told Zelensky to stop “knocking out diesel fuel in Russia”, while US diesel prices had already passed $6 per gallon for the first time. [Reuters]
Reuters reported that US diesel prices had risen nearly 60 per cent since the US-Israel conflict with Iran began in February 2026, while US diesel inventories were 13 per cent below their five-year average. Ukrainian refinery strikes were one factor among several, not the whole explanation. [Reuters]
On 2 March 2022, the UN General Assembly voted 141 to 5, with 35 abstentions, for a resolution condemning Russia’s aggression and demanding that Russian forces withdraw from Ukraine. [United Nations]
In July 2026 alone, UN monitors recorded at least 437 civilians killed and 2,610 injured in Ukraine. Civilian casualties were 70 per cent higher than in July 2025, and the number killed was the highest since May 2022. [OHCHR]
The blame pattern predates this diesel argument. On 18 February 2025, Trump said Ukraine “should have never started it” while discussing a war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022. [Reuters]

The sketch

Scene 1: The diesel emergency
A presidential silhouette stands beside an expensive diesel pump. Behind him, a large map shows burning shipping routes in the Middle East while a tiny Ukraine silhouette points towards a Russian refinery.
Dialogue:
President: “Who caused this?”
Ukraine: “There are several causes.”
President: “Excellent. Ukraine it is.”

Scene 2: The peace negotiation
A small Ukraine silhouette sits at a table while a giant boot marked “INVASION” rests across part of its map. The mediator points towards Ukraine.
Dialogue:
Mediator: “You must compromise.”
Ukraine: “Could he remove the boot?”
Russia: “Very unreasonable.”

Scene 3: The outrage conveyor belt
A conveyor carries folders marked “BLAME”, “POWER” and “NEXT SCANDAL” through a machine labelled “POLITICS”. The same presidential silhouette waits at the other end.
Dialogue:
President: “Still here.”
System: “Next headline, please.”
Voter: “Wasn’t that serious?”

What to watch, not the show

Whether pressure for a settlement continues to fall more heavily on Ukraine than on Russia to reverse territorial gains made by force.
Whether energy prices become a political reason to protect Russian revenue-producing infrastructure from Ukrainian attack.
Whether Middle East supply disruption is minimised when acknowledging it would create domestic political responsibility.
Whether peace negotiations distinguish between an aggressor and a country defending internationally recognised territory.
Whether repeated extraordinary presidential conduct becomes ordinary simply because institutions, parties and voters become accustomed to it.
Whether democratic governments keep treating authoritarian stability as cheaper than defending democratic principles until the bill arrives somewhere else.

The Hermit take

Blaming the invaded country for refusing to make invasion convenient is not peace-making. It is surrender dressed for television.
A democracy becomes fragile when power can keep moving the blame and still face almost no political cost.

Keep or toss

Toss

Keep serious negotiations that can actually stop killing.
Toss the idea that Ukraine must make Russia comfortable enough to stop invading it.

Sources

Reuters, Trump tells Ukraine’s Zelenskiy to stop hitting Russian diesel: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/trump-tells-ukraines-zelenskiy-stop-hitting-russian-diesel-2026-09-13/
Reuters, US average diesel price passes $6 a gallon for the first time: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-average-diesel-prices-cross-6-gallon-first-time-gasbuddy-says-2026-09-10/
Reuters, Kremlin welcomes Trump’s call to halt strikes on Russian diesel facilities: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/kremlin-welcomes-trumps-call-ukraine-halt-strikes-diesel-facilities-2026-09-14/
Reuters, Ukraine will support an energy ceasefire if Moscow’s intent is guaranteed: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-wants-specifics-partners-halting-strikes-zelenskiy-says-2026-09-14/
United Nations, General Assembly resolution demanding Russia withdraw from Ukraine: https://press.un.org/en/2022/ga12407.doc.htm
OHCHR, Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict – July 2026: https://ukraine.ohchr.org/en/Protection-of-Civilians-in-Armed-Conflict-July-2026
Reuters, Trump remarks suggesting Ukraine should have avoided or ended the war: https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-us-would-not-oppose-europe-sending-peackeepers-ukraine-2025-02-18/