Trump's second ceasefire in a month dies hours after announcement, struck by Russia at a power plant.

…(cont) Did it hold? I was waiting at the toll plaza on the first of October when I heard it on the radio: Ukraine had struck a refinery in Russia's Samara region that same week, and Zelensky confirmed it himself. The Guardian's word for it was defying. I don't choose the words. I collect the dates.

September twenty-first, a week after the "agreed" post: the President said Russia had "lost control" of its own diesel industry, on account of the war. That's his phrase. I wrote the date down and kept driving.

Then today. Sunday, the eleventh of October. A second energy ceasefire, announced the same way as the first — no new terms I could find anywhere on the wire. I did the subtraction on the porch, with both dates in front of me: September fourteenth to October eleventh. Twenty-seven days. Not a month. Twenty-seven days, and we're on the second one.

Did Zelensky know beforehand? Separately, he said Ukraine would hold elections if Putin agreed to a sixty-day ceasefire. Both of those are his conditions, both on the record, and both start with if.

Did Russia hit a Ukrainian energy target the same day the ceasefire was announced? A power plant in Kharkiv was struck twice and caught fire, a local official said, and Zelensky confirmed it. Hours later, not days. I only have the clock to go by on that one.

Senator Tillis said the diesel deal was "tarnishing" Senator Graham's work on the sanctions bill, and said the President needs to move the sanctions bill forward — the one that was sent to him. Sent to him. I don't see "signed" anywhere in what he said, so I won't put it in his mouth. Six senators from both parties asked the President to immediately reverse course on the diesel deal itself. Representative Massie, who voted against Russia sanctions back in 2022, backed this one anyway, and said he was glad the President came around to his way of thinking.

Oh — hold on, before you go. One more thing I nearly left on the porch. Does the diesel in this deal actually lower the price I paid Thursday? The experts the Guardian talked to said no: too little, shipped too slow, and coming out of Russian refineries that keep getting hit by the same strikes the ceasefire is supposed to stop.