Six strikes into his energy ceasefire, Trump buys Russian diesel anyway and calls it the right choice.

As it ran on the front

The filing starts September 14th, when the president posted that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to an energy-target ceasefire: Ukraine would stop hitting Russian energy, Russia would do likewise, his word. Nine days later, September 23rd, Zelensky told the Wall Street Journal's editor-in-chief he would keep hitting Russian refineries anyway, because, in his words, "our lives are more important than the price of energy." Russia's defense ministry answered October 4th with a threat to strike Ukrainian military and industrial facilities if the refinery strikes continued. Five days after that, October 9th, the president lifted sanctions on Russian diesel and announced the United States would buy it — a deal the Guardian reports left Zelenskyy furious.

Sunday he posted the ceasefire a second time, as its own announcement. By Monday the ledger read like this: six Ukrainian energy sites hit since that ceasefire was announced, by Zelensky's own count. Oil and gas prices rose on the day, not fell, though the diesel purchase was sold as a fix for exactly that number. Zelensky called the president weak, for dealing with Moscow at all. Nobody in the receipts says when, or whether, that gets fixed.…