Europe despairs over Trump-Putin diesel deal

Before Donald Trump arrived back in the White House, President Joe Biden could be relied on to support Ukraine all the way, with money, intelligence and weapons - and heavy sanctions agains Russia, in particular banning purchases of Russian oil and natural gas. Biden was too cautious in helping Kyiv with weapons, delaying decisions over sending longer-range missiles and failing to uspply enough anti-missile interceptors. But Biden and the coalition he put together could never be described as kowtowing to Putin. President Zelensky begged for quicker supplies of weapons from the US and coalition countries, but, basically, he always knew everyone in the west backed him. Now, that has all changed. Donald Trump has, bizarrely, done a deal with Putin, lifting sanctions to allow for the US to buy Russian diesel, to the tune of about $4 billion, because of the worldwide shortage of diesel, caused, not by Russia as such but by the US war against Iran. Putin must think he has won the lottery. Four billion dollars will go into the Russian economy, thank you very much, all or most of which will no doubt be spent on building more weapons to hit Ukraine. No wonder European leaders are grinding their teeth. Trump is the leader of the western alliance but is acting against everyone's interests, except Putin's. There is nothing Europe can do but wail and moan, and. as for poor old Zelensky, he has been stabbed in the back by what used to be his main ally.