He asked Trump for a winter package including Patriots in their New York meeting, and expects Washington to push for a ceasefire on energy strikes, though he doubts Putin moves without new sanctions since the Russian leader has his elections behind him and feels no pressure.
Trump has been leaning on Kyiv to quit hitting refineries because of what it does to fuel prices, and Zelensky confirmed that pressure is real even though prices never came up in their talk.
Zelensky, on why he keeps burning Russian refineries:
“Our lives are more important than the price of energy.”
American diesel hit $6.53 on Tuesday, up almost a dollar in a month, and Zelensky blames Hormuz for most of that.
He’s right that Putin only moves when something hurts, and refineries are the only thing Ukraine can reach that actually does.
Asking Trump for Patriots while ignoring his one request is a gamble, because the interceptors Kyiv needs are the same ones America burned through in the Gulf, and the president is bargaining hard to get pump prices down before November.
Source: The Wall Street Journal / Writer: Daniel
