by Tyler Durden -ZeroHedge.com
US relations with Ukraine are once again spiraling fast, especially following President Trump’s ‘shock’ declaration Saturday while addressing Zelensky’s anger at the diesel deal with Russia, “I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal… And I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.”
The rebuke had been in response to Zelensky blasting the diesel arrangement as “not fair and not honest” and a “sign of weakness” by Trump, and a “birthday gift” to Putin.
And then on Sunday morning, again to the great surprise of Western allies, Trump announced on social media a new energy ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia – except that Kiev quickly said it knows of no such ceasesfire.
“Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine,“ Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!”
The last such energy ceasefire attempt announced by Trump was in mid-September, but it didn’t hold and in fact collapsed rather quickly after. In reality it never so much as got off the ground, before both sides were back at hammering each other’s oil, gas, and electricity infrastructure.
Very soon after this latest announcement by Trump on Sunday, Zelensky told US media that it was “news to me”. He said to Axios while reacting to Trump’s Truth Social post: “If President Trump negotiated it with Putin, please tell us when the ceasefire begins. We are ready, and we will accept it.”
And yet the dilemma for Kiev remains: it is vehemently against a US-Russian diesel deal, but any pause in energy attacks would serve to protect that very deal.
This unusual and very public back-and-forth is happening as the Ukrainian capital has been plunged into darkness: