Zelenskyy on Meet the Press October 18. [NBC News]
On Handing Russia the Win -- Even Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) objected, though carefully and politely, to President Trump’s executive order issued last weekend waiving the bipartisan bill he signed into law September 18 named for the senator’s late brother, and meant to financially stifle Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s drone attacks on Ukraine.
“I look forward to talking to him” about the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, Sen. Graham said Saturday, The Hill reports. She spoke carefully and politely because she is running for a full six-year term for her Senate seat.
“The president and I share the same goal, which is to end the war, get gas and diesel prices down,” Graham said. “The sanctions bill is one of the tools he can use to do that. It’s up to him whether or not he chooses to use it.”
Lowering diesel prices in time for the November 3 midterms is Trump’s stated goal in lifting sanctions against Russia. It is also Trump’s latest indication of his fondness for Putin and for his propensity to appease Russia’s interests going back at least to 2016, including antipathy toward NATO.
“I find it more difficult to deal with [Ukrain President Volodymyr Zelenskyy] than Putin,” Trump said, providing a sort of update of “I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia” that interfered in the 2016 presidential election. “I will say this, I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
On Sunday’s Meet the Press, Zelenskyy told NBC News’ Kristen Welker he always seeks to be “very clear, very honest and very supportive” of Ukraine’s strategic partners. By lifting sanctions against Russia, Trump is financing Putin’s war against Ukraine by un-freezing assets as well as allowing Russia to sell gas globally, Zelenskyy said, but Putin will not succeed because Russia, facing a determined Ukrainian army, has not found success on the battlefield.
“But I can’t applaud any decision or any words of any leader if they go against Ukraine,” he said.
Zelenskyy demurred on Welker’s question of who is responsible for Starshield (the military component of Elon Musk’s Starlink) throttling Ukraine’s defense system to a 161 kp/h (100 mph) limit. This has made it impossible for Ukraine to defend itself against Russia’s Iranian-designed Shahed drones capable of 450-500 kp/h or more, according to Zelenskyy. Starshield throttled Ukraine’s system late last week.
According to a report in The Telegraph, Musk approached Trump about slowing down Starshield in Ukraine.
The Upshot … Zelenskyy says he wants to reach a ceasefire deal with Russia so long as Russia stops attacking Ukraine. He said he expects to meet with US negotiators in the coming week.
Meanwhile, Ukraine drones hit an oil facility, bridge and data center in St. Petersburg overnight, as Russia continues to attack civilian buildings and locations, and launched “one of its largest attacks” on Ukraine’s energy grid, according to The Kyiv Independent.
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About Gas and Diesel Prices – Unleaded regular gas average $4.2953 per gallon Monday, AAA reports, for savings of 3.18 cents compared with last Friday’s prices. That’s $1.3153 more per gallon than on February 27, just as the US-Israeli war on Iran started. Diesel is $6.3187 Monday, 0.74 cents lower than Friday and $2.5617 per gallon higher than on March 5. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa