I think we are seeing the makings of another impeachment scenario involving Ukraine. The last one (which, as you know, was Donald Trump’s first of two) was about him asking that country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to help him cheat to defeat Joe Biden. If there is another, it may concentrate on Trump’s interference of Ukraine’s sovereign right to exist.
Namely, that it looks like he sabotaged Zelenskyy’s war of survival.
On Wednesday, Russia attacked Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during what was supposed to have been a ceasefire arrangement. In a barrage including 39 ballistic missiles, the highest number in one attack since the 2022 invasion, the Times reported “some 600,000 people in Kyiv lost power, renewing concerns about access to heat during the upcoming winter.”
On the same night, Ukraine’s defense ministry reported it lost access to Starshield, which is a military variant of Starlink, a vital asset in combat communications. As of Wednesday, the Times said, “the disruption has not been explained. But the network … is paid for by the Pentagon, leading Ukrainians to believe that the restrictions came from the White House.”
By Thursday, it was explained. And the Ukranians appear to have been right. Two US officials and a “Western official” told Reuters “the order to limit a satellite system used by Ukraine for battlefield communications and drone operations came from inside the White House.”
All this is happening in the context of diesel.
Russia finances the war by selling diesel, so Ukraine has been destroying its capacity to refine it. That has reduced the global supply, which has increased the price – and the price of everything else along with it. In turn, that has put pressure on Trump and the GOP.
They are facing voters enraged by the extortionate cost of living. As a “harcore Republican” in Georgia told MS Now: “Out of any president I’ve ever lived under, I’ve hurt more under Trump than any other president. Fuel prices, beef prices. I mean, he’s cutting our throats.”
Most of Trump’s trouble stems from his illegal war against Iran, and Iran’s decision to react by throttling the Strait of Hormuz. But as Rory Johnston explained, Ukraine’s strikes are definitely affecting diesel prices. “Russia is normally the world’s second largest diesel exporter, shipping around 1 million barrels per day,” the commodities researcher said.
“Today, they’re barely above 100,000 barrels per day. That loss of Russian diesel has absolutely helped drive diesel prices to their current near-all-time-highs.”
Trump seemed to act decisively last week. The AP said he announced that Russia will supply “more than 300,000 tons of diesel, followed by an additional 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons ‘immediately thereafter.’ Russia will deliver an additional 3 million tons.”
As impressive as it sounds, 4.8 million tons of diesel is about nine days of supply in America. It will not make a dent. So why did Trump lift restrictions in place for six years? We didn’t get anything. Neither did Ukraine. According to the Times, Russia didn’t concede anything.
Which brings me back to sabotage.
Did someone in the White House pull the plug on Starshield/Starlink on the same night Russia launched more ballistic missiles at Ukraine than it had before? Did that person, or persons, work in coordination for anyone? And what was their goal? And for whom did they do it? Sabotaging Ukraine serves neither Ukraine’s interests nor the interests of the United States, as vast majorities of Americans still prefer to live in a world in which nations have sovereignty and can’t be consumed by neighboring nations ruled by fools and degenerates.
Was it done merely because Vladimir Putin asked?
We deserve to know.
So yes, I think we are seeing the makings of another impeachment scenario involving Ukraine. I mean, there are a billion reasons to impeach Trump, but this one is a big one, as it’s part of America’s global role. In the context of an affordability crisis, it might be a story about how the president was so incompetent, so corrupt, so broken that he made enemies of everyone, including “hardcore Republicans.” In the end, all he had left was his friend, Putin.
And he didn’t have even that.