Trumps diesel deal is folly and the Ukrainian people will bear the cost

On Sept.25, a Russian drone slammed into Daniel Umansky’s apartment in Kyiv, killing him and injuring his mother.At the moment of impact, 14-year-old Daniel was completing a school assignment: an essay on the teachings of major figures in Ukraine’s medieval history and their relevance to the world of today. Daniel Umansky is not the first Ukrainian civilian to be killed by the Russian military, nor will he be the last.The United Nations counts at least 200 civilians killed and over 1,200 injured last month alone.But President Donald Trump’s diesel deal — under which Moscow would supply up to 5 million metric tons of diesel to US and global markets in exchange for eased US sanctions on Russian fuel — risks turning repetition into routine. I lead the American Coalition for Ukraine, a nonpartisan coalition of 45 US nonprofits working to strengthen American support for a just peace.For our community, that work is not an abstraction.Daniel’s story should make any American think twice about bankrolling Vladimir Putin’s war by letting Russian energy flow to market.Yet it may mean little to policymakers who pride themselves on their unsentimental pragmatism, their commitment to defending American interests, and their willingness to confront difficult realities in a perilous world.So it’s important to consider what those realities truly are: America will gain little from this deal and lose much — and Putin will come out the winner. He’ll use any revenue he receives from oil sales to finance more bombs and drones that his military will deploy against civilians in Ukraine, as he keeps proving night after night.Claims that Kyiv has rejected the White House’s calls for an energy cease-fire are not true: Ukraine’s leaders have said repeatedly that they are willing to cease striking Russia’s energy sector so long as Russia reciprocates in kind. In fact, Ukraine again heeded Trump’s latest call for an energy cease-fire, suspending strikes on Russian...