Trump shifts position on Ukraine as fuel prices pose existential threat

Recent comments by Donald Trump have put distance between him and Ukraine. ( Reuters: Eric Lee )

Link copied Share Share article It would be easy to dismiss the erratic, contradictory and increasingly rapid changes in the proclamations from Donald Trump about Ukraine, and US diesel purchases from Russia, if it wasn't for the US making threats to Europe about cutting intelligence and military procurements to Ukraine.

The underlying shift amid all the noise appears to be one of Trump moving back from his position of recent months to align more with Russia than Ukraine in their long running war.

But it is hard to see this as a clear strategic change by the US and not one driven principally by the almost existential threat posed to the Republican Party in the looming US mid-term elections by soaring fuel prices.