Trump Betrayed Ukraine. Here’s What’s Next.After the diesel deal and Starlink restrictions, Ukraine’s friends must act.
Now through the end of October, you can save 30% when you upgrade to join The Next Move’s premium subscriber community. Your contribution advances the efforts of the Renew Democracy Initiative, including direct humanitarian aid to frontline communities in Ukraine—essential work while US support for Ukraine hangs in the balance. Premium subscribers receive exclusive benefits like early access to podcasts, access to The Next Move’s subscriber chat, and automatic entry into raffles for signed chess sets. Click here to upgrade. Garry Kasparov is the chairman of the Renew Democracy Initiative, which publishes The Next Move. America dealt two grave betrayals to Ukraine in the past week. More are surely coming. Last Friday, Donald Trump announced that the United States would again buy Russian diesel. When Volodymyr Zelenskyy protested, Trump said that Ukraine needed new leadership (what is it they say about glass houses?). Today, Ukraine is facing new restrictions on Starshield, the military version of Starlink, introducing a serious new handicap to Kyiv’s battlefield capabilities. Notably, Elon Musk—no fan of Ukraine and Zelenskyy—was quick to suggest that it was Trump who cut off access. We cannot overstate the seriousness of these transgressions. Trump and Zelenskyy have butted heads before. Now, the administration is preparing for the next step, outright labeling the Ukrainian president an enemy. If Trump has a stake in Russia’s hydrocarbon sector, the US will declare Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure—essential for Kyiv to level the playing field—as attacks on American interests. (Trump, meanwhile, shows complete indifference when Russia attacks US properties in Ukraine. Of course, he’s never been held back by hypocrisy.) Meanwhile Starlink provides essential satellite communications and information to Ukrainian forces. In 2025, Musk wrote on Twitter that Ukraine’s “entire front line would collapse if I turned [Starlink] off.” Perhaps Mr. Musk is a touch too proud of his own product. Still, his assessment is sadly not so far from the truth. Trump is just a few weeks from a midterm election in which his Republican Party is expected to lose. Vladimir Putin is watching events from over Trump’s shoulder, and knows that a Democratic Congress could thwart many of his designs in Washington come January. These next three months are therefore critical. People will look at this situation and ask whether the American president is a Russian asset. Here is my opinion: whether Trump is acting as Putin’s agent or merely an impressionable admirer is not relevant. The outcome would be the same, and the bottom line here is that this was coordinated between the White House and the Kremlin. As I often say, I believe in coincidences, but I also believe in KGB. Kyiv has innovated around its supposed allies’ fickleness before. When the United States was slow to replenish Ukraine’s air defenses, for example, the Ukrainians developed low-cost interceptor drones. Ukraine was so successful in this endeavor that the US turned to Zelenskyy’s government for help in the Iran War. Ukraine does not have to go it alone. The European powers have the collective military, political, and economic heft to stand in for the US. Here, however, I must inject a dose of reality: I just returned from the Warsaw Security Conference, where European diplomats found every term save for “war” to describe blatant Russian aggression. The continent faces countervailing winds. On the one hand, there’s a growing understanding, pushed by the Baltic and Nordic countries, that Europe must defend Ukraine at all costs. Still, Europe is loath to accept that it’s at war, let alone that this conflict has two fronts, with the US on the side of the Russians. Rallying European support is possible, but status quo bias reigns supreme in Brussels, Berlin, and Paris, meaning Kyiv and its friends will have to lobby hard. Here in America, Democrats, too, can step up. With success in the House—and possibly the Senate—they must work out a plan to restore US support for Ukraine on day one of a new Congress. They also have to push their Republican colleagues to take a stand: do not allow them to hide behind Trump. This should be a priority today, not a regret to reflect upon years down the road. America’s latest acts of treachery represent the gravest test before Ukraine since February 2022, but I believe the brave Ukrainians will meet the challenge this time too. The question is how many people will have to die on account of the Trump administration’s duplicity and Europe’s fecklessness. |
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