Ahead of the US mid-term elections, Ukraine could make a point of announcing a week-long pause in strikes against Russian oil refineries, so that Donald Trump would have no grounds to accuse Kyiv of allegedly influencing diesel fuel prices ahead of the vote. This was stated by Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Chairman of the Kyiv Security Forum and Prime Minister of Ukraine from 2014 to 2016, in an interview with ‘Ukrainska Pravda’.
Yatsenyuk emphasised that Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s decision to resume strikes on oil refineries was justified, as it had been preceded by a series of fruitless appeals to the US. “He didn’t simply say without warning: ‘We are resuming strikes’. He had asked for Patriot systems, Starlink, American aid and an energy ceasefire. And he was denied all of this,” Yatsenyuk noted.
At the same time, KSF Chairman suggested considering a tactical pause in the run-up to the US elections. “A week before the mid-term elections, I would unilaterally announce that, whilst making a sacrifice ourselves – but because Trump had asked, and so that no one could say we had influenced the election result or were showing contempt for the US administration – we would refrain from striking oil refineries for a week to allow your diesel prices to stabilise,” Yatsenyuk emphasised.
At the same time, he stressed that, in reality, Ukrainian strikes have no impact on US prices. “Diesel prices are not stabilising because they have absolutely nothing to do with the strikes on refineries. That is a separate economic issue,” added Chairman of the KSF.