President Trump's up and down relationship with Russia is back on as he presses to find an end to the war in Ukraine amid high energy costs ahead of the U.S. midterms.

Transcript

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

Democrats and Republicans are opposed to President Trump's friendlier stance toward Russia.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Senators from both parties are criticizing Trump's decision to lift diesel sanctions. The president said that move was meant to head off high energy prices ahead of the midterm elections. He's also paused sharing military intelligence with Ukraine. In a moment, we'll discuss all this with former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul. We begin with the news.

MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Emily Feng is with us this morning. Emily, so first, run through what President Trump has done to roll back pressure on Russia.

EMILY FENG, BYLINE: OK. Here's just a brief list. He's had the Treasury Department lift sanctions on Russian diesel. He's effectively suspended a sanctions bill he just signed into law that was named in honor of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. He said yesterday he was willing to sit down with China's Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin to talk about the war on Ukraine even if Ukraine's leader is not there. And then he cited a Ukrainian woman he heard speak about the loss of lives as a reason to end the war.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: She blamed Zelenskyy. She said, he's killing our men. And the fact is, she said - and it was very poignant. She said, our men are dying. Our men have no legs.

FENG: Also last week, Ukrainian officials say they lost connectivity for a few days to Starshield and Starlink. These are satellite services which Ukraine uses for battlefield communications. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, says he thinks the U.S. was behind that. And he also made the extraordinary move of lobbying a bipartisan group of senators and House members about this Starlink issue this week.

MARTÍNEZ: Emily, do you have any sense why Trump, who really has faced repeated accusations of favoring Russia, is now seemingly courting Russia again?

FENG: Trump wants a deal. He wants a foreign policy win in Ukraine. And he told reporters yesterday he is negotiating with Russia on a number of issues - on energy, on American hostages in Russia. And he also wants to keep Russia from - not helping Iran. So he said he doesn't want to drive Russia away from the bargaining table.

I spoke to Bill Taylor about this. He was a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine until 2009. And Taylor notes the U.S. is no longer giving much direct financial and military assistance to Ukraine.

BILL TAYLOR: I mean, it's down 95%. The only thing we continue to provide, which is very valuable - it's come up in the last couple of days - is this military intelligence and the ability for the Europeans to buy weapons from the United States and Elon Musk to be able to provide Starlink.

FENG: But now the U.S. has shown Ukraine cannot rely on the U.S. for that intelligence either. And in that meeting I mentioned with members of Congress on Monday, Zelenskyy said that the administration, the U.S. government, is the one holding up weapons for his country.

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PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY: We also know that, unfortunately, the Pentagon is delaying the delivery of missiles that our partners have already paid for.

FENG: Secretary of State Marco Rubio also spoke on this. Speaking in Mumbai, India, today, Rubio said it could be accurate that a batch of interceptors purchased for Ukraine has not been delivered. Rubio, however, told reporters that the important takeaway was, quote, "there has not been some deliberate political directive to go out and harm Ukraine."

MARTÍNEZ: All right. So, Emily, there's been a bipartisan fallout that's followed this. Tell us about that.

FENG: Yes. Notably, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are criticizing the U.S. for buying Russian diesel. For example, on top of the lawmakers that Zelenskyy briefed, you have Republican Representative Mike Lawler saying the diesel puts money in Russia's pocket. Notably, Darline Graham, sister of the late Senator Graham, whose namesake sanctions law was just signed into law by Trump, spoke out against the U.S. buying Russian diesel. And this fallout is illustrative of the bind that Trump has put himself in by starting a seemingly intractable conflict with Iran. He has driven up energy prices for Americans. That's put more leverage in Russia's hands to push the U.S. for a quick resolution on Ukraine.

MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's NPR's Emily Feng. Emily, thanks.

FENG: Thanks, A.

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