Trump Lectures Ukraine, not Russia

He tells Kyiv to stop hitting Russian diesel, while Putin bombs civilian targets.

By The Editorial Board
Updated Sept. 13, 2026 5:48 pm ET
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Firefighters extinguish a car of a passenger train hit by a Russian drone strike at a railway station, Lutsk, Ukraine, Sept. 12.
State Emergency Service Of Ukrai/Handout/Reuters

An armed Russian jet drone hit the engine of a passenger train in Ukraine near the Polish border on the weekend. Meanwhile, President Trump lectured Ukraine’s President to stop hitting energy targets in Russia. Go ahead, make Vladimir Putin’s day, Mr. President.

The passenger train line between Warsaw and Kyiv is a a main travel route for civilians, as the Kremlin knows. Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt and a key adviser to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz are reported to have been on a different train the same evening. Were the Russians hoping to hit those European allies of Ukraine?

President Trump had nothing critical to say about the attack, which is part of Russia’s daily bombardment of civilian and energy targets in Ukraine. The Kremlin is trying to make life as difficult as possible for the Ukrainian people as another winter of war approaches.

Mr. Trump did find the time to warn Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky against Ukraine’s targeting energy supply depots inside Russia. “Mr. Zelensky has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia. Let him go after targets, but not diesel fuel, because he’s causing a shortage of diesel,” Mr. Trump said during his visit to Ireland on Sunday. “This isn’t done by the Middle East. This is done by what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine.”

So Russia can fire away at any and all targets in Ukraine, but Ukraine must restrain itself in retaliating in Russia. Mr. Trump is clearly worried about the price of diesel fuel, but blaming Ukraine amid Iranian and Houthi attacks on Mideast oil production and transport is political excuse-making on a grand scale.

It’s also strategically misguided as Russia and Iran help each other in their respective conflicts. Mr. Trump seems to think he can put these wars into separate boxes. Every time he does, he has adversaries in Moscow and Tehran smiling at their good luck.

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Journal Editorial Report: Lessons learned—and unlearned. Photo: Spencer Platt
Getty Images Copyright ©2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8 Appeared in the September 14, 2026, print edition as 'Trump Lectures Ukraine, not Russia'.

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The Editorial Board speaks for free markets and free people, the principles, if you will, marked in the watershed year of 1776 by Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence and Adam Smith's “Wealth of Nations.” 

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