European hypocrisy is funding Russia's war chest

There will be no ceasefire in Ukraine while Moscow rakes it in from fossil fuel exports to the EU, China, Turkey and India

- SAM KILEY

The White House is wagging its finger, the Brits and other Europeans will be alongside Ukraine, and Turkey has high hopes. And when they all come together in Istanbul on Monday for ceasefire talks with Russia, the Kremlin's reaction will be "ish-to" - so what? Vladimir Putin is facing no significant consequences from either Donald Trump or Europe for his continued war in Ukraine.

Indeed, the latest research shows that Russia is making billions from European gas exports that are funding its war - in Europe.

The heaviest sanction threatened by Trump, and repeated by his envoys, is that the US will "walk away" from engagement with Russia and Ukraine over getting a 30-day ceasefire agreed, let alone any kind of peace process. On top of that, Keith Kellogg, the lead US envoy to Ukraine, has repeated the White House mantra, which is also a Kremlin demand, that Ukraine will never join Nato.

The Trump administration has many levers it could pull to drive Russia towards a ceasefire. It could threaten to up military and intelligence support for Ukraine, it could back its Nato ambitions or it could offer troops to underwrite Ukraine's future security.

It has inexplicably given up every one of those levers. As a result, the 32 members of Nato meeting at the end of June will have to decide what the alliance is actually for, as America has pivoted into camp Kremlin.