Trump waives new Russia sanctions as Ukraine ties slump

Donald Trump has just signed an executive order putting on hold the sweeping new U.S. sanctions and tariffs on Russian energy revenues that was signed into law just last month. The sharp reversal follows a deal with President Vladimir Putin to push Russian diesel into global markets as Washington's ties with Ukraine sour. Our correspondent in Ukraine, Gulliver Craig, has more for us. Betrayal is certainly the way most Ukrainians are seeing it, including the President Volodymyr Zelensky. Media coverage of this latest decision is focusing on the tough path that Lindsey Graham bill had through Congress, perhaps only being passed in the end after his death because of the emotion that that, you know, elicited the best part of two years. And it was for a long time, very uncertain whether it would be passed. And then it was uncertain whether Donald Trump would sign it into law. He did, giving rise to certain hopes among some Ukrainians. And now, of course, you've got those who are saying, we told you he was a Russian agent all along, again, piping up and saying, look, this was always bound to happen. This was the way that it was going to go. But this debate in Ukraine about just how much Donald Trump is now permanently on the side of Russia is still ongoing. You've still got people like the philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko, for example, who are saying, look, Donald Trump is first and foremost a showman. He wants to surprise people every time, so they'll watch the next episode. And so we shouldn't be thinking that there's anything newly predictable about the US president's behavior. At the moment, that seems like the most optimistic analysis someone in Ukraine can have.