Vladimir Putin’s fuel nightmare has worsened as Ukrainian drones set two oil tankers ablaze in the Sea of Azov and torched depots deep inside Russia. Thursday’s strikes are the latest blows in a punishing months-long campaign that has crippled Russia’s refineries and plunged roughly 50 million people—about a third of the population—into a fuel crisis on a scale not seen since the dying days of the Soviet Union.

Meetings with Donald Trump haven’t always gone well for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In a 2019 phone call, Trump unsuccessfully pressured Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden. In a 2025 Oval Office ambush,