Trump, take this Russia deal: Ukraine stops hitting energy, expand Starshield!

The Ukraine War is again an all-consuming issue in American media, as President Trump continues to express frustration with Volodmyr Zelensky and Ukraine’s decision to continue destroying Russian energy production . Zelensky, however, understandably thinks this is necessary in order to beat Russia in this war, even though it damages the global economy and is indirectly harming Trump’s reelection prospects.

So here’s a plan: Ukraine should agree to stop hitting the energy infrastructure, and in exchange we will extend the use of SpaceX system Starshield from Ukrainian strikes within Ukraine itself to Russian territory.

The good news is Zelensky is already on board with this plan — here was Sen. Kevin Cramer, a Republican from North Dakota, telling “Face the Nation” all about it.

To that I say, let’s make a deal! We can leave Russian energy production, which the rest of the world counts on, intact. And instead, we can equip Ukraine with the ability to bring the fight to the enemy: to Russia.

Trump should like this plan, because his concern is that energy prices are hurting Republicans’ midterm chances by causing blowback against this war. The person who won’t like the plan is Vladirmir Putin, because he wants to keep wielding the threat of higher gas prices as a means of deterring Europe from fully backing the Ukrainian cause.

But from the U.S. perspective it’s a win-win. We don’t want to ease the pressure on Russia. We know Putin is feeling the pain, because now he wants to meet with Trump and Xi Jinping to discuss the end of the war. Such a negotiation, however, should be between Trump and Zelensky and Putin — let’s leave China out of it. In fact, his mere desire to bring in Xi for backup should be telling us everything we really need to know about who Putin is really beholden to. That would be our main rival: China.

So let’s give Ukraine the power to keep taking the fight to Russia, and to concentrate on Russian military targets, so that once the war is over Europe is free to buy Russian energy and we can all benefit from a shared prosperity. But that’s not happening until the war ends. The end will be on Russia’s terms, and Ukraine’s terms, and our terms — but until Russia is ready to play ball, there’s no reason to let up.

Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary.