US pressure needs to be directed at Russia, not Ukraine

As Russia escalates its deadly strikes against Ukraine and its civilian population, Ukraine is retaliating with strikes against Russian military and energy targets. The U.S. must be clear where it stands — with Ukraine and against Russia, the aggressor.

The Trump administration should also condemn assaults on American business operations in the region. Vice President JD Vance cautioned Ukraine on this, but he should make sure that Russia, too, knows America will not tolerate such actions.

Russia has struck American companies’ facilities in Ukraine dozens of times over the last year, including facilities belonging to Coca-Cola, Boeing, Mondelez, Cargill, and Philip Morris, among others. The administration has been silent in these cases. The White House, “despite its pledge to defend U.S. commercial interests abroad, has been muted in its response” to Russia’s attacks on U.S. interests in Ukraine, as the New York Times put it .

When Ukraine struck the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal in the Russian port of Novorossiysk in the Black Sea, Vance called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky July 31 to express concern that Ukraine was “destabilizing oil markets and harming U.S. companies by targeting tankers carrying crude” piped from Kazakhstan to the terminal, in which Chevron and ExxonMobil own stakes.

American leaders’ intervention when U.S. companies come under attack is appropriate. But leaders should be consistent in defending American corporate interests by applying pressure on Moscow, not just on Ukraine. After all, Russia is the true aggressor in this war. In fact, since Russia invaded Ukraine for no good reason, the administration should be pressuring Moscow even more than Ukraine.

Russia President Vladimir Putin should be held accountable for the deaths of and injuries to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, as well as for the hundreds of billions of dollars in damage to Ukraine’s economy. He also bears responsibility for some 1.5 million Russians killed and wounded needlessly. Ukrainian strikes against Russian targets represent retaliation for a war Putin started but refuses to end, while also degrading his military capabilities.

Ukraine has inflicted serious damage on Russian military and energy facilities. It has recently hit Russia’s equivalent of Amazon, called “Wildberries,” in places all over Russia. Ukrainian officials claim Wildberries provides support for the Russian military , but their strikes are also giving Russians a taste of what Ukrainians have been enduring for a long time.

Ukraine has every right to defend itself, and going after Russian energy sources is a way of depriving Moscow of the energy revenue that sustains its military aggression.

In addition to hitting American corporate interests in Ukraine, Russia has been deliberately targeting Ukrainian ports in Odesa, from which Ukraine exports significant amounts of agricultural goods, fertilizer and other products. If the administration is concerned about turmoil on the global markets, it should press Russia to halt such attacks.

Before Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Mark Temnycky notes in Forbes , Ukraine “ranked seventh among global producers for wheat production, sixth for corn production, fourth for barley production, and second for sunflower oil,” according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data . When Russia disabled Ukrainian Black Sea ports in 2022, the disruption to trade then helped drive global food prices to record highs .

Russian attacks on Ukrainian facilities in Odesa amid the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz will now add further stress to global markets. The Trump administration should be pressing the Russians to stop these attacks.

U.S. pressure on Moscow shouldn’t be limited to Russian strikes in the Black Sea, of course. The U.S., together with our European and other allies, should be doing everything to apply pressure on Putin to stop his aggression and pull back his troops that are occupying Ukrainian territory. This is best done by providing serious and rapid military assistance to Ukraine and tightening sanctions on Russia, with the goal of helping Ukraine win and defeat Russia, so that Putin doesn’t attack again.

Thanks to CIA Director John Ratcliffe, the U.S. continues providing critical intelligence to Ukraine . The Ukrainians return the favor by providing the American side vital insights into Russia’s capabilities on the battlefield.

Earlier this year, Vance claimed that ending U.S. military assistance to Ukraine is “one of the things I’m proudest that we’ve done in this administration.” In light of that, it is surprising that the Ukrainians listened to his recent request. But since the Ukrainian government is in desperate need of interceptor missiles to thwart constant Russian ballistic missile attacks and continued intelligence-sharing, it needs to avoid alienating the U.S. administration, even if both the current and previous administrations have disappointed Kyiv numerous times.

By helping Ukraine and pressuring Russia, the Trump administration can expedite an end to the war. That, in turn, would protect American companies in the region, help stabilize global markets, and save innocent Ukrainian lives.

David J. Kramer is executive director of the George W. Bush Institute and a former deputy assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia during the George W. Bush administration.