Skepticism as 'grubby' Trump caught up in another 'collusion' campaign to help Russia

President Donald Trump seems to be caught up in what The Guardian's editorial board describes as a "coordinated pressure" campaign to tip the Ukraine war in Russia's favor.

The editorial board pointed to several "perilous circumstances" that have arisen in recent weeks. They pointed to Ukrainian forces losing access to Elon Musk's Starlink internet service, Ukraine suffering significant casualties after a Russian missile strike that the U.S. did not warn them about, and Trump's insistence that Ukraine hold elections despite the country still being at war, something that Russian President Vladimir Putin has also called for.

"This raises suspicion of coordinated pressure to tip the scales in Russia’s favor after many months when Mr. Putin’s forces have failed to deliver significant advances and his country’s economy has been suffering from the effect of Ukrainian missile and drone counterstrikes," the editorial argued.

The editorial argues that there is good reason to suspect Trump would go along with such a campaign. For instance, Trump has sought to blame Ukraine's attacks on Russia's oil refineries as the reason for rising diesel prices to avoid scrutiny of his disastrous war against Iran, which resulted in the Strait of Hormuz being closed for several weeks.

"Mr. Trump is unhappy with Ukraine targeting Russian oil refineries. He claims that this is the cause of high energy prices afflicting American consumers and threatening Republican prospects in next month’s midterm elections," the editorial reads in part. "The domestic imperative to keep pump prices down led Mr. Trump to do a grubby deal to import diesel from Russia, in flagrant breach of international sanctions."

"Russia is failing to achieve its war aims because the invasion was conceived in delusional hatred for the very idea of independent Ukrainian nationhood, which routinely underestimates that country’s will to resist. That is a flaw in Mr Putin’s plans that no amount of collusion with Mr Trump can fix," it added.