The mayor of Bucha has an answer to Donald Trump's diesel deal with Vladimir Putin. He posted a photo of himself holding a jerry can of diesel and asked everyone to fill one and ship it to the United States, so Ukraine can outsupply Putin and save Americans billions.
Jacob Kaarsbo saw the post on the mayor's phone on Monday, after the two laid flowers at the Bucha memorial. The former Danish intelligence officer joined Narativ Live from Kyiv on Wednesday, four days after driving in from Copenhagen with a convoy of 11 cars for the Ukrainian army. One blew its engine on the road. Cars for Ukraine, the Danish group behind the convoys, passes 1,000 vehicles next month.
Kaarsbo's reading of the diesel deal: Russia has no diesel to spare. It has an export ban in force and has been importing diesel through South Korea. The deal is "smoke and mirrors," he said, a route to getting sanctions lifted. Zev Shalev went further: it puts Russian oil back into the open market and legitimizes the shadow fleet.
The anger in Kyiv is real and mostly unspoken, Kaarsbo said. "They feel the betrayal." A senior Ukrainian officer told him on Wednesday, through a translator, that Ukraine and Denmark have to fight Russian fascism together. Then he laughed and added: and American fascism too.
Kaarsbo named Putin's war crime: the deportation of Ukrainian children, which Putin has bragged about. Trump, he said, is threatening sanctions on the International Criminal Court that prosecutes such crimes. "Donald Trump sides with him."
Why now? Danish pundits say Trump wants cheaper diesel before the midterms. Kaarsbo called that "bullshit." He expects Trump to try to hold power whatever the result; Denver Riggleman has warned the machinery to annul a defeat is already in the works. Shalev offered two scenarios: Russia helps the GOP win, or a Nixon ending if the vote collapses far enough that the party tells him to go.
Kaarsbo said he predicted this in his book: Putin manipulates Trump through a "treasonous web" of finances. The Financial Times showed this weekend how the Russians got into the Alaska gas deal; Shalev named the route: Don Jr.'s hunting companion, a man tied to Putin's bodyguards.
On Starlink, Kaarsbo said Europe has the satellite technology and must scale it. While Musk was throttling Ukraine's connection, someone sabotaged Starlink antennas in Bulgaria, Poland and Lithuania. "Classical GRU stuff," he said.
He woke at 3 a.m. Monday to the air defense battery next to his hotel. The one place in the city with real destruction is a marketplace with no military target in sight, struck again and again. The students were drinking in the park the next night.
His last word: Ukraine is doing well on the front line and innovating faster than Russia. Build it up from Europe and Canada and it can end the war without the Americans. Shalev: Carney already has a plan with Zelensky.
Sources
Narativ Live, Oct. 28, 2026, live from Kyiv with Jacob Kaarsbo (the replay)
Jacob Kaarsbo, Intel Brief, "Live from Kyiv Q&A Special," Oct. 27, 2026: https://jacobkaarsbo.substack.com/p/live-from-kyiv-q-and-a-special
Kyiv Post, Oct. 27, 2026, Treasury weighs lifting sanctions on the Russian Direct Investment Fund (NYT): https://www.kyivpost.com/post/88359
CNBC, Oct. 24, 2026, Starlink restored, Musk admits throttle: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/24/ukraine-starlink-starshield-service-restored.html