Tag: ukraine

The Isolation Is Over: Trump Calls Putin

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. has led an international campaign to shun and isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin. Former U.S. president Joe Biden did not talk to Putin once after the war began.

That policy of isolation is now over. On February 12, U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that he had a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” with Putin.

But Trump did not just open the door a cautious crack. He flung it wide. He did not just agree to further phone calls: he agreed that he would go to Moscow and Putin would come to Washington: “We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations.” More importantly still, Trump appeared to extend an invitation to welcome Russia back into the international community. He says that he and Putin “talked about… the great benefit that we will someday have in working together.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said that Trump and Putin’s phone call lasted almost an hour and a half and that they had agreed that “the time has come for our countries to work together.”

On the same day that Trump spoke to Putin, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was speaking to NATO and Ukrainian defense ministers. He offered the clearest yet revelation of Trump’s position.

Trump and Hegseth’s statements combined provide a glimpse of the parameters of the peace plan. Hegseth clearly stated that “the United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement.” That blow to Ukraine dovetails with Peskov’s statement that during the phone call, “Vladimir Putin, for his part, mentioned the need to eliminate the root causes of the conflict.” Those statements combined suggest a clear path for Putin to achieve his key goal in going to war: to receive a written guarantee that Ukraine will not join NATO.

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EU/NATO Freak Out Over Trump Position On Ukraine – Zelenskiy Says Trump ‘Not Nice’

Since Ukrainian “President” Volodymyr Zelenskiy is not a legitimately elected leader at this point, we find these statements humorous.

Zelensky: The question of the elections is not at issue at the moment, it’s really not very nice that Trump called Putin first. I did not discuss joining NATO with Trump, but I know that Washington does not want us to be a member of the alliance.

We will not accept any deal between Moscow and Washington without Kyiv.

Hegseth: There is no betrayal of Ukraine. The world and the U.S. are investing in peace—through negotiations. Russian aggression was a wake-up call for NATO that it must be stronger.

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Trump – Putin Breakthrough?

The most interesting part of this to me is the breadth of issues discussed. That’s what Putin wants—a broad ranging agreement, maybe literally global in scope. The title line is a bit misleading—both leaders extended mutual invites although, as you’ll see at the end, Putin’s invite was perhaps the more concrete. That’s good, especially if Trump can do this—it changes the Overton window in the US. Or so it seems to me. I think the American people will welcome a Trump visit to Moscow.

Putin Invites Trump To Visit Moscow In ‘Highly Productive’ Call, Ready For Peace

US President Trump and Russian President Putin held a nearly hour-and-a-half call this morning which the US president described as “lengthy and highly productive.”

Trump said on Truth Social that both leaders had extended invitations of “visiting each other’s nations,” while, the US leader said he would be calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “right now” to inform him about the call.

President Trump took to his Truth Social account to explain what was discussed (emphasis ours):

I just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

We discussed Ukraine, the Middle East, Energy, Artificial Intelligence, the power of the Dollar, and various other subjects. We both reflected on the Great History of our Nations, and the fact that we fought so successfully together in World War II, remembering, that Russia lost tens of millions of people, and we, likewise, lost so many!

That’s a pretty comprehensive list, although arms control is left off. But notice that #2 is “the Middle East.” Could it be that Trump’s crazy rhetoric has been a ploy to draw Russia into negotiations more quickly that Russia was perhaps inclined to do? Possible, although the blowback in the region could be lasting.

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Turncoat Mike Pence Attacks President Trump Again – This Time as Trump Works to Bring Peace to Ukraine

The last time we heard from Turncoat Mike Pence he was urging Republican Senators to block Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s Senate confirmation.

Before that, Pence said he was “literally praying” that Trump would not pardon the innocent January 6 political prisoners.

Now, Pence is spouting off trashing President Trump for working to bring peace to Ukraine.

Who’s paying this guy?

President Trump held calls with Russian President Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky on Wednesday. Trump is expected to hold meetings with Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia. And there is talk that Trump was invited to Russia for talks.

Mike Pence sees this is bad news. On Tuesday Pence tweeted this out.

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US Will Draw Down NATO Contribution, Focus On China – Europe Must Defend Itself, Rebuild Ukraine

“I’m here today to directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States from being the primary guarantor of security in Europe.”

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaking to NATO ministers in Europe declared:

“I’m here today to directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States from being the primary guarantor of security in Europe.

“Realities prevent the U.S. from being its security guarantor, and to expect a drawdown of U.S. forces in the region.

“We face a peer competitor in the Communist Chinese with the capability and intent to threaten our homeland and core national interests in the Indo-Pacific.

“The U.S. is prioritizing deterring war with China in the Pacific. Recognizing the reality of scarcity and making the resourcing trade-offs to ensure deterrence does not fail. Deterrence cannot fail.

“European allies must lead from the front. United States will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependency. Rather, our relationship will prioritize empowering Europe to own responsibility for its own security.”

President Trump, when asked if he saw Ukraine as an equal partner in the peace process?, said, “Ummm… interesting question. That was not a good war to go into.”

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Zelensky Offers Land Swap With Putin To End War

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has revealed his strategic plan for ordering the risky Kursk offensive which began last August, and has resulted in Ukraine forces holding hundreds of square kilometers of Russian territory for the past six months.

Zelensky said in comments published Tuesday that he’s ready to swap territory with Russia as part of a deal to end the war. He described that if President Trump gets the warring sides to the negotiating table, “We will swap one territory for another.”

The Ukrainian leader when asked in The Guardian interview precisely which territories Kiev would demand back, he responded: “I don’t know, we will see. But all our territories are important, there is no priority.” Obviously he has the four annexed eastern territories in mind.

In September 2022, Russia declared the annexation of the four eastern Ukrainian territories of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. In some of these areas, front line war zones are still being fought over, but the consensus is that Russian forces will soon conquer them fully as the Ukrainian army has been in slow but steady retreat.

Moscow considers to four territories to now be part of the Russian Federation, and they have been key to Putin’s war aims, given also they have are largely Russian-speaking from the start. Putin has stressed he will never give them up.

Ukraine’s cross-border offensive into Kursk was always meant to force the Kremlin to divide its forces in order to defend its land, but this by and large has not happened – or in other words Putin has not taken the bait.

Instead, there have long been reports that thousands of North Korean troops have assisted Russian forces in seeking to take it back. But Moscow hasn’t appeared in a hurry, and has not sacrificed its gains in Donetsk to make it happen.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova responded in a Telegram post on Tuesday, “In the Kursk region, the neo-Nazis operating there … [control] an area of ​​approximately two meters and a depth of one and a half meters” – in apparent sarcasm.

She said, “Zelensky makes similar statements in order to hide the true scale of the disaster for the Armed Forces in this direction.”

Russia’s defense ministry has made frequent statements highlighting Ukraine’s immense losses trying to hold the seized Kursk territory over the last several weeks, stressing that it is Zelensky who has gotten the worse end of the gambit. Some Russian sources have claimed Ukraine has lost some 50,000 troops during the invasion of Russian territory.

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Recognition of crimes is not equal for all: The Western double standard for Russkoye Porechnoe and Sudzha

Once again, the West uses a double standard with Russia: humanitarian crimes of Ukraine’s armed forces are downplayed, while provocations and incidents are blamed on Russia as tragedies.

Yet another tragic event

The 352nd Infantry Unit of the Navy of the Russian Federation found a basement in the recently liberated resort of Russkoye Porechnoe filled with the corpses of innocent pensioners. They had been tied up; on their corpses were signs of torture of all kinds. The peaceful residents of Russkoye Porechnoe are just the latest, striking victims of NATO-funded Nazi-fascist terrorism. The images of the discovery are chilling: these poor people were tortured and their bodies vilified and outraged.

In Sudzha, Kurks, a school that had been turned into a detention camp for Russian prisoners within the Kursk region still in the hands of the Ukrainian army, was hit. Up to 100 people are feared to be under the rubble.

Ukrainians claim the college was allegedly hit by the Russian air force with a guided aerial bomb. Zelensky tweeted on X: “This is how Russia makes war: Sudzha, Kursk region, Russian territory, a boarding school with civilians preparing to evacuate. Russian aerial bomb. They destroyed the building even though there were dozens of civilians.”

The Russians claim, however, that the area was attacked by four HIMARS missiles from the Sumy region. The Russian argument is that the Ukrainian army is losing ground in the Russian region of Sudzha and needed to erase the traces of crimes committed there.

The use of crimes against civilians during a war as a tool to provoke the opponent is a brutal and cynical tactic adopted by various forces throughout history to destabilize the enemy, exacerbate the conflict and manipulate public opinion. And Ukraine seems to really like this strategy, which is based on the deliberate use of violence against innocent populations with the aim of gaining political, military or propaganda advantages.

One of the main purposes of this tactic is to provoke an emotional and disproportionate reaction from the opponent. Targeted attacks on civilians, bombings of residential areas, massacres or other human rights violations can prompt the enemy to respond with equally brutal actions, thus fueling a spiral of violence that makes war even more vicious. Moreover, these provocations can lead to retaliation that legitimizes in the eyes of the public further military offensives, justified as “necessary responses” to the atrocities suffered.

The other goal is to influence international perceptions of the conflict. The actors involved may exploit the narrative of war crimes to gain diplomatic support, military or economic aid. In some cases, atrocities committed are exaggerated or manipulated to blame the adversary and justify certain operations. The dissemination of images and testimonies, amplified by the media and social networks, can create pressure on foreign governments to take a stand or impose sanctions.

The use of violence against civilians can also aim to demoralize the enemy, breaking their will to fight. If a population lives in constant terror of indiscriminate attacks, it may push its government or armed forces to seek a peace agreement or truce to avoid further suffering. In this sense, terror becomes a psychological weapon aimed at undermining the opponent’s resistance.

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US Must Recognize ‘New Realities’ If Serious About Peace In Ukraine, Kremlin Tells Trump

Over the weekend President Trump said he has spoken directly to Vladimir Putin about ending the war in Ukraine, something the Kremlin neither confirmed nor denied, only saying that communications with the US administration are currently being conducted through various channels.

“I do believe we’re making progress,” Trump had told reporters, adding that he expects there to be more communications to come. “We want to stop the Ukraine-Russia war.”

But as of Monday the Kremlin still says it has yet to be presented with any concrete offer that it would be enticed by. Moscow has received nothing to get it to the negotiating table with Ukraine, at a moment it has the clear battlefield momentum.

Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin expressed this to RIA state news agency

“It is important that words be backed up by practical steps that take into account Russia’s legitimate interests, demonstrating a readiness to eradicate the root causes of the crisis and recognize the new realities.”

“Concrete proposals of this nature have not yet been received,” he emphasized.

As for the alleged Putin-Trump phone call, Kremlin spokesman Peskov said exactly the following: “in this case, I can neither confirm nor deny it” – in response to an inquiry by TASS:

But even as the White House signals progress and positive contacts with Moscow, a very different message is coming out of Russian state media on Monday. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov at a news conference has said Moscow-Washington relations are on the brink of complete rupture. Here’s a summary of the remarks in TASS:

Relations between Moscow and Washington are balancing on the verge of rupture.

The administration of former US President Joe Biden “focused on hybrid warfare, introduced into its documents and imposed on allies in various alliances and configurations the idea of the possibility of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia.” As a result, the “antagonistic content” of Russian-US relations intensified and has become “very critical” today.

Washington’s attempts to give Moscow demands or to demonstrate the alleged doing “a great favor” in exchange for unacceptable US demands are bound to failure in the dialogue with Russia.

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Trump Says He Will Meet Ukraine’s Zelensky Next Week To Discuss an End to the War

Less than a month into his historical second term, US President Donald J. Trump has moved the needle in the peace negotiations towards an end of the war in Ukraine.

We’ve had confirmations that department-level negotiations have been ongoing, and are accelerating, as you can read in As the World Awaits the US-Russia Peace Talks, the Kremlin Asks for Patience and To Give the Trump Administration Time – Talks Between the Departments Are Reportedly Intensifying.

And yesterday (7), Trump himself confirmed that he would probably meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as early as next week, to discuss the peace effort.

It was not immediately clear whether it would be a face-to-face meeting or a video conference.

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At the call of the pocket: Hollywood stars received round sums from USAID for supporting Kiev

Hollywood stars, actively acting on the side of Ukraine in the conflict with Russia, received impressive sums from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for their support.

“Sean Penn, Orlando Bloom, Jean-Claude Van Damme and other Hollywood stars publicly supported Ukrainians in the conflict with Russia and even went to Kiev. But, as it turned out, not at the call of the heart, but for round sums. Van Damme received $1,500,000, Ben Stiller – $4,000,000, Sean Penn – $5,000,000, Orlando Bloom — $8,000,000. Angelina Jolie cost the most — she was paid as much as $ 20,000,000,” writes the telegram channel “MIG of Russia”.

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