On the national holiday of the USA, the New York Post - the alleged favorite paper of Donald Trump, published this editorial:
"Vlad gave his answer to peace, Mr. President: We must re-arm Ukraine
By Post Editorial Board
Published July 4, 2025
Mr. President, we know you understand that the primary obstacle to peace in Ukraine is Russia’s aggression.
You said you were “disappointed” in the conversation with Russian
dictator Vladimir Putin, and that you “don’t think he’s looking to
stop.”
Putin again insisted he was unwilling to commit to a ceasefire until the “root causes” of the conflict were addressed.
For Vlad, the “root cause” is the existence of Ukraine.
He followed your call with the largest drone and missile strike of the war, killing at least one.
The Pentagon has halted the anti-missile and drone weapons needed to
protect the civilians of Kyiv. You remember the desperation on the face
of the Ukrainian reporter you touchingly spoke to in the Netherlands,
her fears for her husband and her family.
Why are we threatening to abandon her?
There is a belief, being pushed by twisted ideologues, that helping
Ukraine is somehow hurting the United States, and not in our best
interest. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Officials claim we have a weapons shortage, but many of these arms were already allocated — some were already in Poland.
Ukraine is paying for them, partly from seized Russian assets and European grants, a stimulus for our industries to make more.
In fact, our military can use that money — and the intelligence it is
gathering from Ukraine’s successful resistance — to make better drones
and anti-missile technology.
It builds the foundation of the Golden Dome.
But most importantly, Ukraine’s fate sends a message to the world
about America. Russia is not an economic superpower to be unlocked. It
is a dying terrorist state. Putin is willing to spend the blood of his
people in a last grasp for empire.
If we let him succeed, if we help him succeed, it won’t just threaten Europe. It will tell China that our alliances are fickle, our patience short.
This is not an either/or proposition, as Elbridge Colby, under
secretary of defense, suggests. We don’t aid Ukraine instead of fighting
China. We aid Ukraine to thwart them. Russia and China share one
strategic goal: Oppose the United States.
One missile “saved” in a warehouse today is 50 we’ll have to fire in the future because this axis was strengthened.
Mr. President, you have had a historic streak of successes. You
passed your “Big Beautiful Bill.” You won cases in front of the Supreme
Court. You’re forging trade deals.
You also took the bold step to defang Iran, knowing that it would
make the Middle East a safer place. Only bombing its nuclear sites could
get the ayatollah to the table.
It is the same with Ukraine.
Putin only understands strength. He will continue to insult and ignore
you if the United States doesn’t commit to Kyiv’s defense.
Reports are that the conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelensky on Friday went well, and that you talked about strengthening
the country’s air defenses. That’s excellent news.
The fall of Ukraine is not a disaster that can be blamed on someone
else, or explained away as inconsequential. It would destabilize the
world, weaken America and reflect negatively on your presidency. Don’t
walk away."
Back in April, Trump posted this in his social network Truth Social, paradoxically blaming Ukraine both for not fighting over Crimea 11 years ago and for refusing to recognize it as Russian territory now:
"Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is boasting on the front page of The Wall Street Journal that, “Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea. There’s nothing to talk about here.” This statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia in that Crimea was lost years ago under the auspices of President Barack Hussein Obama, and is not even a point of discussion. Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory but, if he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired? The area also houses, for many years before “the Obama handover,” major Russian submarine bases. It’s inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War. He has nothing to boast about! The situation for Ukraine is dire — He can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country. I have nothing to do with Russia, but have much to do with wanting to save, on average, five thousand Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, who are dying for no reason whatsoever. The statement made by Zelenskyy today will do nothing but prolong the “killing field,” and nobody wants that! We are very close to a Deal, but the man with “no cards to play” should now, finally, GET IT DONE. I look forward to being able to help Ukraine, and Russia, get out of this Complete and Total MESS, that would have never started if I were President!
As Tatyana Shevchenko commented in the Dialog, Trump is openly threatening Ukraine with his statement that Zelensky "can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country". He actually confirmed the media reports that his "peace deal" includes capitulation of Ukraine to the aggressor: legal transfer of Crimea to Russia, Russian control over the occupied territories, abandonment of Kyiv's NATO aspirations, and absence of any security guarantees that would prevent another Russian invasion in the future. What is important, Trump demands nothing from Russia. Failing to get from Kremlin even agreement on a temporary ceasefire, the US leader is again pressuring Ukraine in order to blame it for his own inability to put an end to the war.
From the Independent in April - but things have not changed for the better:
"An American ambush threatens Zelensky’s negotiators – can the UK save Kyiv?
A
high level American diplomatic team is coming to London for talks with
Ukraine and its allies; it may be an ambush, writes world affairs editor
Sam Kiley
Tuesday 22 April 2025
In hosting Ukraine’s president for talks about a “ceasefire” with Russia,
with three of America’s biggest diplomatic guns, Britain’s foreign
secretary has the awkward task of keeping them on side while ensuring he
hasn’t led Volodymyr Zelensky’s troops into an ambush.
Marco
Rubio, the US secretary of state, has signalled that the US is prepared
to walk away from brokering peace talks if there is no breakthrough.
He’s bringing his team of negotiators with him – not to talk but to
present an ultimatum that favours Russia.
Ukraine
will have no choice but to reject proposals to freeze Russian control
of the east of the country. Zelensky is likely to be asked (or told) to
recognise the Kremlin’s de facto rule over Crimea, agree that Ukraine can never join Nato, and generally to meekly roll under Putin’s tank tracks.
That may explain why the Ukrainian president won’t be in London on Wednesday.
David Lammy doesn’t want this. Nor do France and Germany...They are all now part of a “coalition of the willing” formed by Keir
Starmer and Emanuel Macron to offset the rapid withdrawal of America
from European affairs – and the blatant support for Russia from the
White House.
They can’t, and won’t, admit that Donald Trump and
his administration have done everything they can not to pursue peace in
Ukraine but to cement the Kremlin’s suzerainty over lands it has invaded.
But, according to reports in the US media, that is exactly what Rubio,
Steve Witkoff, the US envoy to Russia, and Keith Kellogg, the envoy to
Ukraine, are expected to try to sell to Ukraine and her allies here in
London.
They’ll be expected to agree to leave Russia holding 20 per cent of Ukraine in return for ceasefire monitors.
They’ll be expected to agree that the US will recognise Russia’s
control of Crimea – the headquarters of Russia’s defeated Black Sea
fleet – that was illegally invaded in 2014, and then annexed.
Dmitry
Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, has already signalled Putin’s delight
with the US position on no membership of NATO for Ukraine.
“Of course we’re satisfied with this,” he cooed.
As well he
might, given that Russia is being promised sanctions relief, and
generally expanded business opportunities with America, while Washington
has not indicated that Putin would face any retribution if he failed to
observe, or agree, a ceasefire...
Ukraine knows what happens when it defies Trump. As a taster it suffered
suspended military aid and later its intelligence feed from the US was
cut just as Russia launched attacks in its Kursk province...
If Ukraine rejects the proposals from Rubio and co, it knows the consequences.
“My
concern is to prevent Trump from finding pretext to put the blame on
Ukraine. Trump wants to exit the process of negotiations because he sees
that it is hopeless because of Putin,” Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of the
Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee told The Independent.
“That’s
why for us it’s crucially important not to give Trump a chance to blame
us. We need to continue to do what we have been doing: to remain
constructive and agree with his initiatives in so far as it doesn’t hurt
our national interests, such as territorial integrity and sovereignty
of Ukraine.”"
"Russian artist reveals mystery Trump portrait gifted by Putin to the US president
Matthew Chance, Chief Global Affairs Correspondent, and Katharina Krebs, CNN
In March, Russian president Vladimir Putin gifted Donald Trump a mystery portrait of the US president.
The
painting was delivered by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, who, in an
interview with podcast host Tucker Carlson, described it as “a beautiful
portrait” by a “leading Russian artist.”
Trump, he added, was “clearly touched by it.”
But the portrait itself was not publicly revealed.
Now, the artist behind the Kremlin-commissioned artwork has given CNN an exclusive look at the portrait.
The painting gifted to
the US president shows Trump raising his fist on stage after the failed
assassination attempt at his Butler, Pennsylvania rally in July 2024 and
is the work of Nikas Safronov, one of Russia’s most famous artists, the
Kremlin confirmed to CNN.
“It
was important to me to show the blood, the scar and his bravery during
the attempt on his life. He didn’t break down or become afraid, but
raised his arm to show he is one with America and will bring back what
it deserves,” the artist told CNN in Moscow.
Safronov is no stranger
to portraits of world leaders, having painted dozens of global figures
including the late Pope Francis, India’s President Narendra Modi and
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
For
his Trump portrait, Safronov said, he was “visited by some people who
said they want me to paint Trump as I see him.” He did not initially
know who his “visitors” were, he added, explaining that as a prominent
artist, “there are clients who do not go into details” – but he
suspected it was the Kremlin.
“When I started the portrait, I realized this could bring our countries
closer, and decided not to charge any money because I suspected what
this painting was for,” the artist said.
Later though, he says,
he was contacted by Putin himself, who told him the flattering Trump
portrait was an important step in improving Russia’s relationship with
the United States.
The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The portrait which was gifted to Trump by Putin is similar to a painting that now hangs in the Grand Foyer of the White House, after an official portrait of former President Barack Obama was moved from the location."
A week ago, the advancing Russian troops - advancing because the USA wants and helps them to advance, halting aid already approved - seized Ukraine’s most valuable lithium deposits. This reminded me of the minerals deal that Trump bullied Ukraine to sign. Here is what Ukrainian military expert Evgeny Dikiy prophetically said about it in April:
"Trump will halt even the aid already approved but not yet delivered to Ukraine. And here we have to state clearly: all US sources directly said that any new aid is out of question. That is, we are talking only about the aid that Biden gave and that has not yet arrived in full amount. The part that has not yet arrived may never arrive, because it is very likely that Trump will stop it...
"Since Jan. 20, the USA have been an ally of the Russian Federation, not our ally. However, they still continue to play games, with some maneuvers around the so-called minerals deal, which is actually an agreement that for unknown reasons, we are obliged to them. So it turns out that we must not only capitulate to Russia but also pay reparations to its ally USA."
Translating from an interview with Ukrainian military expert Ivan Stupak to Obozrevatel:
"I want to be optimistic but I do not see such a perspective so far. I'll make a simple analogy. For now, Ukraine is like a patient in a hospital. He is treated so that he does not die. They give him drugs, clean, bring food. But only enough so that he stays alive. Although the hospital has modern equipment and drugs to cure the patient completely, they are not given to him because this is the hospital's policy.
Yes, Ukraine isn't dying, the Europeans are helping us, but they lack the breakthrough equipment that the Americans have. The Europeans need time - I think 5 to 7 years in order to produce something big and serious and replace the Americans in armament. But we haven't as much time. And the USA do not want to give us what they have, for political reasons."
"Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, April 20, 2025
...
The Kremlin continues to repurpose narratives that Russian
officials have repeatedly used to justify Russia's invasions of Ukraine
in an effort to further militarize Russian society in the long term,
likely in preparation for a potential future protracted conflict with
NATO. Russian state journalist Pavel Zarubin asked Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a question on April 20 about the EU's
recommendation that European leaders refrain from attending Russia's May
9 Victory Day Parade in Moscow.[13]
(Victory Day is Russia's principal patriotic holiday and commemorates
the Soviet Union's contributions to victory over Nazi Germany in the
Second World War, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War.) Lavrov
accused the EU of stoking "neo-Nazi ideology" in Europe and stated that
Russia "will make every effort to ensure that this ideology does not
raise its head," and will destroy Nazism "once and for all."
Lavrov's
statements are part of a long-standing Kremlin effort to invoke the
Soviet Union's contributions to victory over Nazi Germany and the wider
mythos of the Great Patriotic War and vilify Europe and NATO. These
efforts aim to exacerbate negative sentiments among Russia's population
and drum up support for the militarization of Russian society in the
long term.[14] The
Kremlin has previously appealed to the mythos of the Great Patriotic War
to persuade the Russian population that their increasing social and
economic sacrifices for the Russian war effort in Ukraine can help
achieve overwhelming victory.[15]
Russian
President Vladimir Putin and other high-ranking Kremlin officials
regularly invoke the vague term of "denazification" to call for regime
change in Ukraine and the installation of a pro-Russian proxy
government, and Putin leveraged claims that supposed Nazis control the
Ukrainian government to justify the full-scale invasion in February
2022.[16] The Kremlin
is increasingly employing the same playbook that it used against Ukraine
towards Finland and former Soviet states, including Estonia and Moldova
to justify its attempts to control independent countries and set
informational conditions for possible future Russian aggression.[17]"
by Alexander J. Motyl, opinion contributor - 04/21/25
Why are the American president and vice president so reluctant to visit Ukraine?
After all, both are fearless, or act as if they were. The ongoing war
can’t possibly faze them. President Trump even has God, who supposedly
saved him from assassination, on his side...
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky implicitly invited both of
them during his disastrous Feb. 28 meeting in the Oval Office. More
recently, Zelensky repeated the invitation
explicitly on “60 Minutes,” saying, “We want you to come, to come and
to see. You think you understand what’s going on here. Okay, we respect
your position. … But, please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of
forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors,
hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead. … Come, look, and then
let’s — let’s move with a plan how to finish the war. You will
understand with whom you have a deal. You will understand what Putin
did.”
So what’s holding Trump and Vance back? There are several possible answers.
The first is discomfort. Living in Mar-al-Lago or Trump Tower can
spoil a person, and even though Vance may have experienced hardship as a
boy in Appalachia, he’s put those days well behind him, preferring to
hobnob with the rich and powerful rather than with “hillbillies.”
Why travel to a country that is in the throes of a relentless
bombardment of innocent Ukrainian men, women and children by Steve
Witkoff’s pal Vladimir Putin? Who wouldn’t prefer playing golf in
Florida? And besides, unlike the Ukrainian civilians who don’t matter
except as numbers on Putin’s ledger, the president and his veep are
among the world’s most powerful men. The days when generals charged the
enemy in the front line are gone. Far better, and safer, to berate the
Ukrainians and shed crocodile tears at Russian “mistakes” — such as the targeting of downtown Sumy on Palm Sunday — from the comfort of the White House.
The second possibility is distaste — of Ukraine, of Zelensky, of
Ukrainians. After all, Ukraine has no “cards” and, worse, was stupid
enough to have started the war by being invaded by Russia. The country
and its people are losers and hence unworthy of a visit by America’s
great leaders.
Besides, what could the Americans possibly learn that they don’t know
better? As Vance implied, he knows all he needs to know about Ukraine
precisely because he hasn’t been to Ukraine, and the rest is just Kyiv’s
propaganda. Trump, meanwhile, is a genius and knows everything about
everything by definition.
Naturally, both men hate Zelensky. Ostensibly because he refused to
cooperate in the Hunter Biden scandal, but just as likely because he’s a
know-it-all who thinks he knows Ukraine better than they do and doesn’t
refrain from saying so. And he is, of course, just a salesman, a
“dictator” who hopes to gain legitimacy by parading the mistakenly
killed “people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children
destroyed or dead” before Trump and Vance.
The final explanation is disquiet. Both Trump and Vance know enough
about Christianity to appreciate that the Ten Commandments are not just
God’s casually assembled wish list, but a set of moral injunctions. And
they must know that one of the commandments concerns killing. Although
their sense of right and wrong is almost moribund, it may be vital
enough for them to appreciate that, in making nice with an accused war
criminal, war-monger and genocidaire, they are effectively endorsing his
mass murder of Ukrainians.
Let them die thousands of miles from the moral coziness of the Oval
Office and appear only as this morning’s statistics. To actually see
their torn limbs, spilled guts and bloodied faces wouldn’t make America
great again. Better to stay as far away as possible and bemoan death and
destruction from a safe distance.
Vance illustrated his moral obtuseness on Apr. 15 when he explained
his approach to the war: “I’ve also tried to apply strategic
recognition that if you want to end the conflict, you have to try to
understand where both the Russians and the Ukrainians see their
strategic objectives … That doesn’t mean you morally support the Russian
cause, or that you support the full-scale invasion, but you do have to
try to understand what are their strategic red lines, in the same way
that you have to try to understand what the Ukrainians are trying to get
out of the conflict.”
To claim that both Russia and Ukraine have comparable, and thus
morally neutral, “strategic objectives” is absurd. Witkoff doesn’t
understand that Russia’s objective is Ukraine’s destruction, while
Ukraine’s is survival. Does Vance? His statement, like his thuggish
behavior on Feb. 28, suggests that he prefers to believe that Ukraine
“started” the war and therefore deserves what it gets.
In the final analysis, all three factors — discomfort, distaste and
disquiet — are at work: Trump and Vance prefer comfort to hardship,
dislike Ukraine and feel some guilt for the crimes they are abetting.
Don’t expect them in Kyiv any day soon. Do expect them in Moscow."
"The Crimean Peninsula, which is currently occupied by the Russian Federation, must not be left to the Kremlin, because this would mean the aggressor's complete dominance in the Black Sea.This was stated by the head of the Institute of Black Sea Strategic Studies Andrey Klimenko.
""Russian" Crimea means the complete dominance of the Russian Federation in the Black Sea and in the corresponding region.This will never happen after the shameful defeat of the Russian Black Sea Fleet by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.The optimal use of the Crimean peninsula in the new European security system is the creation of a comprehensive military base of European countries on the peninsula - naval, anti-missile, anti-sabotage, etc.," the specialist notes.
According to him, such a base can act as an outpost to contain Russian aggression from the south-east.
"And that is how it will ultimately be," Klimenko emphasized.
He added that now the topic of concessions on Crimea in favor of the Russian Federation has arisen among some "alternatively gifted individuals overseas." Klimenko notes that such statements can only be made by people who did not study geography at school and are not real politicians."
"Russia Tours Fake Ukrainian Ballet in Sweden and Finland, Funneling Funds to Moscow
A ballet troupe claiming to represent Ukraine has been touring Sweden
and Finland under false pretenses, deceiving audiences and allegedly
funneling money to Russia, the Swedish media outlet SVTreported on March 26.
An investigation
by Swedish and Finnish media uncovered that the company behind the
so-called “Ballet of Ukraine” is registered in Moscow, with proceeds
from performances ending up in accounts linked to a Russian millionaire.
The company, Touring Actors, presented itself as a Ukrainian organization, using a Kyiv address that turned out to be fake.
However,
records show it operates on a Russian server and is owned
by a Moscow-based entity. Out of 14 dancers listed on its website,
at least seven are actively working in Russia.
Swedish authorities have already intervened in a similar case.
In December, another “Ukrainian” ballet group, Heritage Ballet, was banned from performing in Sweden after security officials determined it had ties to the Russian state.
Ukraine’s National Opera back in 2022 issued repeated warnings about so-called “clone troupes” fraudulently using Ukraine’s name to stage performances abroad.
“They
make money off our misery,” said Lana Roxy, press officer at the
National Opera in Kyiv to SVT. “These groups exploit Ukraine’s
reputation while helping Russia spread disinformation and profit from
the war.”
The “Ballet of Ukraine” performed in at least eight Swedish cities
in December 2023, including Lund, Lerum, and Östersund, staging
productions such as “The Nutcracker”.
Investigators found that
payments from at least six performances were transferred to a Swiss
artificial intelligence company owned by a former Russian banker.
Further
investigation revealed that the “Ballet of Ukraine” had strong
connections to the Saint Petersburg Ballet in Russia. It also used the
same press materials as the Moscow Ballet Art Theatre, a Russian company
currently being liquidated.
Legal action is now being pursued in Sweden and Finland against those behind the fraudulent tours.
Earlier, reports emerged that in one of Ukraine’s occupied cities, teenagers have formed a secret book club to read and discuss Ukrainian poetry and prose that Russia is trying to erase."
Putin’s
cynical ploy to curry favour with the U.S. administration and keep them
negotiating while Russian forces continue to seize or destroy as much
of Ukraine as possible.
In the past 24 hours, the Russian president declared a unilateral Easter truce in Ukraine. I published some thoughts about this on social media and wanted to amplify them here.
This
declaration by Putin is the unserious and cynical act of an individual
who for the past three years and two months since the full-scale
invasion has maintained his maximalist goals to destroy Ukrainian
sovereignty and culture. He has overseen the systemic brutality and
barbarism of his forces including murder and torture of civilians and
soldiers, looting, kidnapping, castration and mistreatment of PoWs,
attacks against civilian targets and the attempt to destroy Ukrainian
culture.
And we are expected to believe that that same creature that has overseen all this also wants an Easter truce?
Why has Putin done this and what does it mean for the war?
The truce is a short one - about a day in duration, if Putin is to be
believed (he shouldn’t). It is a truce that Putin has called
unilaterally from the comfort of Moscow. As such, the truce is not
binding on the Ukrainians in any way.
Putin has done this, not
because he has a shred of empathy for the soldiers – of either side –
fighting this war. He has done it because he still believes that he has
the upper hand in the war and can dictate its tempo...
Putin will want to place Ukraine in the position where it is seen as
the ‘truce breaker’ even though it was not party to the truce. There are
more than enough people in the world willing to believe such things
unfortunately.
Like many previous ceasefires, this is one
that Putin has no intention of keeping. The Russian president has a long
history of negotiating agreements and ceasefires which he has no
intention of complying with. This recent news article
published in the UK provides a pretty good round up of all of Putin’s
dastardly, and no predictable, backflips on agreements with other
nations.
Putin only takes actions that he believes will result in him gaining
some form of advantage. This declaration of a unilateral Easter truce is
no different. Ultimately, the ‘truce’ is about Putin giving the Trump
administration what I described in my social media posts as “a little
sugar”.
Putin does not want the war to end. He has too much
invested in it personally, and he has re-shaped his country into a ‘war
nation’. Putin also does not wish to step back from his maximalist
objectives. But, at this point of the war, it is important to Putin that
the Americans remain engaged, and that they do not step away from their
role in negotiations...
At this point, Putin wants to keep the U.S. engaged in negotiations
for as long as possible. There are several reasons for this. First,
because the current American position favours Russia. Negotiators like
Witkoff parrot Russian narratives and appear to be focussed on
large-scale territorial concessions to Russia. At the same time, there
is almost no prospect of American security guarantees for Ukraine. This
makes it much easier for Putin to restart the conflict if there is a
ceasefire in the near term.
A second reason why Putin doesn’t want
the Trump administration to walk away from the Ukraine peace
negotiations is that the Ukrainians and Europeans having to deal with
Witkoff and others is wasting their time. It is absorbing the time and
attention of key decision-makers to no effect and distracting them from
more important strategic initiatives (like stepping up the pressure on
Russia).
A third a final reason for continuing the U.S. role in negotiations
is because they are are sowing discord and chaos among Ukraine’s
supporters and allies. This allows Putin to pursue what a ‘systems
destruction’ strategy which breaks down relationships and trusts between
security partners that Putin both likes and is able to exploit.
Putin’s
Easter truce is a message direct to Trump and members of his
administration. The message from Putin is something like this:
Donald,
my friend, I know you are frustrated. I feel your frustration with
Ukraine as well. Look, I even declared a truce over Easter, which
Ukraine has already broken. I am the good guy here - please stick with
negotiations.
It is total garbage but some who wish to distance the U.S. from its
previous policy of supporting Ukraine will buy Putin’s narrative because
it suits their position and politics.
Putin is a
cunning but evil actor. He will continue to employ ruses like this to
pursue his cruel and unnecessary war against Ukraine and the Ukrainian
people because he feels that he can still win it. We in the West must
convince him otherwise."
That sin – better understood as an international crime that led to more crimes against humanity – was the 2014 invasion of Ukraine, and the 2022 attempt at a full-scale Anschluss, along with the mass murder and deliberate targeting of civilians that followed.
“The total number of violations by the Russian army of Russia’s own
ceasefire promise throughout the day [Sunday] reached 2,935,” Zelensky
said.
Meanwhile, Russia claimed that there have been 444
“shooting” attacks by Ukraine since Kyiv said it would also observe the
“ceasefire”
The real issue here is that Putin has got us all talking about who
violated what, and in relation to which ceasefire: Ukraine had agreed to
another one, brokered by the US, which Russia also agreed to but didn’t
sign up for as the Kremlin wanted some tweaks.
The ceasefire of 30 hours offered by Putin over Easter should be
extended in recognition of the earlier non-agreement to observe a 30-day
US-brokered ceasefire, Keir Starmer and others have said. The vain hope
is that a down-weapons agreement can be parlayed into a longer-term
peace deal.
But Putin has amassed close to 70,000 troops on
Ukraine’s northern border, and may soon launch a renewed assault to
carve away (at least) the chunks of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces that
Russia has already captured. He might equally use those forces to have a
go at Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, a half-hour drive from the border
with Russia.
Any ceasefire now gives Russian forces time to resupply and
reposition. Meanwhile, Putin has tried to sucker America, where
secretary of state Marco Rubio has said the US might “walk away” in a
matter of days from Donald Trump’s efforts to secure peace.
Performative
frustrations on the part of Trump and his administration over Russia’s
real-world rejection of ceasefire terms can be bent into a new
narrative, after the Easter “ceasefire”, that Ukraine has also been
intransigent.
The Trump administration is firmly on Russia’s side when it comes to
the peace talks. So a sudden offer from the Kremlin of a unilateral
ceasefire will have been welcomed by the White House, and is part of the
duet Putin and Trump are playing. Trump pretends to be frustrated with
Putin, Putin strokes away the irritation with a gesture that has no
material effect on the war he started, but which Trump blames on Joe
Biden, Nato, Europe, Zelensky – anyone and anything other than Putin.
Trump
and Putin are holding the discussions in the space they have created –
where they centre on how much of Ukraine Russia will get, and how much
of Ukraine’s resources America will extract.
Ukraine wants future talks about ending the war to focus on how to
get Russia out of its territory. Europe’s main concerns are protecting
Ukraine and developing the military capacity to scare Putin away from
his oft-spoken desire to force former Soviet-sphere nations in Eastern
Europe back into Russia’s portfolio.
That’s much harder to focus
on if, as Putin and Trump want, diplomatic and political effort is
diverted into quibbles over fake ceasefires rather than winning the war
against Russia."
"Russia-Ukraine talks reach pivotal moment for Trump
by Laura Kelly - 04/18/25U.S. efforts to mediate peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are
reaching a pivotal moment, with President Trump saying both sides need
to quickly show progress or his administration will exit the
negotiations...
“If for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult,
we’re just going to say you’re foolish, you’re fools, you’re horrible
people and we’re going to just take a pass,” Trump said.
It’s not clear exactly what that would mean, though it would seem to risk U.S. support for Ukraine...
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for recognition of
Russian sovereignty over five territories in Ukraine that his country
only partially controls and repeated that it wants to address the “root
causes” of the war — a catchall term experts say boils down to Putin’s
call for Ukraine’s demilitarization and subjugation to Russia’s sphere
of influence.
Ukraine has rejected those terms while signaling a willingness to
freeze the line of combat. Rubio conceded Ukraine does need assurances
that it could defend itself going forward if Russia renewed its
aggression after a peace deal was signed.
“Ukraine — in order for there to be peace, we recognize that Ukraine
has to feel like it has the ability to defend itself from a future
attack from anyone. … But we’re not working yet on that level of
specifics,” Rubio said.
Ukraine also knows Trump could drop U.S. support at anytime.
Trump earlier this year shut off U.S. military assistance and
intelligence sharing for nearly two weeks in the wake of an explosive
Oval Office spat with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was
arguing Putin was a deceptive negotiating partner.
Since then, Ukraine has increasingly sought to be cooperative and productive with the Trump administration.
After a meeting with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia at the end of March,
Kyiv accepted without conditions the U.S. plan for a ceasefire on
energy infrastructure and in the Black Sea. Moscow has so far refused
those terms and in recent days carried out devastating attacks against
civilians in the Ukrainian cities of Kryvyi Rih and Sumy. Those attacks
coincided with the Easter holidays.
Trump, when asked if Russia is stalling, said he would know soon.
“I hope not. We’re going to let you know about that soon if he is. But I hope not.”
The administration’s rhetoric appears to put equal blame on Ukraine
and Russia – even as Moscow has rejected Trump’s earlier proposal for a
temporary ceasefire.
“Rubio’s remarks this morning threw me, I will admit, because he
seemed to be equidistant in blaming both Russia and Ukraine for the
stalled progress,” said Daniel Fried, Weiser Family Distinguished Fellow
with the Atlantic Council and a veteran American diplomat to Europe.
“Whereas, in fact, Russia is responsible for the lack of progress.
Russia alone.”
Trump has elevated Putin in the negotiations, a sharp turn from former
President Biden’s effort to isolate the alleged war criminal. Trump has
largely complimented the authoritarian Russian leader and dispatched his
most trusted confidant, Steve Witkoff, to conduct face-to-face
discussions in Moscow.
Ukraine’s supporters, deeply skeptical of Putin’s commitment to
peace, say now is the time for Trump to pressure Russia, given its own
fears about the global economy.
“The price of oil is low because of fears of a recession; Russia’s
economic position is even more vulnerable. Take advantage, man! Gift
from the gods,” Fried exclaimed. “They’re hurting. Therefore, let them
know we know, and start rolling out the options or leaking the options
to really hold them over the fire on energy.”...
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close Trump ally and vocal Ukraine
supporter, has legislation waiting in the wings to codify U.S. sanctions
on Russia.
“Putin and peace apparently do not fit in the same sentence,” Graham
posted on X, responding to Russia’s Easter Sunday attack on Sumy...
Still, though Ukraine enjoys bipartisan majority in Congress in its
fight with Russia, there’s an understanding that Trump is likely to
never ask for another assistance package to aid Ukraine. Between 2022
and 2024, Congress appropriated $174.19 billion to Ukraine through five
different legislative vehicles...
Fried said Trump has an enormous opportunity to claim victory in the
war but will need to put more pressure on Putin to get there.
“If his deal involves getting a ceasefire and security for Ukraine
and getting the Europeans to pony up the bulk of the resources for
security, he can claim a double victory,” Fried said.
“But to do that, he’s got to stare down Putin instead of constantly buttering him up or having Witkoff go there with bouquets.”"
“You
don’t start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that
people give you some missiles,” Trump said Monday in the White House.
According to Pew's
poll, Americans who said Russia is the U.S.'s "enemy" have fallen to 50
percent, down from 61 percent in April 2024 and 70 percent in March
2022, just after the invasion's start.
Among
Republicans specifically, only 40 percent saw Russia as an enemy, which
is down from 58 percent last year and 69 percent in March 2022. Only 34
percent of Americans overall now describe Russia as a competitor to the
U.S., and only 9 percent describe it as a "partner."
Current Republican
sentiment towards Russia has essentially returned to what it was just
before Russia invaded Ukraine. In January 2022, 39 percent of
Republicans polled said they viewed Russia as an enemy. Approximately 12
percent of Republican respondents said they viewed Russia as a partner,
which is actually higher than the number of people sharing those
sentiments prior to the invasion.
“More
Republicans see Russia as a competitor than as an enemy for the first
time since before the Russia-Ukraine war started,” the author of the
survey wrote...
Democrats were far more likely to express confidence in Zelensky's
leadership than Republicans. According to the poll, 70 percent of
Democrats said they were confident in Zelensky's leadership versus only
30 percent of Republicans...
“Over the past year,
Republicans have become somewhat more likely to see Russia favorably and
to express confidence in Putin, while Democratic views are largely
unchanged,” the survey authors wrote...
In
addition to fewer Americans seeing Russia as an enemy, fewer also feel
that the U.S. has a responsibility to support Ukraine in its defense.
According to the poll,
44 percent of respondents said the US needs to help defend Ukraine, down
from 50 percent following the U.S. presidential election in November.
Pew
reports that the drop has been driven by Republican lawmakers'
criticism of the U.S.'s role in Ukraine's national defense. Among
Republicans, only 23 percent now believe that America should defend
Ukraine, down from 36 percent in November."
"Putin Humiliates Trump With Unprecedented Attack Right After Their Phone Call
Leigh Kimmins,
Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s heaviest bombardment yet of Ukraine
only hours after leaving President Donald Trump “disappointed” by a
phone call over the prospect of peace negotiations.
“I didn’t make any progress with him at all,” Trump admitted to reporters on Thursday, before a barrage of missiles and drones that left much of the Ukrainian capital in flames.
The attack on Kyiv was the largest aerial bombardment since Russia’s
full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The seven-hour
onslaught lasted from Thursday into Friday and injured 23 people.
Buildings were wrecked and rail infrastructure was affected, too.
Some 550 drones and missiles were launched across the country, in
what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called a “harsh, sleepless
night.”
Ukraine’s Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko described the
scenes on X, telling of “families running into metro stations,
basements, underground parking garages, mass destruction in the heart of
our capital.”
“What Kyiv endured last night, cannot be called anything but a deliberate act of terror,” she added.
“I’m not happy about that. I’m not happy about that,” Trump said of Putin’s continued aggression.
“I’m very disappointed with the conversation I had today with President
Putin, because I don’t think he’s there, and I’m very disappointed,”
Trump said.
“I’m just saying I don’t think he’s looking to stop, and that’s too
bad,” he added, managing to squeeze in a shot at his predecessor. “This
is Biden’s war. It wouldn’t have happened if I were president.”
Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, agreed with the
assertion that the war is far from over, trotting out the Kremlin line
that it will only renege on its bombing campaign if its demands are met.
“Russia
will not back down from these goals,” Ushakov told reporters, adding
that the “root causes” of the conflict must be addressed.
Putin has long wanted Ukraine to abandon its push to join NATO. He is
also determined not to give up Ukrainian territory captured since his
“special military operation” began in 2022.
Trump is due to speak
to Zelensky later on Friday. It is likely that Zelensky will renew his
appeal for more military support from Trump, after shipments of military
aid to Ukraine were paused after a Pentagon review of U.S. munitions stockpiles.
Before jetting off to Iowa for American independence celebrations
on Thursday, Trump claimed former President Joe Biden had sent too many
weapons. He said he hadn’t completely blocked shipments, merely stemmed
the flow.
“We’re giving weapons, but we’ve given so many weapons. But we are giving weapons,” he said.
“And
we’re working with them and trying to help them, but we haven’t
(completely stopped). You know, Biden emptied out our whole country
giving them weapons, and we have to make sure that we have enough for
ourselves.”"
Nearly six years have passed since Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president of Ukraine,
yet he still cringes at all the polished brass and chandeliers that
crowd his office. The place does seem rather gaudy, like a room plucked
straight from Mar-a-Lago, and Zelensky can’t seem to stop apologizing for it as he shows me around one evening in March...
But he did not invite me over for a tour. His basic aim, as far as I could tell, was to clear the air after his recent visit to the Oval Office,
the one that became a viral sensation for the world and a source of
trepidation for his country. For several interminable minutes on the
morning of Feb. 28, President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance
had berated Zelensky, calling him ungrateful, weak and dangerous while
talking over his attempts to argue back. “You don’t hold the cards,”
Trump told Zelensky. “You’re gambling with World War III!”
On
the advice of people he trusts, Zelensky has mostly avoided talking
about the episode, not wanting to deepen a diplomatic crisis that had
threatened to cost him nothing less than his country’s existence. His
standard answer to questions about it has been, “Let's leave that to
history.” Even now, he hopes to turn the page and move on. But his
instincts rarely allow him to keep quiet for long about the things that
bother him, which is partly what got him into trouble with Trump.
Going into that meeting, Zelensky says, he had it all planned out. He
had been to the White House a handful of times during the war. But this
would be his first sit-down with Trump in the Oval Office, and it would
mark a critical point in Trump’s effort to force a peace deal in
Ukraine. To make an impression, Zelensky decided to bring a set of
gifts. Their aim was to break through any ill will the U.S. President
felt toward Ukraine, and to dispel what Zelensky believed was the
influence of Russian propaganda on the White House.
Among the most painful exchanges
in the Oval Office meeting took place near the end, when Zelensky asked
whether J.D. Vance had visited Ukraine during the war. They both knew
he had not, and Vance shot back that he had no interest in Zelensky’s
“propaganda tours.”The insult must have stung...
Zelensky’s
grand vision for peace has been cut down to size. He no longer mentions
the Peace Formula in his speeches. In October, as the U.S. presidential
elections drew near, Zelensky presented a less ambitious plan. It
consisted of only five points. The first one called for Ukraine to
receive an invitation to join the NATO alliance, while the last two took
a new approach, appealing to U.S. financial interests rather than any
shared values. Among the enticements Zelensky offered was access to
“trillions of dollars worth of minerals” hidden beneath Ukrainian soil.
Last
fall, after discussing that idea with Zelensky in New York, Trump
seized on it, and his administration soon proposed a deal for the U.S.
to profit from Ukraine’s mineral wealth as compensation for military
support. Zelensky balked at the terms that Trump suggested in his first
draft of the deal. But after weeks of tense negotiations, the U.S. and
Ukraine settled on a version that both sides could accept. Zelensky and
Trump were meant to sign it after their meeting in the Oval Office.
Their argument scuppered those plans
The next day, Trump set the minerals deal
aside and decided to get tough with Zelensky. His administration
announced a suspension of aid to Ukraine, including supplies of critical
intelligence, weapons and ammunition. Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine,
General Keith Kellogg, said the Ukrainians
had “brought it on themselves.” Zelensky had failed in the Oval Office
to demonstrate a willingness to accept Trump’s plan for peace, and the
U.S. response was “sort of like hitting a mule with a two-by-four across
the nose," Kellogg said. "Got their attention."
More
than that, it hobbled Ukraine’s armed forces on the battlefield.
Without access to data from U.S. satellites, they lost the ability to
detect the approach of Russian bombers and cruise missiles. As a result,
Ukraine had less time to warn civilians and military personnel about an
approaching airstrike. The impact was most acute in the Russian region
of Kursk, where the Russians made swift advances...
What
bothered Zelensky most about Trump’s role in that operation had less to
do with intelligence sharing than with Russian disinformation. In the
middle of the battle, Trump held a call with Putin, who told the U.S.
president that thousands of Ukrainian troops in Kursk had been
surrounded by Russian forces. “That was a lie,” Zelensky told me. But
Trump continued to amplify it.
For
Zelensky it looked like part of a pattern. U.S. officials, he says, had
begun taking Putin at his word, even when their own intelligence
contradicted him. “I believe Russia has managed to influence some people
on the White House team through information,” Zelensky told me. “Their
signal to the Americans was that the Ukrainians do not want to end the
war, and something should be done to force them.
The tensions that resulted from the Oval Office meeting
began to dissipate about ten days later, when Zelensky and Trump sent
their most senior aides for a round of talks in Saudi Arabia...
Several hours into the talks, Yermak and his team placed a call to
Zelensky and asked for instructions. He told them to agree to a
ceasefire with no preconditions. In some ways, it was another massive
climbdown. Zelensky has spent the entire war demanding security
guarantees from the Americans and concessions from the Russians. Now
nearly all of his demands had been set aside. Yermak admitted this was
difficult. “But we have to be pragmatic. We have to move step by step,”
he told me. “This is not the moment for idealism.”...
“Why did the Ukrainians defend themselves at the start of this war? It
was because of dignity,” he told me. “We do not consider ourselves some
kind of superpower," he continued, but the Ukrainians “are very
emotional, and when it comes to our sense of dignity, freedom,
democracy, our people rise up and unite.” What they hoped to see in the
Oval Office was proof that the United States remains their ally. “But in
that moment there was the sense of not being allies, or not taking the
position of an ally,” Zelensky said. “In that conversation, I was
defending the dignity of Ukraine.”...
But he also acknowledges that, without winning over Trump himself, he has little chance of securing a stable peace. On
that front, at least, Putin’s recalcitrance may turn out to be an
asset. Over the last few months, while Zelensky has given ground and
made concessions, the Russian demands have only grown more extreme.
While launching bombs against civilians, the Kremlin has continued to
push its maximalist terms for ending the war, including the dismantling
of Ukraine’s armed forces, the removal of its government, and a
guarantee that Ukraine will never join the NATO alliance.
To
Zelensky’s dismay, Trump has agreed to some of these concessions
without getting much in return. He has taken Ukraine’s bid to join NATO
off the table. He has even suggested he would welcome Russia back into
the G7, the club of the world’s wealthiest democracies. Allowing such a
thing, Zelensky says, would lift the only concrete punishment Putin has
faced for the invasion of Ukraine: his isolation. “That’s a big
compromise,” Zelensky told me. “Imagine releasing Hitler from his
political isolation.”
As Trump has pushed to end the war, he seems to have reserved all the carrots for Russia, while the Ukrainians get the stick..."
Now, that system of
peace and security received one of its severest tests when Russia
accelerated its attack on Ukraine. The war began in 2014 with the attack
on Crimea and the occupation of Crimea. But in February of 2022, Russia
made a direct lunge for the capital, Kyiv. The heroism and endurance of
Ukrainian soldiers beat back the Russians, and Ukraine has continued to
fight for its independence to this day. This is a war not about
boundaries, but about Ukraine’s sovereign existence. The Russians and
President Putin, their dictator, have made it very clear that what they
are offended by is that Ukraine imagines it has any right to exist as an
independent nation at all.
As
Putin has told many people, including American interviewers—including
pet American interviewers, like Tucker Carlson when Tucker Carlson
interviewed Vladimir Putin—what this war is about from Putin’s point of
view is that Ukraine is not a country. It’s just part of Russia. It has
no history. It has no language. It has no literature. It has no right to
be any kind of separate people at all. It’s little Russia, in his mind,
that must be ruled forever by big Russia. The Ukrainians see it
otherwise, and they have fought and struggled and died to maintain their
national existence...
Biden did seem to
understand what was at stake and did want to help, even if it was never
in time and never enough. But now, in the Trump presidency, we are in a
very different world, a world of outright hostility to Ukraine, where
Donald Trump’s goal seems to be to pressure Ukraine, sometimes risking
Ukrainian lives, sometimes dooming Ukrainian lives, pressure Ukraine to a
negotiated form of submission to Russia.
I don’t know that we have yet or ever will get to the bottom of the reason for Donald Trump’s strange attachment to Russia. The why
question—it’s been speculated about, psychological blackmail, cronyism.
It’s been speculated about forever. And I have to admit, I sometimes
have joined in some of the speculation, but I think always we need to
have skepticism about it. We don’t know and maybe we’ll never know the why of the Trump-Russia attachment.
But we can see the what.
We can see the thing. We can see that there is something going on here
that is way beyond the usual about how Americans feel about foreign
dictators—a kind of something that is influencing American policy in
ways that are injurious to all kinds of societies, not only Ukraine, and
that has biased American policy toward the support of the goals of this
aggressive dictatorship in Moscow...
This administration has proven that all those op-eds and think pieces
and campaign propaganda about Trump as a dove, as a noninterventionist
were nonsense. Trump struck Iran. Right now, there are American Predator
drones flying over Mexico. And many in the Trump administration, including the vice president, have
talked about using American military force inside Mexico... They’re not
noninterventionists. They’re not pacifists. They’re not doves. What they
are are people who are hostile to the Ukrainian cause...
Give us a sense of both the military and the economic state as of mid-June 2025.
Brink: Well, I mean, I think one thing’s very clear, is
that Putin has figured out that he can show—or pretend, I would
say—that he’s ready to negotiate while he continues to fight on the
ground and to try to gain more territory and change facts and conditions
on the ground. I think that’s a mistake for us to allow that...
Frum:
As I listen to you speak, I hope this comes out the right way, because I
don’t mean this in any way a disrespectful or querulous point. But I
notice you’re arguing with a lot of things that you would think no
rational person would propose in the first place.
You’re
arguing that Russia is the aggressor, not Ukraine. You are arguing that
the defense of this embattled, invaded democracy is something that
Americans should care about. You sound a little bit like someone who’s
been on the receiving end of arguments with the most anti-democratic,
anti-social, anti-American people you can possibly imagine over the past
number of months. And that is the judo pose in which you are ready to
spring into action.
Am I hearing the reverberation of six months of discussions against people who would say things like, Well, maybe Ukraine’s at fault. Maybe this isn’t important?
Brink:
Well, I mean, of course, you’ve heard what the administration and what
the president’s position has been, you know, to be some kind of
independent—or, yeah, like, independent mediator.
I
strongly disagree that that is a position that is good for U.S.
interest. In the small sense, and this is really important for Ukraine,
it’s really vital that we don’t allow Putin as an aggressor to just
change borders by force, because this sets a terrible precedent here. It
sets a terrible precedent in other places around the world.
But
I think what I want to say is that, more strategically, I think Putin’s
goals are much bigger. I don’t think it’s just Ukraine. I think people
who think that, Oh, Putin will stop at Ukraine, that’s not my
experience in 28 years working in this part of the world. Putin doesn’t
stop unless stopped, unless given clear positioning that we and partners
will oppose a specific direction. I believe he’s going to keep going. I
think it’s clear to me that he wants to reverse Ukraine’s path toward
not just the EU, which is where this all started, but also to NATO, to
weaken NATO, to divide Europe, and to weaken the United States.
And
to me, we need a policy that is strategic in the sense of framing what
our actions are to achieve the goal, which I think should be to stop
Putin from being successful in this attempt.
Frum:
But you’ve spent a lot of time arguing things that one would’ve thought
were settled, like this war is Russia’s fault, not Ukraine’s fault.
Brink:
Yes...
Frum: ...The United States was late to give Ukraine the things it needed and the
chance to score more-decisive gains in the summer of 2023. Maybe
it wasn’t ever there, but if it was there, it wasn’t seized. But as I
listen to you, I hear the reverberations of something that sounds like
some kind of cheesy, paranoid Cold War novel—where back home, in
Washington, there are important voices that aren’t people of good faith,
aren’t imbued with shared patriotic values, don’t stand up for
democracy and actually want to see our friends lose, not our friends
win...
We’ve seen how it has sucked the soul out of some
of the people who had those, like the secretary of state, once a normal
American...
Brink:
I think it’s a mistake not to rely on people with expertise in the
area. I think it’s a big mistake, especially in Russia. Putin has a
larger strategic plan, which is very dangerous to the United States, and
we ignore that plan at our peril.
And
although he operates tactically, so he can be defeated. But I think it
requires a very thoughtful, strategic, coordinated approach, and that’s
something that in the second Trump administration, my challenge had been
getting advice to the right person, because there are a number of
different people who are working on Ukraine and on Russia policy. And in
that bifurcated way, it was very difficult to get advice.
And when I asked, How I best relay advice and information?
I was told I had to go to a multiple number of people across our
government in order to affect the policy because there wasn’t, as I
said, a policy process, a decision-making process. And my problem was: I
was in a war zone...
Frum:
Let me ask one final question: As you departed from Ukraine, when the
Ukrainians in the summer of 2025 look back toward the United States, the
country that gave them some if maybe not enough aid at the beginning of
the war, what do they see now? And what do they think of Americans?
Brink:
Well, maybe I’ll tell you a story of my last few days, when I was in
Ukraine and met with a very senior official. It was one of my last
calls. Basically, he showed me what he said had been presented to the
Ukrainians as a possible way forward in terms of a peace negotiation.
That
paper, which I won’t go into detail of, included what I would say
Putin’s wish list of everything that he wants. And he looked at me and
he said, You are our closest strategic partner. That’s all he
said. And I had nothing I could say, because I myself, as someone who
dedicated a big part of my life to supporting freedom and democracy in
Ukraine and in the wider European space for the benefit of Americans, I
had nothing to say either.
Frum: They feel that the United States is lost to them.
Brink:
I don’t think they understand. I don’t think I understand, or many of
us who are experts and long patriots and public servants understand.
Frum: Is it that we don’t understand, or that we do understand and our hearts can’t accept the answer?
Brink:
I think it’s a different administration, and it’s a threat to our
future, and that’s why I’ve come out. That’s why I left. That’s why I’m
speaking publicly. I think it’s bad for America to be where we are. It’s
not who we are. And I just—we have to be on the right side of history.
There are very few pivotal moments in history. And as someone who has
now done this for 28 years, I think it’s vital that we stand on the
right side.
Frum:
Ambassador Brink, thank you so much for your time today... And we all hope that your service
to the United States has not ended and that the United States that you
believed in has not ended either.
Brink: I don’t think it has. I’m sure it hasn’t. Thank you. Thank you, David."
***
America as I knew it has become a rotten, disgusting, evil shell of its former self. In my heart, it is dead. But I still have kin and friends there. To them, and to all Americans who are trying to bring the light back: Happy 4th of July! And good luck! You surely need it.
