Trump Administration Conveys Ukraine’s 30-Day Cease-Fire Proposal to Russia

Putin responds by proposing a temporary cease-fire in exchange for a resumed US suspension of arms shipments to Ukraine and a suspension on further Ukrainian military mobilization.

Russian President Vladimir Putin Responds to US-Ukraine Cease Fire Proposal During Meeting with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko at the Kremlin Earlier Today.

On March 11^th, a US delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with a high-level Ukrainian delegation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and agreed upon the terms of a joint 30-day cease-fire proposal to forward to Russia for review. Curiously, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was present in Jeddah during the meeting but did not attend the ten-hour long meeting, perhaps because he was not invited to attend it by the Trump administration. It was also announced that the administration was restoring military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine effective immediately. I understand why the Trump administration chose to restore US military aid, but hopefully it is not restoring its offensive intelligence assistance to Ukraine for deep missile strikes inside Russia that could provoke Russia to engage in major missile or unconventional attacks on NATO or even the US homeland. It was initially reported that the US and Ukraine had negotiated a peace framework but there have been no subsequent media reports that it actually did so.

This is exactly what I was worried would happen after I learned Trump was sending Rubio to negotiate peace terms with Ukraine instead of with Russia as I have long been advocating as the surest and swiftest route to ending what Trump has rightly called the “senseless and unnecessary” war in Ukraine. While the administration is celebrating this as a substantial step forward on the road to a peace deal, that may not be the case because as President Trump has stated it is Russia not Ukraine that “holds all the cards” and is winning militarily on the battlefield and it has set clear conditions for a Russian acceptance of a temporary cease-fire which it appears have not yet been met by either the Trump administration or Ukraine.

Now, it looks like the US-Ukrainian military alliance is back in force and we are going to do things Zelensky's way. I'm surprised Zelensky was able to get back in Trump's good graces so quickly. This US-Ukraine cease-fire proposal represents a stunning turnaround for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as it appears to put him back in the driver's seat of US foreign policy. It is designed to make Russia look like they don't want peace when in fact they have been the only ones insisting on peace since Zelensky refused to sign the Istanbul Agreement in April 2022. Then, Trump may order new economic sanctions against Russia and adopt the Biden policy of supporting Ukraine militarily until the last Ukrainian soldier is killed in combat.

It appears that neoconservatives in the Trump administration like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisory Mike Waltz have succeeded in moving President Trump back in a more neocon direction. I believe that Rubio telling the Russians that they have to accept Ukraine’s minimally acceptable peace terms or be blamed for the continuation of the war is a major diplomatic blunder that threatens to significantly delay if not forestall the formation of a US-Russia entente in furtherance of Communist Chinese objectives. This is concerning as the US may be weeks away from a Chinese blockade/invasion on Taiwan in early April that could lead to a simultaneous multifront US war with both Russia and China that would most likely end with the destruction of the US in a joint Sino-Russian cyberattack. As I have been reporting, the PRC may decide to act militarily to resolve the Taiwan issue to pre-empt an emerging US-Russia entente. That is unless President Trump is successful in his bold gambit to neutralize the Sino-Russian military alliance with a grand strategic partnership for peace with Russia for which a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine is the most critically important predicate.

The next step should have been for the US and Russia have agreed upon our own peace framework which accepts most of Russia's terms not Ukraine's because Russia is winning the war and may prove successful in forcing a Ukrainian military collapse and overrunning most or all eastern Ukraine by year's end. In fact, a recently released map of Russia reportedly being displayed in the offices of Russian officials lists not five annexed formerly Ukrainian oblasts as part of the Russian Federation but eight. So, if the Trump administration attempts to push Ukraine's peace terms on them, they may decide the US is not a serious negotiating partner given our lack of good-faith and end all peace discussions until we accept their terms.

Former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Stephen Bryen appears to largely concur with my analysis as he predicted the Russians will likely reject Ukraine's cease-fire terms meaning President Trump's courageous initiative to make peace with Russia may be dead unless Trump pressures Zelensky to accept Russia's cease-fire terms. “According to the latest from Riyadh, Ukraine says it is ready for a 30-day cease fire. If this is what Washington “extracted” from the Ukrainians, it is operationally meaningless. With Russia on the brink of winning in Kursk and elsewhere, the Russians won’t accept any such deal. If it is a ruse to allow the US to resume arms shipments to Ukraine, knowing Russia will reject it, the so-called peace initiative is a dead letter.”

US and Ukrainian Delegation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on March 11th where following a ten-hour marathon meeting, the US was unable to extract even the most minimalistic concessions from Ukraine to bring it closer to peace with Russia in what can only be seen as a stunning defeat for US diplomacy. Instead, the US delegation ended up caving to Ukraine and accepting a cease-fire proposal which the UK had negotiated with Ukraine in advance of the meeting employing terms everyone knew would prove unacceptable for Russia.

It was Russia that first agreed to a 30-day cease-fire agreement during the US-Russia negotiations held in Riyadh on February 18th as soon as substantial progress had made on an agreed upon US-Russia peace framework that did not include any NATO peacekeepers in Ukraine. This was a major concession from its prior position from June 14, 2024 onward when they said that no cease-fire would be agreed to until Ukraine gave up its control over the remainder of the four oblasts along their constitutional borders. However, there are no public reports to indicate Trump has followed up with peace negotiations with Russia in the three weeks since. Russia expressed support for allowing non-European neutral countries to deploy troops in Ukraine following the signing of a peace agreement. President Trump likely conveyed Russia's cease-fire offer to Zelensky in the White House who promptly proceeded to reject. He has zero interest in peace as it would force him to hold elections which would be all but certain to sweep him out of dictatorial power. That is why Trump said Russia is ready for peace but Zelensky is not during his remarks today.

Breaking Down the US-Backed Ukraine Cease-Fire Proposal

Here are the details of the joint US-Ukraine cease-fire proposal:

The deal proposes an immediate 30-day ceasefire, extendable upon mutual agreement, alongside a resumption of US military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine. As per the joint statement issued after the negotiations, the ceasefire would cover all active battlefronts, including ground, aerial, and naval engagements. However, the statement makes no mention of territorial concessions — an issue that remains a key sticking point in previous negotiations. Ukraine had previously called for the return of all occupied lands, while the US had suggested that Kyiv might have to make some territorial compromises. Additional agreements reached include humanitarian measures such as the exchange of prisoners of war, the release of detained civilians, and the repatriation of Ukrainian children who had been forcibly relocated to Russia.

Trump’s National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, is expected to meet his Russian counterpart in the coming days, while US special envoy Steve Witkoff plans to visit Moscow for direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia has not yet formally responded to the ceasefire proposal. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov previously accused Zelenskyy of refusing serious negotiations, telling state news agency TASS that the Ukrainian president “does not want any ceasefire unless the Americans provide assurances of nuclear deterrence against Russia.” Moscow has repeatedly expressed opposition to short-term ceasefires, with Putin insisting that any peace agreement must ensure Russia’s long-term security.

Rubio had said the purpose of his meeting with the high-level Ukrainian delegation in Riyadh was to find out how much Ukraine was prepared to give in terms of concessions to achieve a peace deal with Russia. However, Politico is reporting that the immediate 30-day cease-fire does not include any concessions by Ukraine in what can only be described as a major triumph for Zelensky. The US delegation apparently left empty handed as the Ukrainian delegation stated after the meeting that the question of territorial concessions was never even discussed. Accordingly, it would appear that Ukraine is not willing to make any concessions whatsoever, let alone territorial concessions, to achieve a peace deal which makes it all the more surprising that President Trump was willing to resume military aid to Ukraine.

What is most notable about these Ukrainian cease-fire conditions accepted by the Trump administration yesterday is that they were deliberately worded in such a way as to ensure that they would be unacceptable to Russia. This is due to the fact that the claim that Russia forcibly relocated thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia is entirely false and a fabrication of Ukrainian propaganda. But what is most disturbing is that the Trump administration had every reason to know that this language, as well as the unacceptable terms that were deliberately designed to make Russia look bad, would be rejected by Russia and yet chose to endorse the Ukrainian cease-fire language as its own anyway. Furthermore, Zelensky has expressly stated Russia must accept all Ukraine’s cease-fire terms or else Ukraine won't implement a cease-fire so even if Russia were to accept some of their cease-fire terms, Ukraine won't implement a cease-fire on their end and the war could continue indefinitely.

During remarks to the press on Wednesday, Rubio repeatedly emphasized that this new approach of approving every word of the Ukraine cease-fire proposal was endorsed by President Trump himself. Accordingly, it is clear that the administration has reverted to the Biden administration policy of clearly taking sides in the conflict and is no longer attempting to portray itself as an honest broker trying to mediate a peace agreement between the two warring sides. This amounted to a unilateral surrender to the “dictator without elections” who disrespected President Trump in the Oval Office less than two weeks ago and is the first sign we have seen to date that the Trump administration’s Ukraine policy may have been hijacked by neocon members of his Cabinet, warmongering EU leaders and, at least in this instance, Zelensky himself.

X Posts by US and EU leaders following the US meeting with Ukraine in Jeddah on March 11th. Note that Rubio was not the first to post the phrase “The ball is now in Russia’s court” indicating this was a pre-coordinated talking point with Never Trumper EU leaders.

The Zelensky tantrum in the White House a couple of weeks ago appeared to fracture the NATO alliance causing the EU to join Zelensky in stridently opposing every aspect of President Trump’s signature foreign policy initiative of courageously pursuing a realistic peace agreement with Russia ending the war in Ukraine. However, following Tuesday’s meeting in Jeddah in which the US agreed to convey Ukraine’s proposed cease-fire terms to Russia, it seems like the Trump administration, Zelensky and the EU are now singing the same tune and parroting the exact same talking points.

What is also noteworthy is that after Rubio said that “the ball is in Russia’s court”, this phrase was repeated on social media by numerous EU leaders who had been taking an anti-Trump foreign policy position. Accordingly, this policy reversal had the effect of getting the Trump administration and warmongering EU leaders working overtime with Zelensky scheming as to how they can best sabotage Trump’s peace efforts to start marching in lockstep in blaming Russia for continuing the war. This happened mere days after Trump said Russia wanted peace, but he didn’t think Zelensky did and causes one to wonder whether members of the president’s own cabinet are now trying to sabotage his signature foreign policy objective of a lasting peace with Russia.

It turns out that Britain’s National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell traveled to Kyiv to draft the cease-fire proposal with French and German input in coordination with National Security Advisor Mike Walz and their proposal was accepted by Ukraine in advance of the meeting in Jeddah. That explains why they coordinated all their talking points immediately after the cease-fire conditions were agreed to by the US and Ukraine. That would explain why it was worded to make Russia look bad and to ensure Russia rejected it.

Rubio said the US planned to present a peace framework negotiated with Ukraine to Russia on Wednesday even though Rubio has admitted “It may be incompatible with what the Russians are willing to do.” Politico reported yesterday that Walz has already spoken with his Russian counterpart to encourage Russia to accept Ukraine’s cease-fire terms, but Russia is waiting for the details of the meeting to be transmitted to them by the administration before they issue a formal response. White House spokesperson KAROLINE LEAVITT said Witkoff will head to Moscow “later this week.”Leavitt added that national security adviser MIKE WALTZ spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart and urged Russia to agree to the ceasefire. “We are at the 10th yard line and the president expects the Russians to help us run this into the end zone,” she said. Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office today, threatened economic consequences against Moscow if it didn’t cooperate on peace talks. “I want to see peace, and we'll see. But in a financial sense, yeah, we could do things very bad for Russia.”he said. “But I don't want to do that because I want to see peace.”

Meanwhile, Russia’s news agency Tass reported that the Kremlin suggested that President Vladimir Putin is ready for another one-on-one conversation with Mr. Trump to discuss ending the war as quickly as possible with peace terms mutually acceptable to the US and the Russian Federation. Russian government officials have been insisting on US and Ukrainian acceptance of its June 14th, 2024, peace terms while expressing an openness to resuming peace negotiations with the US. If Trump continues negotiations with Russia following their rejection of Ukraine's terms then it's still possible peace can be achieved. But Rubio suggested the US would blame Russia if they rejected Ukraine's cease-fire terms and impose sanctions that could cause Russia to abandon peace talks until they are lifted. Secretary Rubio has declared, “the ball is now in their court.” He added, “If Russia does not accept the cease-fire, we’ll unfortunately what the impediment is to peace here.”

It is significant that Ukraine launched its largest ever drone strike during the meeting with US negotiators in Riyadh on Russian civilian apartment complexes and related targets in ten different Russian oblasts including Moscow yet the Trump administration opted to still restore military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine despite these attacks. While Russia reportedly shot down 337 of Ukraine’s drones, they succeeded in killing three civilians and injuring eighteen including three children. In so doing, they demonstrated Ukraine’s determination to continue rejecting a peace deal with Russia and persist in fighting the war indefinitely.

Waltz added that the “shuttle diplomacy” will continue in the coming days. Trump administration Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this evening to discuss the US backed Ukraine cease-fire proposal so hopefully we will hear the results of those discussions shortly. This may then be followed by a second phone call between Trump and Putin. While he has proven to be the best negotiator on the US team in stating that peace should be based on the terms of the Istanbul Agreement, why is the Trump administration sending a subcabinet-level official to meet with Putin to see if Russia will accept Ukraine’s 30-day cease-fire terms? He would be far better off sending a Cabinet level official like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz or Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to underline his commitment to ending the war on mutually acceptable peace terms.

If President Trump refuses Putin’s cease-fire conditions or call to negotiate a bilateral peace deal acceptable to Russia or if he blames Russia and imposes additional sanctions, it could lead to a breakdown of peace negotiations with Russia and end any chance the US has of neutralizing the Sino-Russian alliance. Russia can just keep fighting until they overrun all of Ukraine later this year if Trump refuses to offer peace terms minimally acceptable to Moscow. Then, Ukraine will lose its independence for good, something no one wants. Worse, it may provoke Russia to join China in massively cyberattacking the US homeland if Trump opts to defend Taiwan militarily against a Chinese blockade that may start as early as next month. Negotiations with Russia appear to be proceeding at a snail’s pace because the administration has not publicly scheduled any more peace negotiations with them, nor has Trump met with Putin in the past six years. Instead of threatening Russia, Trump should direct Secretary of State Marco Rubio to return to the peace table with Russia. Then Rubio should meet every day with Lavrov until we negotiate a framework agreement to end the war at which point Russia has said they would agree to a cease-fire. Then the US can meet with the Ukrainians so they can propose amendments, some of which we can try to induce Russia to accept.

Russia’s Response to the US-Ukraine Cease-Fire Proposal

The Russian government clearly did not want to reject the US-backed Ukraine cease-fire proposal out of hand and is likely preparing a formal diplomatic response after studying the proposal. It is clear that Zelensky does not want a cease-fire but also does not believe that Russia will accept a cease-fire in which Ukraine demanded unacceptable terms from Russia but offered no concessions of its own in return. The New York Times reported yesterday that Ilya Grashchenkov, a political analyst in Moscow, said the Kremlin could be tempted to accept a truce that would be “tactically unfavorable but strategically favorable” in order to “show that it’s a peacemaker.” Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin political analyst in Moscow said, he expected Mr. Putin to insist on preconditions, such as a halt on weapons supplies to Ukraine for the duration of the cease-fire.

Russian officials said U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz had provided details on the ceasefire idea on Wednesday and Russia was ready to discuss it. However, Russia sees the temporary ceasefire suggested by the U.S. and Ukraine as little more than a chance for Kyiv's forces to regroup with returned Ukrainian prisoners of war and re-arm with US weapons, Yuri Ushakov, a senior aide to Vladimir Putin said earlier today. Ushakov, a former ambassador to Washington who speaks for Putin on major foreign policy issues, told Russian media that he had spoken to Waltz on Wednesday to outline Russia's position. Trump stated in the White House on Wednesday that he hoped the Kremlin would agree to the U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire that Ukraine said it would support. “I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace.”

America’s peace President Donald J. Trump is courageously trying to stop the death and destruction on both sides in the Ukraine war but will his neocon cabinet members be successful in derailing his efforts?

Putin responded favorably to the Trump administration’s cease-fire proposal praising President Trump’s “noble” efforts to end the war and saying that Russia was open to a cease-fire but needed to discuss the details with President Trump on a phone call first such as a cessation of US weapons deliveries to Ukraine and who would monitor the cease-fire to ensure Ukrainian compliance. President Vladimir Putin said Russia agrees in principal with the US proposal for a temporary cease-fire with Ukraine, but added that "there are nuances," such as Western weapons deliveries to Kyiv, which need to be discussed first. The Russian leader also said any agreement should lead to long-term peace that address the "root" reasons for the war, a likely reference to NATO expansion. "We agree with the proposal to stop the fighting. But we proceed from the fact that this cessation should lead to long-term peace and eliminate the root causes of this crisis," Putin said in his first public comments about how he assessed the US proposal for a cease-fire. "We are for [a cease-fire], but there are nuances," Putin added during a March 13 press conference in Moscow with Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko.

Putin articulated Russia’s conditions for accepting the 30-day cease-fire he likely shared with Witkoff during their meeting in Moscow this evening. “We also want guarantees that Ukraine will not mobilize, train soldiers, or receive weapons during the 30-day cease-fire.” Putin seemed particularly concerned that Ukraine could extricate its tens of thousands of elite soldiers largely blocked from retreating after being mostly surrounded by Russian forces in Kursk, calling them “terrorists” who have committed war crimes against Russian civilians, an allegation that is likely at least partially true. I thought President Putin’s response to the Trump administration's cease-fire proposal was quite positive overall. Putin should be able to work out a cease-fire deal with President Trump over the phone but there seems little chance that Zelensky will accept Russia's cease-fire proposal terms so the war will continue unless the Trump administration cuts off all aid to Ukraine to pressure Zelensky to accept the cease-fire. Politico reports that “top White House aids believe — as Rubio suggested earlier in the week — that Putin’s public hard line may intend to obscure an actual willingness to make a deal. Putin may be likely to hold out as long as he can until Trump grants him a one-on-one meeting. Trump has expressed a desire for such a meeting but could condition it on Russia agreeing to the ceasefire.” While Trump has met in person with Zelensky several times both before and since he returned to the White House, no summit meeting with the Russian President has yet been scheduled, significantly delaying an end to the war in Ukraine which he has long touted as his overriding foreign policy objective.

Trump responded to Putin’s conditional acceptance of the US-Ukraine cease-fire proposal during a White House meeting with NATO’s Secretary General. “Putin made a very promising statement, but it was not complete — I would like to see a ceasefire from the Russian side,” he said, noting that Moscow’s war has been “a tremendous cost to the United States and other countries.” “We hope that Russia will do the right thing,” Trump added. The president quietly tightened the noose around Moscow’s neck on Wednesday, letting expire a set of Biden-era waivers that allowed Europeans to purchase Russian oil. The waiver, which allowed sanctioned Russian banks to process energy-related payments from Europe, expired just as US special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow for cease-fire talks with Russian leaders, which Trump said are “going well.” “Special Envoy Witkoff is having serious conversations in Russia,” Trump said. “Hopefully, today we’ll have an idea of how things are going for us.” “Anything we can do to stop the violence, I think, is an extremely powerful thing. It’s our job to try,” he added.

Trump’s decision to increase sanctions on Russia for the first time since he was re-elected President is likely to have a counterproductive effect on Russia’s willingness to negotiate an end to the conflict while also hurting America’s European allies economically. Instead of trying to punish Russia while cease-fire negotiations are still ongoing with Moscow, President Trump should claim Putin’s openness to a 30 day cease-fire as a big win for the US because it appears Putin has dropped his demand first issued on June 14, 2024 that Russia would not agree to any cease-fire until Ukraine first withdrew all its troops from all areas of the four Russian annexed formerly Ukrainian oblasts.

The neocons in the administration have laid a trap for the Russians but they can outwit them by rejecting Ukraine’s cease-fire terms and proposing a 30 day cease fire with a few conditions of their own. If Trump reject’s Russia’s proposed conditions for a cease-fire, Putin could insist that the US agree to unfreeze $300 billion in Russian financial assets in foreign banks, restore SWIFT bank access and partially lifts tens of thousands of US sanctions against Russia especially sanctions on Russian energy purchases to aid in US and EU economic recovery efforts. Another condition of a Russian cease-fire proposal could be immediate high level bilateral US-Russia peace negotiations occurring nearly every day from henceforth until a peace deal has been negotiated which is acceptable to both the US and Russia and addresses the origins of the conflict. Trump might view such an offer very positively and then it would shift the burden back to Ukraine to accept Russia’s unconditional cease-fire proposal which Zelensky would be almost guaranteed to reject, proving once again Zelensky remains the biggest obstacle to peace and risking yet another cut off of US military aid to Ukraine which would be a strategic victory for Moscow.

Russian Forces Tighten Their Noose Around Ukrainian Troops in Kursk

Meanwhile, Ukraine has incurred tens of thousands of casualties in the past few weeks in its Kursk salient as Russian forces have succeeded in nearly surrounding Ukrainian troops who continue to attempt to withdraw. Russian forces have even captured some Ukrainian territory in Sumy oblast for the first time since Putin ordered them withdrawn from all of northern Ukraine in April 2022. Russian forces are continuing to hammer and close the Ukrainian Kursk pocket with Ukrainian troops incurring tens of thousands of casualties and fleeing to avoid being captured within the next few days. The elimination of the Ukrainian Kursk salient by the Russians could be converted into a general Russian northern offensive focused in the Sumy region. Putin has reportedly ordered the Chief of the Russian General Staff Vallery Gerisimov to create a new ‘security zone’ in northern Sumy to protect Kursk from a future Ukrainian invasion.

Following the success of Russia’s military offensive to liberate the Kursk region from Ukrainian occupation, Zelensky does not have any territorial bargaining chips remaining. The timing of this successful offensive is very important for Russia now that the question of Ukrainian territorial concessions is beginning to be seriously discussed on the Western side. I continue to believe that Russia will have to concede its demand that Ukraine transfer control of the four Russian annexed regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhia along their constitutional borders to reach a peace deal with the United States.

However, the loss of its Kursk salient removes most of the incentive for Russia to return any of its captured territory to Ukraine including small portions of Sumy, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv which Russian forces have occupied. More likely, Russia will offer to return these regions along with parts of Kherson and Zaporizhia in return for a transfer to Russia of the remainder of western Donetsk oblast so long as the territorial exchanges are roughly equivalent in terms of square kilometers. However, it seems unlikely that Ukraine will agree to do so. Accordingly, the most likely postwar dividing line between Russia and Ukraine will likely be whatever the line of control is at the time a permanent cease-fire is agreed upon.

Currently, Russian forces in Ukraine outnumber Ukrainian forces by a factor of at least two to one with a Russian advantage of five to one in troops along most portions of the Eastern front. For the past couple of days, I have been predicting that Russia’s successful liberation of the Ukrainian occupied portions of the Kursk region, that Russian forces in Kursk will likely press their advantage by launching a new offensive in the Sumy region. Such an offensive could be used to establish a security zone to protect Kursk from Ukrainian long-range artillery strikes in furtherance of President Putin’s directive while also serving to further divert the Ukrainian army’s limited manpower away from the main front in Donetsk, further increasing the chances of a Ukrainian military collapse there in the next few months.

New Russian map reportedly being issued to Russian officials showing the four annexed Ukrainian border regions and Crimea fully incorporated into the Russian Federation along their constitutional borders plus the entire oblasts of Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Odessa. These eight oblasts comprise over thirty-seven percent of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory which is nearly twice as much Ukrainian territory as Russia controls today! This could be an indicator of the next Russian offensive to make Ukraine a land-locked country should the Trump administration refuse to agree to a peace deal minimally acceptable to Moscow.

Alternatively, Russia could decide to employ its reserves along Ukraine’s eastern border which likely consist of no less than 100,000 troops to reinforce the 60,000 Russian and North Korean troops in Kursk to stage a major northern offensive designed to drive south and outflank Ukrainian troops in southeast Ukraine forcing them to fall back westward and abandon their remaining fortified positions in western Donetsk. Russia could even decide to move westward through Chernihiv to Kyiv oblast all the way to the Dnipro River placing Ukraine’s government ministry buildings within Russian artillery range. Given the Russian army’s increasing numerical advantage over the Ukrainian army and its supremacy over Ukraine in terms of artillery, airpower and missiles, any of these options may be realistically pursued by Moscow with little warning to the Ukrainian side.

However, I continue to believe that the most effective military action Russia could take would be to re-invade Kyiv oblast from Belarus to surround Kyiv to force Ukraine to accept peace on Russian terms as it could have done had Putin not ordered all Russian troops withdrawn from northern Ukraine in April 2022. It all depends on whether Russia continues to pursue its primary operational objective of destroying the Ukrainian Armed Forces or whether it wants to revert to a more strategic objective of threatening Kyiv directly to force Ukraine to agree to peace on the Kremlin’s terms.

Trump Appears to have Abandoned His Attempts to Oust Zelensky For Now

After the US decided to back Ukraine’s terms for a 30-day cease-fire deal, President Trump stated he would “absolutely” welcome Zelensky to return to the White House. Taken along with the White House’s decision to restore all military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine, this represents a huge about face for President Trump following reports that senior administration officials engaged in a covert attempt to replace him after he lectured Trump, alleged he was parroting Russian disinformation talking points and attempted to set US foreign policy in the Oval Office. During the last couple of weeks, multiple Republican leaders have suggested that Zelensky be replaced including Sen. Lindsey Graham, House Speaker Mike Johnson and even National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. Last week, President Donald Trump said the United States “will not put up with” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s anti-peace rhetoric “much longer.” NBC News reported that, “Trump is also reportedly pushing for Zelenskyy to take steps toward holding elections in Ukraine — and possibly even to “step aside as his country’s leader,” the officials told reporters.” However, Ukraine’s corrupt autocratic leaders continues to adamantly refused to hold an election to restore democracy to Ukraine. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime Zelensky supporter, responded by exclaiming. “Unfortunately, until there is an election, no one has a voice in Ukraine,” Graham wrote. Former DIA Analyst Rebekah Koffler, author of "Putin’s Playbook—Russia’s Secret Plan to Defeat America", has rightly taken to calling Ukraine’s dictator a "con artist." Zelensky continues to falsely portrays himself as a modern-day Winston Churchill while getting over a million of his brave soldiers killed or wounded in an unwinnable war against Russia. Meanwhile he is continuing to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars worth of US taxpayer aid causing even Ukrainian-American Rep. Victoria Spartz to refer to him as an "oligarch.”

Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky, who has refused to offer even the smallest territorial or other concessions as he continues to ban all peace negotiations with Russia, choosing instead to make maximalist demands of Russia, which continues to decimate Ukrainian military forces on the battlefield.

In an article entitled, “Top Trump allies hold secret talks with Zelenskyy’s Ukrainian opponents,” Politico reported on the Trump administration’s covert attempts to settle on a new Ukrainian opposition leader to replace Zelensky.

“Four senior members of Donald Trump’s entourage have held secret discussions with some of Kyiv’s top political opponents to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just as Washington aligns with Moscow in seeking to lever the Ukrainian president out of his job. The Trump aides are confident that Zelenskyy would lose any vote due to war fatigue and public frustration over rampant corruption. The official line from the U.S. administration is that Trump is not interfering in Ukraine’s domestic politics. This week, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick denied his boss was “weighing into Ukrainian politics,” adding all that Trump wants is a partner for peace. But the behavior of Trump and his officials suggests quite the opposite. Trump has accused Zelenskyy of being a “dictator without elections,” and hinted he would not be “around very long” if he didn’t do a deal with Russia.

For days now, Trump cabinet officials have suggested Zelenskyy should step aside unless he comes fully on board with the U.S. plan to end the war rapidly, even if it involves major concessions by Ukraine. On Monday, Trump growled that Zelenskyy “won’t be around very long” if progress isn’t made on a peace deal that satisfies him. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said Washington needed “a leader that can deal with us, eventually deal with the Russians, and end this war.” All of that is prompting Zelenskyy’s domestic political opponents and even some former allies to pay court to Trump World to gain its blessing. “They’re positioning themselves as the best people to work with. And people who would consent to many of the things that Zelensky isn’t consenting to,” the Republican expert said.”

This article confirmed my suspicions that Trump wanted Zelensky gone. I've been saying off and on since my March 2022 article in the National Interest that we should give former Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko a shot to prove her mettle as Ukraine's new President. She has been prosecuted by both the Zelensky regime and former President Yanukovych so she might represent a good middle ground between the ruling ultranationalist coalition government and the eleven banned pro-peace opposition party factions.

In an article entitled, “We May be Approaching the Final Days of Zelenksy’s Presidency” published just two days ago Oren Matthews noted:

A growing constituency of his own people and of Ukraine’s political elite are calling for new elections and a swift end to the war. And the imminent collapse of the Kursk incursion – widely seen as Zelensky’s brainchild – will focus those calls into a clamour. It will be convenient to blame the coming massacre and capture of Ukrainian soldiers on Trump’s cutoff of military aid and intelligence sharing. But in truth things have been bleak well before the recent Trump-Zelensky meltdown. Yesterday prominent Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Honcharenko called for peace with Russia after three years of passionate defiance. He called on Zelensky to stop claiming to be “saving” Europe and concentrate on saving Ukraine. Indeed, for all the recent talk of Ukraine standing as a shield to Putin’s aggression, Honcharenko pointed out the simple geographical truth that it is not Ukraine that stands between Russia and Poland but the close Kremlin ally Belarus.

Zelensky supporters point to recent polls that show a healthy 61 per cent “trust” rating. But when it comes to future voting intentions, the answers are very different. Just 16 per cent of Ukrainian voters said that they would vote Zelensky back into power in a survey conducted by Socis, a major Kyiv-based market research company, last month. There is also a major vibe shift under way in the Ukrainian elite – including among Zelensky’s former senior colleagues and allies. “I distrust leaders eager to prolong [war],” wrote Iuliia Mendel, Zelensky’s former press secretary. The West, she added, should “unite to halt this horrific devastation of Ukrainians. I stand with the Ukrainian people who live in Ukraine and who want someone smart to finish this war and save the nation.” According to one cabinet-level former official who worked closely with Zelensky until 2023: “Ukraine cannot have a president who does not have the confidence of our most powerful ally [the United States] … There is only one serious question in [Kyiv] politics today, who will replace Zelensky and how quickly?”

For different reasons both Trump and Putin want Zelensky gone – they both speak of him as an illegitimate president. Can there be fair elections in wartime? There is a provision in Ukraine’s constitution for the speaker of the Rada – Zelensky party member Ruslan Stefanchuk – to temporarily take over from a President who resigns. Some argue that should in fact have happened when Zelensky’s term expired in May 2024.

Just last week, Trump stated the US would not resume military aid to Ukraine even if they signed a minerals deal which they have not yet done yet.

Less than a week ago, "President Trump warned that the U.S. would cut off its support for Ukraine if it did not agree to settle its war against Russia, telling reporters it has been “more difficult” to deal with Kyiv than with Moscow. “I think we’re doing very well with Russia. But right now, they’re bombing the hell out of Ukraine,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I’m finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine. And they don’t have the cards. They don’t have the cards.” Asked why he would not provide defensive military equipment to Ukraine so it could guard against Russian bombings, Trump said Friday he was not sure Ukrainian leaders wanted to end the war. “I have to know that they want to settle,” Trump said. “I don’t know that they want to settle. If they don’t want to settle, we’re out of there. Because we want them to settle. And I’m doing it to stop death.”

As President Trump prepares to welcome Zelensky back to the White House with open arms, has he forgotten that the second assassin who tried to kill him during his presidential campaign, Ryan Routh, served as a recruiter for the Ukrainian Foreign Legion. Routh may have had the support of the Ukrainian SBU in targeting Trump for assassination given the fact that Zelensky campaigned for his opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and has staunchly opposed his drive to negotiate a peace deal with Russia? Earlier this week, one of the regime’s top propagandists, Vadym Karpiak, called for Trump’s assassination before taking his post down days later.

For three-and-a-half days, March 6 to midday March 9, Vadym Karpiak, one of the Zelenskyy regime’s top journalists, posted to his Facebook page the statement, “And where is Lee Harvey Oswald when the country needs him so badly? And not only one.” By March 9, this open call for the assassination of U.S. President Donald Trump had caught the attention of pro-Trump networks in the U.S. Karpiak—or someone higher-up—was likely advised that expressing such sentiments in writing could cause trouble for Zelenskyy and Co. And well it should: Then-President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded to Karpiak Ukraine’s Order of Merit, III Degree, in June 2022, for his journalistic support for the regime and its war. He was a leading TV host on the “United News Telemarathon,” set up by the Zelenskyy regime in 2022 to complete its control over news reporting in the country. They unified the big TV channels still allowed to broadcast in the country—the silencing of dissident voices in Ukraine long preceded the beginning of the war—into one news network, broadcasting 24/7. Karpiak was given such “plums” as doing the big Dec. 31, 2022 interview of Zelenskyy’s wife, Olena.

Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance remains on USAID’s taxpayer funded Ukraine’s black list of “enemies and traitors of Ukraine,” published by a Ukrainian organization called Molfar, along with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. I was one of the first Americans to be placed on Ukraine’s black list back in July 2022 denounced by them as an “information terrorist” to be tried by a war crimes tribunal.

According to a recent Grayzone article exposing the USAID connections to this nefarious Zelensky regime agency aimed at smearing pro-peace American political and thought leaders:

Molfar, a Ukrainian term for a sorcerer or wizard, describes itself as an open-source intelligence agency which “collects lists of Ukrainian enemies to bring war criminals to justice.” Its website previously named both USAID and the US Civil Research and Development Fund (CRDF) as “partners.” The legality of US agencies sponsoring foreign groups to smear Americans and meddle in American politics is questionable at best. A report bearing USAID’s logo, which was published one year after Russia’s invasion by Ukraine’s National Coordination Cybersecurity Center (NCSCC), noted that Molfar had helped train thousands of government employees on smear tactics, and were providing instruction on cyberwarfare – including PSYOP techniques – to public workers with the direct assistance of the US government.

Molfar is noted for using more advanced internet skills to track the specific whereabouts and personal information of individuals and their families. The tracking of Vance recently, when he was out walking with his 3-year-old daughter, by a group calling out “Slava Ukraina,” may well have been done without Molfar’s specific input, but such an operation bears their fingerprints.

Trump Enjoys Increasing US public support in his drive for Peace with Russia

A recent CNN poll shows 69% of American people approved of President Trump’s address to Congress last night while Trump’s approval rate on the Ukraine issue is 24 points higher than Biden was at the end of his term. Polls show a majority of Americans support a peace deal allowing Russia to keep the territory it has captured from Ukraine which is the most likely outcome of a peace deal. President Trump's noble efforts to end the war in Ukraine with a peace deal with Russia are supported by 78% of the American people which means that only 22% of Americans support the Democrat call to fight this unwinnable US proxy war against Russia until the last Ukrainian soldier is killed in combat.

Thanks to Trump's diplomatic efforts to use a comprehensive peace deal with Russia to flip it from an adversary to a strategic partner, only one-third of Americans still consider Russia to be an enemy.

"This poll joins others that suggest cratering support among the American people for the war in Ukraine—and for its president. As CNN found recently, in February 2022, 72 percent said they had confidence that Zelensky will “do the right thing when it comes to world affairs”; now, in February 2025, that number has plummeted to 48 percent. Meanwhile, 78 percent of Americans want a Russia/Ukraine-negotiated peace deal, with just 16 percent opposing it. What many Americans saw in the Oval Office was not an American president bullying a weak ally, but rather, an American president—the first in my lifetime—defending the abused American taxpayer from an ongoing international fleecing, not just of the past three years but for the entire postwar order."

Trump should remain steadfast in his pursuit of peace with Russia despite criticism from warmongers in both major US political parties, knowing the American people solidly support him.

Why Trump Was Correct that Russia Wants Peace but Zelensky Does Not

Neocon Republican Senators like Tom Cotton continue to make the ridiculous claim that Putin doesn’t want peace because "Putin wants to conquer all of Ukraine" or transform it into a Russian satellite state.
With all the false claims circulating that Trump was wrong to cut off Ukrainian military aid on the basis that Zelensky doesn’t want peace, it seems like a history lesson of his leadership tenure is in order. In 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky was elected on a platform of implementing the Minsk II Agreement with Russia to restore Ukrainian control over the entire Donbass region peacefully but after he was elected, he followed his predecessor’s policy of violating the agreement despite the fact it would have restored Ukraine’s control over all its internationally recognized territory other than Crimea. In April 2021, Zelensky gave a speech pledging to use military force if necessary to retake control of both the Donbass and Crimea. In August and November 2021, Zelensky signed two strategic partnership agreements with the US causing Russia to mass its troops on Ukraine's borders poised for an invasion viewing it as a “de facto NATO member.”

On December 7, 2021, Putin called former President Joe Biden pledging not to invade Ukraine if the US provided Russia with a written guarantee that Ukraine would never join NATO. Biden refused but Zelensky could have simply stated he was changing the constitution to restore the neutrality clause, add that Ukraine would never join NATO and grant autonomy to the people of the Donbass region and Russia would never have invaded. Instead, both Biden and Zelensky chose war with Russia as President Trump rightly stated. The day after Russia invaded on February 24, 2022, Russia set out its peace terms which they said if accepted would cause them to withdraw all Russian troops back to their prewar positions.

On February 26th, 2022, Zelensky accepted Russia’s offer to begin negotiations to end the war that had started a mere two days earlier, and peace negotiations began first in Belarus, than Israel and finally in Turkey. On March 1st, Putin halted a huge 40-mile-long armored column on the road from Belarus to Kyiv for a one-month period which Putin could have easily used to fully surround Kyiv mere weeks after the war began having accomplished the main goal of the invasion which was to force Zelensky back the bargaining table. By March 29th, Russia agreed to Ukraine’s counteroffer peace terms with only a few revisions. The Ukrainian delegation was popping champagne bottles amazed at the stunning victory they had achieved for their country. Russia had agreed to withdraw all their troops from all eight Russian occupied oblasts including Kyiv to its prewar positions in return for Ukrainian neutrality outside of NATO and a reduction in the size of its armed forces thus liberating 93% of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory whereas at one point or another 30% of Ukraine’s territory had been occupied by the Russians during this war. The Ukrainian delegation said the agreement was 90% complete with only the scale of Ukraine’s partial demilitarization remaining to be finalized.

Zelensky, having helped to write the peace terms was also excited saying he could easily negotiate the only remaining terms which were the size and composition of Ukraine’s post war armed forces in a peace summit with Putin. On March 31st, after Ukraine initialed the Istanbul Agreement which they had written and Russia had accepted, Russia announced a unilaterally withdrawal of all Russian troops from all three northern Ukrainian provinces including Kyiv in partial implementation of the peace agreement in the belief that Zelensky would show up to sign the final peace agreement.

Russian and Ukrainian delegations meeting in Istanbul in late March 2022 where they initialed a detailed peace agreement meant to end the war in Ukraine that came to be known as the Istanbul Agreement. Trump Special Envoy Steve Witkoff has stated negotiations should pick up where they left off.

Under the terms of the final peace agreement scheduled to be signed on April 9, 2022, a permanent cease-fire was to take effect. However, on April 8th, the day the Russian military withdrawal from Ukraine was completed, Biden dispatched UK PM Boris Johnson to pressure Zelensky to rescind the peace agreement offering a blank check of US financial and military support if he agreed to continue NATO’s proxy war against Russia indefinitely. Zelensky agreed, in polar opposition Ukraine’s national security interest of recovering its lost territories, knowing it would give him an opportunity to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars and perhaps even become a billionaire Ukrainian oligarch in his own right. By mid-April, Russia was reporting that Ukraine had not responded to their latest counteroffer and had effectively broken off all further peace negotiations.

That month, I wrote an article predicting that if Zelensky did not return to the peace table very soon, then Putin would annex at least three and maybe even four Ukrainian oblasts which is exactly what he did in September 2022 after offering Ukraine a permanent cease-fire along the line of control, announcing that most of the objectives of Russia’s so-called “special military operation” had been achieved and that the rest could be achieved diplomatically. Zelensky responded later that month by issuing a presidential decree permanently banning all peace negotiations with Russia so long as Putin remained in power which was then ratified by the Ukrainian Rada.

Russia continued to offer a permanent cease-fire even conducting a unilateral 36-hour Christmas truce in January 2023. That same month, Biden dispatched CIA Director William Burns to both Moscow and Kyiv who offered Putin all of the Ukrainian territory Russia had annexed in exchange for peace and ostensibly for Russia dropping its demand for Ukraine reverting to becoming a permanently neutral state outside of NATO. However, both Putin and Zelensky refused his offer. At that time, Burns warned Zelensky and other senior Ukrainian government officials to stop embezzling so much US taxpayer funded aid with Seymour Hersch reporting that the CIA had assessed that he had embezzled $400 million in just the first eleven months of the war. Russia continued to offer peace with Ukraine along the terms it had previously offered but both Biden’s and Zelensky refused to talk peace with Russia. On June 14, 2024, Putin issued his current peace offer which was basically its September 2022 peace offer modified to include Ukraine having to cede the remainder of the formerly Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to Russia as part of a final peace settlement. This would expand Russia’s annexed territories from 19% today to about 22.5% of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory.

As I noted previously, on February 18th, 2025, a US delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov who said Russia was willing to accept a temporary 30-day cease-fire as soon as the main points of a peace framework had been substantially agreed to. The US then asked Zelensky if he would accept a cease-fire both before and during his White House visit on February 28^th to which Zelensky adamantly replied “no” repeating his misleading claim that peace with Russia was not possible and was “very, very far away.” The Trump administration than proceeded to suspend all US military and non-military aid to Ukraine other than purely defensive intelligence and Starlink access. Asked what the impact the US aid cut off had on Ukraine, Trump Russia-Ukraine Special Envoy LTG Keith Kellogg responded by stating “The best way I can describe it is sort of like hitting a mule with a two-by-four across the nose. You got their attention,” adding he hoped it was a wake-up call but that the Ukrainians had brought it on themselves by adamantly refusing all of Trump’s calls for peace.

Trump later stated at the White House that Russia was sincere in wanting peace, but he was said he was very unhappy with Ukraine saying he didn’t think they are wanting peace. Zelensky responded on March 4th with a French proposal for “a partial cease-fire by sea” and an end to long-range missile strikes by both sides while continuing to fight the ground and air war with Russia indefinitely. The Trump administration responded by sending a US delegation to meet with a Ukrainian delegation in Riyadh on Tuesday to agree on 30-day cease-fire terms before meeting with the Russians again.

If Putin really is “a new Hitler” as Ukraine war agitators claim, why did he offer peace negotiations on Day 2 of the war before his troops had taken much territory and then halt a couple divisions worth of tanks and armored vehicles on their way to surrounding Kyiv to allow peace negotiations to continue then unilaterally withdraw all Russian troops from northern Ukraine, including Kyiv, as part of a deal to withdraw all Russian troops to their prewar positions? Why did Zelensky refuse to sign the very peace agreement which Ukraine had authored which would have liberated 93% of Ukraine from Russian control?

Zelensky has become Ukraine’s worst enemy for refusing peace during the past few years especially in February 2022 when Russia offered a full military withdrawal to its pre-war positions in return for Ukrainian neutrality outside of NATO and partial demilitarization. The longer Ukraine waits to make peace the worse the terms they're forced to accept will be especially in terms of the amount of territory they are forced to cede to the Russians. As I have been writing over the past three years, the US has no national security interest in defending Ukraine or taking sides in this border dispute. It is imperative that President Trump continue to pursue his noble efforts to negotiate an end to the war with Russia to save Ukraine and potentially the entire Western world from an unnecessary nuclear world war with Russia.

© David T. Pyne 2025

David T. Pyne, Esq. is a former U.S. Army combat arms and Headquarters staff officer, who was in charge of armaments cooperation with the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas from 2000-2003, with an M.A. in National Security Studies from Georgetown University. He is the former President and current Deputy Executive Director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security. He also serves as a member of the Committee on the Present Danger-China. He recently served as Defense and Foreign Policy Advisor to former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. He has also co-authored the best-selling new book, “Catastrophe Now--America’s Last Chance to Avoid an EMP Disaster” and his new book “Restoring Strategic Deterrence” will be published in July 2025. He serves as the Editor of “The Real War” newsletter at dpyne.substack.com and previously served as a contributor to “The National Interest”. Here is a link to his interview archive. He also posts multiple times a day on X at @AmericaFirstCon. He may be reached at emptaskforce.ut@gmail.com.

Recent Interviews

February 14th—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss comments by President Trump about his phone call with Ukraine discussing ending the war in Ukraine and the comments by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the Munich Security Conference. Here is a link to the interview.

February 17th—Interview with KUTV CBS Channel 2 News to discuss why I support President Trump and his agenda to put America First both at home and abroad.

February 18th—Panel Discussion on RT’s Crosstalk program to discuss Trump’s bold new peace negotiations with Russia to end the war in Ukraine without Ukraine or the EU having a seat at the table and to discuss the UK’s proposal to send tens of thousands of NATO peacekeeping troops to Ukraine that could lead to a direct war between Russia and NATO. Here is a link to the interview.

February 18th—Interview on Main Street Radio with Jon Twitchell discussing my latest articles focusing on Trump’s leaked 100-day Ukraine war peace plan and the prospects for Trump realizing his noble goal of achieving a permanent peace deal ending the war in Ukraine. Here is the link to the interview.

February 24th—Interview with COL Rob Maness to discuss the increasing feud between President Trump and Zelensky, whether he will agree to sign Trump’s proposed agreement to split the profits for Ukrainian rare earth sales and the Trump administration’s adoption of many of my recommendations not just for the terms of a peace deal with Russia but also a more comprehensive peace ushering in a grand partnership for peace between our two great nations. Here is the link to the interview.

February 24th—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss the increasing feud between President Trump and Zelensky, whether he will agree to sign Trump’s proposed agreement to split the profits for Ukrainian rare earth sales and the Trump administration’s adoption of many of my recommendations for a comprehensive peace including a new US-Russia entente ushering in a grand partnership for peace between our two great nations. Here is a link to the interview.

February 25th—Interview with Raphael Machado to talk about when the EU will resume natural gas purchases from Russia, the implications of the German national elections and whether the EU will succeed in their bid to derail peace talks between Trump and Putin and defeat his plan to restore peace and stability to Ukraine and to Europe.

February 28th—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss the fiery aftermath of the Trump-Zelensky meeting at the White House in which Zelensky refused to sign the minerals deal, claimed Trump failed to help Ukraine during his first term and accused him of parroting Putin’s talking points.

March 1st—Interview with Greg Allison on his show to discuss the Trump-Zelensky feud, the prospects for a peace deal ending the war in Ukraine, the increasing fissures between the US and EU and whether it would be better for US national security to pull the US out of NATO entirely.

March 3rd—Panel Interview with Brannon Howse, COL Rob Maness and Leo Hohmann on Brannon Howse Live to discuss the fiery aftermath of the Trump-Zelensky meeting at the White House, the prospects for peace, the growing fissures between the US and its European “allies” and the threats I am most worried about materializing in the next few months.

March 3rd—Interview on the Dr. Maria show on Lindell TV to discuss the ramifications of Friday’s Trump-Zelensky shouting match in the Oval Office on the upcoming US-Russia peace deal ending the war in Ukraine.

March 5th—Interview with Nima Alkhorshid on his Dialogue Works podcast to discuss President Trump’s decision to cut off all military aid to Ukraine. We will also discuss the future of Europe whose leaders are doing everything they can to join Zelensky in supporting his efforts to sabotage Trump’s noble effort to negotiate peace and a new strategic partnership with Russia.

March 6th—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss Trump’s latest comments that he will only defend NATO countries that pay their fair share making America’s Article V security guarantee conditional rather than "“ironclad.” We will also discuss Trump’s efforts to replace Zelensky, China’s plan to send troops to fight in Ukraine and Trump’s efforts to get Britain or France to replace the US as the military leader of NATO.

March 7th—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss Trump’s latest comments that Zelensky is much harder to negotiate with, his plans to send a US delegation to negotiate a peace framework with Ukraine in Saudi Arabia next week and Russia’s February 18th offer for a temporary truce after a peace framework not involving NATO peacekeeping troops in Ukraine had been substantially agreed upon.

March 13th—Interview with Brannon Howse on his Worldview Weekend Radio Show to discuss the latest development with regards to peace negotiations with Russia and Ukraine to end the war including Ukraine’s cease-fire terms and Putin’s response.

Upcoming Interviews

March 17th—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss growing reports that the US is preparing to engage in joint US-Israeli missile strikes on Iran as the Trump administration continues to ramp up attacks on the Houthis as well as Chinese preparations to invade Taiwan as early as April.

March 18th—Interview with Brannon Howse on his Worldview Weekend Radio Show to discuss the latest developments with regards to US and Israeli air and missile strikes on Yemen, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria and the chances it may lead to a direct war between the US and Israel that could bring in Russia and China.

March 18th—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss the outcome of the three-hour long Trump-Putin phone call and the chances it could lead to a permanent end to the war in Ukraine. We will also discuss how America’s alliances don’t make us safer but rather put Americans at far greater risk of World War Three than if the US were to commit not to intervene militarily in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Taiwan.

March 20th—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss the ramifications of the Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Engels air base which may have damaged some of Russia’s T-160 “Blackjack” nuclear bombers and his continuing attempts to get the US and NATO into a direct war with Russia. We will also discuss reported Russian military buildups in Belarus and Kaliningrad and how they may relate to China’s preparations to blockade and/or invade Taiwan as early as next month.

March 21st- Interview on the Dr. Maria show on Lindell TV to discuss the ramifications of the Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Engels air base which may have damaged some of Russia’s T-160 “Blackjack” nuclear bombers and his continuing attempts to get the US and NATO into a direct war with Russia.

March 21st—Interview with KUTV 2 News reporter David Ochoa about the Rep. Mike Kennedy and Rep. Celeste Malloy townhall in which they were booed and heckled by boisterous liberal protesters calling for them to impeach President Trump for DOGE cuts and defying judicial orders to bring back criminal gang members to the U.S.

March 21st—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss the ramifications of the fire at London’s Heathrow Airport which stopped all flights at the UK’s largest airport as well as the US decision to move a carrier strike group from the Western Pacific to the Middle East at a time that China may be on the verge of invading Taiwan.

March 25th—Interview on Main Street Radio with Jon Twitchell to discuss the progress of US and Russian negotiations on a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine and form a US-Russia grand strategic partnership for peace as well as the chances that China will blockade Taiwan in early April.

March 25th—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss the leak of imminent plans for US military strikes on the Houthis in a Signal group between top Trump administration national security officials to a leftwing news magazine editor and whether any of the officials responsible should face disciplinary measures from President Trump including dismissal.

March 26th—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss a US intelligence official’s assertion that National Security Mike Waltz lied about knowing Atlantic news magazine’s Jeffrey Goldberg and that he was a source for Goldberg’s articles while he was on the US intelligence committee as well as Deputy National Security Advisor Alex Wong’s family ties to the CCP.

March 31st—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss the leak of the DoD guidance memo saying NATO can not expect the US to defend them, ending all war planning to fight Russia at a time the Trump administration is surging US troops and even US nukes to NATO’s eastern border to threaten Russia.

April 4th—I will be giving a 75-minute presentation at the Highland Community Center at 5378 West 10400 North in Highland, Utah at 7pm followed by a 30-minute question and answer session. It will include all my latest US national security and foreign policy updates especially Trump’s chances of negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine.

April 15th—Interview on Main Street Radio with Jon Twitchell to discuss the latest developments with regards to Trump’s drive to end the war in Ukraine, his threats to bomb a nuclear-armed Iran and potentially start World War Three and the chances that China will blockade Taiwan in April.