From the editor
Donald Trump and his top officials have spent the week expounding their position on Russia and Ukraine, dismaying Ukrainians and European leaders with their suggestions of offering concessions to Vladimir Putin, holding summits with him and welcoming Russia back to the G7. It began after Trump and Putin had a phone call and US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff flew to Moscow on his private plane and brought detained teacher Marc Fogel home on Wednesday.
Trump congratulates Russia apologist Tulsi Gabbard on her appointment as director of national intelligence
Fogel, 63, was exchanged for Alexander Vinnik, a Russian convicted of cybercrime. The American had been sentenced to 14 years in prison in Russia in June 2022 for trying to enter the country with 17 grammes of medical cannabis. Vinnik operated a cryptocurrency exchange, BTC-e, through which he was suspected of funnelling $4 billion in proceeds from ransomware attacks, identity theft, drug rings and other criminal activity. After being extradited from Greece to the United States he pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering in May last year.
Commenting at the White House before he greeted Fogel there Trump said, “President Putin wants to have peace now. And that’s good. And he didn’t want to have peace with Biden. You tell me why that is, OK?” Asked by a reporter if denying Ukraine the opportunity to join NATO and asking it to give land to Russia would be “handing Russia a win,” he replied, “Well I think if you look at the war, the way the war is going, you’ll have to make your own determination. I’m just here to try and get peace, I don’t care so much about anything other than I want to stop having millions of people killed. Killed! Last night, you know, Kyiv got hit very, very hard. I want to see people stop getting killed. That war is ridiculous. It should’ve never happened. And it would’ve never happened.”
Another reporter asked Trump if he saw Ukraine as an equal member of the peace process, to which he replied: “It’s an interesting question. I think they have to make peace. Their people are being killed, and I think they have to make peace. I said that was not a good war to go into.” On the same day there was more bad news for Ukraine as Tulsi Gabbard - considered a Russia apologist - was confirmed as director of national intelligence. “I think Putin couldn’t be happier, I tell you, they’re drinking vodka straight out of the bottle in the Kremlin tonight. It was a great day for Moscow,” John Bolton, who was one of Trump’s national security advisors in his first term, told CNN.
The new US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth initially announced that Ukraine could not expect to join NATO and that a return to its 2014 borders (including Crimea) was unrealistic, but he later backtracked, commenting: “These negotiations are led by President Trump. Everything is on the table. In his conversations with Vladimir Putin and Zelensky, what he decides to allow or not allow, is at the purview of the leader of the free world - President Trump. So I’m not going to stand at this podium and declare what President Trump will do or won’t do, what will be in or what will be out, what concessions will be made or what concessions are not made.” Vice President JD Vance added that there was a possibility of more sanctions being imposed on Russia and even US military action if Putin doesn’t make peace.
“I spoke with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. We discussed the conditions needed for a lasting and real peace in Ukraine and agreed that no negotiations with Putin can begin without a united position from Ukraine, Europe, and the U.S.,” Volodymyr Zelensky commented on X yesterday. “I informed the Prime Minister about my conversation with President Trump, and we discussed key messages and the need to coordinate the positions of all Europeans to achieve successful outcomes for the whole of Europe. I emphasized that Ukraine must negotiate from a position of strength, with strong and reliable security guarantees, and that NATO membership would be the most cost-effective for partners. Another key guarantee is serious investment in Ukraine’s defence industry. I also warned world leaders against trusting Putin’s claims of readiness to end the war.”
Putin has certainly not been acting as if he wants to end the war, attacking Kyiv on Wednesday night as Trump mentioned, killing one person, and last night in a drone strike damaging the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement that protects the remains of reactor 4 of the notorious nuclear power plant.
Ukrainians stand by their insistence that there should be no talks about Ukraine without Ukraine, and Europeans (including the British) won’t want to be sidelined from talks yet asked to provide security after the war. The US president believes every country will bend to his will, but he may instead find them exerting their self-determination. For now Putin can sit back, watch the show and enjoy his vodka, or more likely his Dom Perignon.
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Kursk man gets long sentence for treason and sabotage
A court in Kursk has sentenced 31-year-old Maxim Moskalev to 20 ½ years in a maximum-security prison for treason and sabotage. He was accused of collaborating with Ukraine’s Defence Ministry from January last year, taking pictures of a military recruiting office and setting fire to a railway relay box. Moskalev pled guilty and apologised in court.
Russian soldiers kill more people at home
A man who returned home from the war in Ukraine has murdered his ex-girlfriend’s father and 86-year-old grandmother in the village of Severny Kommunar, Perm Krai. Rustam Altyrev, 35, took revenge on his ex’s relatives, beating them to death with a hammer, because she left him after he regularly assaulted her. He then went to Perm to kill his ex but was recognised from a wanted poster and arrested in the city centre. Before going to war Altyrev had served eight years in prison for rape and robbery. Meanwhile in Belgorod two soldiers driving a BMW at 150 km/hour through the city crashed into an ambulance, killing two female crew members.
A military court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced Corporal Nikita Posmetukhov to life in prison for shooting four other servicemen dead in November 2023. Posmetukhov reportedly opened fire on a sergeant on patrol and three sleeping soldiers after getting drunk. He was said to have been angry about an officer threatening him with disciplinary action.
St. Petersburg student attempts arson at FSB building
A 22-year-old St. Petersburg student has been arrested and charged with terrorism for attempting to set fire to the FSB building in the city last Friday by throwing a Molotov cocktail. The student made a video of his attempt on his phone. According to investigators he was another victim of phone scammers who stole his money and then posed as representatives of the authorities promising to return his money if he “tested the vigilance” of the FSB.