Posted originally on CTH on December 10, 2025 | Sundance |
The entire premise of this interlocutory exchange is bizarre, actually, beyond bizarre when you think about it.
President Trump’s negotiation team worked with Ukraine officials and Russian officials to establish the parameters for a ceasefire proposal. Representatives from the U.S, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner working as moderators for a cessation of hostilities held multiple meetings with high level Ukraine and Russian officials, including Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
As a consequence, President Trump’s team (Rubio, Witkoff and Kushner) have spent hundreds of hours, including nine entire days, over the last two weeks in detailed face-to-face discussions with Ukraine officials.
Zelenskyy then goes to Paris, London, Brussels and Rome, to consult with European leaders, and then has the audacity to say he will present a counterproposal from the Europeans to President Trump.
PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY – “Today, we already discussed with our negotiating team the results of yesterday’s work in London, which was conducted at the level of the National Security Advisors of our European partners. This was agreed upon yesterday at the leadersʼ level.
We are working very actively on all components of potential steps toward ending the war. The Ukrainian and European components are now more developed, and we are ready to present them to our partners in the U.S. Together with the American side, we expect to swiftly make the potential steps as doable as possible.
We are committed to a real peace and remain in constant contact with the United States. And, as our partners in the negotiating teams rightly note, everything depends on whether Russia is ready to take effective steps to stop the bloodshed and prevent the war from reigniting. In the near future, we will be ready to send the refined documents to the United States. Glory to Ukraine!” (SOURCE)
If Zelenskyy is representing Ukraine, then why didn’t Zelenskyy put his proposals into the agreement during two weeks of discussions with the U.S. delegation.
Is Zelenskyy representing Ukraine, or is Zelenskyy representing European stakeholders?
I know, rhetorical I guess…..
In the interim and throughout this process, more young Ukrainian men are dead.
Posted originally on CTH on December 9, 2025 | Sundance
President Trump sat down for an extensive interview with Dasha Burns of Politico. Despite the ideological outlook of Politico, the interview itself was remarkably absent of combative antagonism. The result is a good review of the current positions of President Trump as they relate to the rest of the world.
The Ukraine-Russia conflict is the immediate issue that is discussed within the interview. President Trump answers some direct questions about who is currently most responsible for continuing the conflict and is asked his opinion directly on Ukraine not holding elections.
President Trump notes Russian President Vladimir Putin is in the strongest position within the conflict and carries the strongest leverage into any ceasefire negotiations. Trump also frames the need for the bloodshed to end with a much greater sense of urgency than any of the EU leaders or Zelenskyy. Additionally sharing the opinion that Ukraine needs to have an election to showcase the will of the Ukrainian people in the leadership of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. WATCH:
Posted originally on CTH on December 8, 2025 | Sundance
Following three days of negotiations in Florida (Thur, Fri, Sat) between President Trump emissaries Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and Ukraine emissaries Rustem Umierov and Andrii Hnatov, the group then held a 2-hour phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
No substantial progress was reported. However, military officials Umierov and Hnatov then flew to meet Zelenskyy in London where French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz are assembled to discuss alternatives to ending the conflict.
Starmer, Macron and Merz form the core of the “coalition of the willing,” an EU group who have unilaterally proclaimed they were willing to send the military of the U.K, France and Germany into Ukraine so long as President Trump would backstop their troops with promises of U.S. intervention if things went badly. Trump would not make that commitment.
Zelenskyy Inc, Macron, Starmer and Merz do not want to end the proxy fight against Russia. Together with the EU leadership of NATO, the coalition of the willing want to retain the conflict. However, the problem for the four leaders is that without strong USA support, the citizens of their EU countries will rise up against them.
Even with NATO missiles and transferred technological assistance, they ultimately need the American military in order to ensure Putin doesn’t squish them. President Trump wants the proxy war to end – loggerheads are reached.
Russian President Vladimir Putin does not seem to be paying too much attention to the bureaucratic speeches and instead is continuing forward advancement [SEE HERE] to secure the territory in Ukraine with or without a negotiated settlement.
The Russian Federation has presented its terms; the Russian terms for cessation are known; the rest is up to the EU, NATO, USA and Ukraine to work out.
At this point the problem is over-talking and FUBAR, or, well, a typically European situation. So, Putin keeps going, more Ukraine troops are killed, while Putin awaits the endless conversations that he predicted would result in more endless conversations. To be fair, Putin’s cold approach appears to be a mostly accurate interpretation of what he expected.
ZELENSKYY – “In recent days, representatives of Ukraine held substantive discussions with envoys of the US President – and now National Security and Defence Council Secretary Rustem Umierov and Chief of the General Staff Andrii Hnatov are en route to Europe. I expect detailed information from them on everything that was said to the American envoys in Moscow, and on the nuances the Americans are prepared to modify in negotiations with us and with the Russians.” (link)
By my count in the past two weeks, Witkoff and Kushner have spent nine days in direct all-day negotiations with various Ukraine officials from various institutions of Zelenskyy’s government, with a one-day trip to Moscow sandwiched between them. Yet, western media continually proclaim the U.S. delegation of Kushner and Witkoff are ignoring the Ukrainians.
This is what I call the ‘paralysis of analysis’, or the part of every negotiation where things get so granular in detail that the larger objective is lost.
While the Ukraine team argues about whether a creek or a railroad track should determine the current point of conflict, another 250 Ukrainian soldiers have their limbs torn from their bodies and lie dead in the mud. Today they will meet in London to argue over telephone pole ownership, while another battalion is fed to the meat grinder.
CNN frames a narrative that President Trump is unsympathetic and frustrated with Zelenskyy:
(VIA CNN) – […] Trump criticized Zelensky on Sunday after talks between US and Ukrainian negotiators over the weekend in Miami ended with unresolved questions over security guarantees, territorial issues and continued concern that the US proposal tilts in Russia’s favor.
“We’ve been speaking to [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin and we’ve been speaking to Ukrainian leaders, including… President Zelensky, and I have to say that I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelensky hasn’t yet read the proposal, that was as of a few hours ago,” Trump said. (more)
President Trump is reviewing the issue through the prism of “hours” because he knows that as each hour passes that’s more dead young men…. And FOR WHAT?
Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is traveling around Europe stopping for tea and crumpets with Macron, Starmer and Merz in London today. Think about the upside-down priorities here.
Bread and Circuses – With Servants Patiently Waiting (Dec 6, 2025)
Posted originally on CTH on December 6, 2025 | Sundance
Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau presents a well-articulated change in perspective from the U.S. State Department. The response comes following the EU decision to levy a compliance fine against the social media platform X.
What Christopher Landau notes as the contrast and conflict in ideological priority from the EU can just as easily be applied to the USA dynamic with Canada. As noted by Twitter user John Frank, “The same observations can easily apply to the relations with Canada, given the divergence between the US role in the military alliance with Canada, while Canada is involved in activities which work against US interests.”
At a certain point it does become necessary to distinguish exactly what values, benefits, perspectives and priorities frame the positions that determine who our U.S. allies really are, and who should benefit from that relationship.
It is good to see a structurally different perspective from the U.S. State Department that puts a bold underline under the term “western alliances.” What values are those alliances based on?
Posted originally on CTH on December 6, 2025 | Sundance
You know a deep state cover-story operation is underway when Natasha Bertrand and Evan Perez are pushing the narrative.
The narrative is laughable, claiming the 30-year-old black North Virgina resident, working for a bail bond company that supports illegal aliens, whose father previously sued the Trump administration and claims racism against their company opposition, is a Trump supporter.
Alas, that’s the story -according to FBI people familiar with the matter- and CNN are sticking to it.
(VIA CNN) – During interviews with the FBI, the suspect arrested in the pipe bomb probe told investigators that he believed the 2020 election was stolen, providing perhaps the first indication of a possible motive for the bombs placed near the DNC and RNC headquarters, people briefed on the matter told CNN. (read more)
If you are to believe this narrative and simultaneously overlay the indictment evidence, the pipe bomber had remarkable predictive abilities in purchasing the explosive components for his devices before the 2020 election took place. Somehow, according to CNN, Brian Cole Jr knew the 2020 election would be “stolen” and was prepared for the outcome.
Ridiculous, all of it.
Meanwhile, Brian Cole Jr’s grandmother, Loretta, tells an entirely different story.
(Via Daily Mail) – […] ‘He’s not politically affiliated with anything,’ the grandmother told the Daily Mail during an interview at her home in Gainesville, Virginia. ‘He has no social media contacts. He’s never online going back and forth with politics or anything like that. He says he don’t like either party.
‘He’s borderline autistic,’ she added. ‘He’s slow. He may be 30, but he’s got the mind of a 16-year-old. That’s why we’re thinking – What the hell? What’s going on?’
[…] ‘We’re terrified,’ she said. ‘They say they’ve got all this evidence. Whatever happened, we’ve still got to fight it. We have to figure out what to do.’
She said she had no idea her grandson may have been gathering parts for months to build the bombs from area businesses, stored them in the home, then allegedly tried to carry out a terrorist attack.
Cole was charged with laying explosives outside the Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters, which did not detonate.
She said she doesn’t believe the charges.
‘This young man is very calm and quiet,’ she said. ‘He just stays to himself. Nobody bothers him because he doesn’t bother anybody.
‘He doesn’t have a girlfriend,’ she added. ‘That’s how slow he is. He’s just off in a little world on his own. He stays downstairs and he used to be with his dog all the time.’
‘That’s why everything is so messed up with us because he’s a good kid,’ she said. ‘If you knew him, you would say that he couldn’t have done it.’
‘And if he did, it was just him trying to prove a point or whatever,’ she continued. ‘He probably doesn’t even know the magnitude of what he’s done, if he did it.’
‘He’s a data entry clerk in the office and answers the phones,’ she said. ‘He’s right in the reception area up front. We have a business, so we have to put him to work. And he understands that. He’s good with data entry.’
‘All I can tell you is I love my grandson,’ she said. ‘He’s not a bad kid and he’s not affiliated with any gangs or anything like that. He’s not a political anarchist, or whatever they’re calling him. People could pull unnamed sources out of the sky. I don’t believe that. I don’t know.’ (read more)
I personally am not ascribing operational motive (or outcome) to the intents of either Kash Patel or Dan Bongino because as I have said from the outset of their selection, neither of these two men have the intellectual or discernment skillset needed to confront the corrupt institutional intent of the FBI as an organization.
Both Dan and Kash have easily identifiable ‘attack vectors’ which can be exploited by those skilled in the dark arts of manipulation. Kash’s open weakness is his ego and lust for lifestyle, Bongino’s open emotional weakness is his need to be cherished and appreciated. Both mindsets are easily influenced by those who know how to do such things.
Was/is Brian Cole Jr a patsy or was he a secretly hiding from his family a high functioning intellectual skillset capable of strategic thinking, foresight and developing covert plans. Something just doesn’t add up.
The media’s need to ascribe a pro-Trump spin to the motives and intents is typical of their fake news status, pumping toxic fuel into the minds of those who genuinely believe some form of credibility in DC reporting still exists. When CNN pushes a narrative the domestic Intelligence Community is generally behind it.
♦ The overall FBI angle is EXTREMELY SKETCHY (noted in Fox video below) as the “new FBI” investigative unit simply used Brian Cole’s cell phone and geolocation as part of the evidence against him. This cell phone geolocation and ID are exactly what all of the J6 pipe bomb researchers have been shouting about for five years.
For five years the FBI couldn’t exploit the cell phone use for identification, then suddenly they were able to exploit the cell phone use for identification. Something doesn’t add up here and is really hinky, despite Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino claiming the FBI’s investigative efforts were excellent.
LOL. So now he’s MAGA? This is so stupid.
First of all, who doesn’t think the 2020 election was stolen now? Secondly, the pipe “bombs” were there for a very specific purpose as a way to STOP the election fraud evidence from being heard at the Capitol. The pipe bombs were part… https://t.co/lAX7fn8eK5
🚨 EYEWITNESS IN COURTROOM: Alleged Pipe Bomber Arraigned – Cara Castronuova Reports from D.C. 🚨
“I sat in the row in front of his family… his mother broke down sobbing when he walked in with the Marshalls. It was genuine. They believe he is innocent.”
Posted originally on CTH on December 6, 2025 | Sundance
If we read between the lines in the latest update from President Trump emissary Steve Witkoff, we can clearly see the negotiations have entered into that critical phase where payments to all of the stakeholders will determine a successful outcome.
Pragmatic people have long predicted the ultimate solution to the bloodshed will only be determined once western interests get to the point where negotiators propose a long-term plan for continued financial benefit. Too many people, “stakeholders” are making money from the conflict.
From a western perspective, support for the Ukraine conflict is based on money. Therefore, the solution to the conflict requires a system where the western opportunity for financial benefit continues.
Written in polite diplomatic terms, the continued payments are identified as “the prosperity agenda which aims to support Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction, joint U.S.–Ukraine economic initiatives, and long-term recovery projects.” This is codespeak for the U.S. Senate and EU will retain a financial mechanism to exploit for personal benefit.
From the language it appears that Witkoff and Kusher are confident they can construct a financial reward system for western banks, investors, politicians and Ukraine officials that will retain the benefits of war without the ancillary ingredient of bloodshed.
If the U.S. delegation can pull this off, then Russia can gain the territory they want, corrupt Ukraine officials can keep skimming investment money, the EU can retain the power it wants to extract financial payments, American politicians can use the “long-term recovery projects” for money laundering and quasi-public/private investment banks can benefit from the exploitation of Ukraine resources.
Again, from a ‘western geopolitical perspective’, the territorial issues, security guarantees, EU membership status and the position of NATO are downstream details once the larger payment system is organized. Put another way, they are down to the stuff that really matters, the money.
STEVE WITKOFF – Readout of Meeting Between Special Envoy for Peace Steven Witkoff, Jared Kushner, Ukrainian Secretary of National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov, and Chief of General Staff General Andriy Hnatov
Over two days, Special Envoy for Peace Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Ukrainian Secretary of National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov and Chief of General Staff General Andriy Hnatov for constructive discussions on advancing a credible pathway toward a durable and just peace in Ukraine.
Today, the group had their sixth meeting over the past two weeks. Secretary Umerov reaffirmed that Ukraine’s priority is securing a settlement that protects its independence and sovereignty, ensures the safety of Ukrainians, and provides a stable foundation for a prosperous democratic future.
The participants discussed the results of recent meeting of the American side with the Russians and steps that could lead to ending this war. The American and Ukrainians also agreed on the framework of security arrangements and discussed necessary deterrence capabilities to sustain a lasting peace.
Both parties agreed that real progress toward any agreement depends on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace, including steps toward de-escalation and cessation of killings.
Parties also separately reviewed the future prosperity agenda which aims to support Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction, joint U.S.–Ukraine economic initiatives, and long-term recovery projects.
American and Ukrainian parties underscored that an end to the war and credible steps toward ceasefire and de-escalation are necessary to prevent renewed aggression and to enable Ukraine’s comprehensive redevelopment plan, designed to make the nation stronger and more prosperous than before the war.
Parties will reconvene tomorrow to continue advancing the discussions.” (source)
From the Russian side of the equation the war is about ideology, national security and proactive defeat of western, mostly American, encroachment and influence. From the western side, the EU support for Ukraine was less ideological and more financially motivated.
Russia and Ukraine have paid a high price in the larger proxy war. Russia has won the physical fight. Hopefully soon the financial terms will be accepted by the western stakeholders and combat operations can cease.
Ukraine President Zelenskyy will get a nice villa in Europe and a reasonable mansion in the USA. The cocktail parties will continue with crustless cucumber sandwiches and white wine spritzers, while the ladies go shopping and the men get manicures while talking about which of their favorites will replace Zelenskyy.
Posted originally on CTH on December 3, 2025 | Sundance
In an effort to return common sense, practicality and affordability to the American consumer base for automobiles, President Trump announced the elimination of Joe Biden’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for manufactured cars and trucks.
Under the auspices of the “Green New Deal”, the Biden administration mandated ridiculous quotas for EVs and demanded lower power combustible engines, or pay a climate change tax. These CAFE standards resulted in a surcharge for large vehicles, large engine autos and SUVs, and essentially bifurcated the auto consumer into those who could afford to pay for efficiency and stability, and those who could not.
“We’re officially terminating Joe Biden’s ridiculously burdensome, horrible actually, CAFE standards that impose expensive restrictions and all sorts of problems, gave all sorts of problems to automakers,” President Trump announced from the Oval Office. “It put tremendous upward pressure on car prices, combined with the insane electric vehicle mandate. Biden’s burdensome regulations helped cause the price of cars to soar more than 25%,” President Trump said. WATCH:
(Via White House) – DELIVERING A WIN FOR AMERICAN FAMILIES AND AUTOMAKERS: Today, President Donald J. Trump is delivering major relief to American families by resetting the Biden Administration’s costly and unlawful Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.
President Trump is returning CAFE standards to levels that can actually be met with conventional gasoline and diesel vehicles. The Biden Administration standards imposed unrealistic fuel economy targets that effectively resulted in an electric vehicle (EV) mandate.
The Trump Administration’s reset of the CAFE standards ensures the program’s fidelity to the legal restrictions set forth by Congress.
The Biden standards broke the law by going far beyond the requirements that were mandated by Congress when it created the CAFE program.
SAVING AMERICAN FAMILIES MONEY: Today’s action represents an enormous win in response to the cost-of-living increases imposed on the economy by the Biden Administration.
The Biden Administration created extraordinarily stringent fuel economy standards for passenger cars and trucks, set at such aggressive levels that they were impossible to meet with available technologies for gas cars.
The Biden standards would have compelled widespread shifts to EVs that American consumers did not ask for, accompanied by significant cost-of-living increases. Since EVs are so expensive to build, automakers must sell them at a loss and make up the difference by significantly raising the sticker price of gas cars.
If President Trump had done nothing, the Biden standards would have raised the average cost of a new car by nearly $1,000, relative to the cost under the standards announced today.
President Trump’s actions will save American families $109 billion in total over the next five years. By helping more Americans buy newer, safer vehicles, this reset is projected to save more than 1,500 lives and prevent nearly a quarter-million serious injuries through 2050.
MARKING A CRITICAL BATTLE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST BIDEN’S HIDDEN COST-OF-LIVING INCREASES: The CAFE reset represents the latest action by President Trump to prevent the Biden EV-related policies from raising costs for Americans.
In June, President Trump signed a joint resolution to end the California EV mandates, which would have effectively been a 100% ban on new gas cars sold in the state by 2035 (with similar effects in 17 states that adopted California’s standards).
In July, President Trump signed into law the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, which set the civil penalty for violating CAFE standards to $0, protecting the U.S. auto manufacturing industry from significant fines.
Under President Trump, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has also released its proposal to rescind the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which ignores Congress’ clear intent under the Clean Air Act and has been used to justify over $1 trillion in costs for the American consumers and economy.
Today’s action helps ensure that even if far-left Democrats return to power, the CAFE standards are sensible, so U.S. automakers are not held to infeasible standards.
Combined with auto loan interest deductibility for new made-in-the-USA vehicles, President Trump continues to deliver real relief that makes owning a safe, reliable car more affordable for every American family. (source)
Posted originally on CTH on December 2, 2025 | Sundance
During the cabinet meeting, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard recapped the reform efforts still underway to identify deep state actors within the federal intelligence bureaucracy and hold them accountable. WATCH:
Posted originally on CTH on December 1, 2025 | Sundance
Washington DC continues pretending they do not know things. It is insufferable and frustrating. However, they are blind to the reality that a large segment of the American population is aware of the issues and understand the position of Republicans is not part of some mistake or flaw; it is a feature of their intent.
Elise Stefanik notes: “Republicans have the House, Senate, and the White House, yet the deep state is alive and well with the Speaker getting rolled by House Dems attempting to block my provision to require Congressional disclosure when the FBI opens counterintelligence investigations into presidential and federal candidates seeking office.
In a March 2017 open hearing, my questions to former FBI Director James Comey began the unraveling of the Russia Hoax when Comey admitted to not following proper notification procedures with his illegal opening of Crossfire Hurricane. A criminal act that can never happen again.
My provision will strengthen this accountability and transparency to deter this illegal weaponization and it passed out of the House Intelligence Committee in this Congress and previous ones. Yet House Republicans continue to get rolled by the deep state due to opposition by Jamie Raskin.
If Republicans can’t deliver accountability and legislative fixes to arguably the biggest illegal corruption and government weaponization issue of all time, then what are we even doing.
This language is even more essential in light of the continued weaponization of the federal government evidenced by the sweeping Arctic Frost wiretapping scandal and the recent illegal leaks of Steve Witkoff’s conversations with foreign counterparts.
Unless this provision is added back into the bill to prevent illegal political weaponization of the intelligence community in our elections, I am a HARD NO. I have always voted in support of the defense and intelligence authorization bills, but no more.
It is a scandalous disgrace that Republicans are allowing themselves to be rolled by the Dems and deep state on this.” (more)
Republicans are not getting “rolled”, and Mrs. Stefanik knows this.
It’s all so performative, and ‘we the people‘ can see the strings.
This is factually a very dangerous situation, because the abused are now numb to the patterns and consequences of the abusers. The abuser has not yet noticed.
Once the abuser catches on to the audience rolling their eyes and laughing at them, that creates a sense of humiliation directly in the psyche of the abuser…. Things get really ugly.
Posted originally on CTH on December 1, 2025 | Sundance
On Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump emissaries Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with the Ukraine negotiating team in Florida to further discuss acceptable terms for a broader ceasefire and end to the war.
Still trying to recover from corruption charges against his senior presidential team, Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not at the talks. Instead, the Ukraine delegation was led by State Security Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, while Zelenskyy went to Paris for an emotional support session with Emmanuel Macron.
Secretary Rubio and Secretary Umerov spoke before and after their 5-hour negotiation session. Secretary Rubio emphasized the main topic as securing the long-term future of Ukraine both from a security position and from an economic prosperity position.
This state security aspect comes as the Ukraine delegation is facing pressure to accept, they will lose most -if not all- of the Donbas region to Russia. “The end goal is obviously not just the end of the war. Obviously, that’s central and fundamental,” Rubio said. “It’s also about securing an end to the war that leaves Ukraine sovereign and independent and with an opportunity at real prosperity.”
In better-than-expected news, the EU is now saying they will not comply with any removal of sanctions against Russia. If the U.S-Russia and Ukraine work out a negotiated settlement that permits legal or economic relief for Vladimir Putin, the European Union will not agree and will instead make up their own decision on the issues.
Europe is holding this position as a threat, because President Trump is not fully consulting with them on all the granular details. However, this is the type of threat that is exactly beneficial to what appears to be the long-term strategy of Trump.
If Europe refuses to remove sanctions or legal threats against Russia, but the U.S. negotiates the removal of U.S treasury and financial sanctions against Russia, then the Europeans have chosen to stay behind the locked door of economic benefit. More than two-thirds of the world does not participate in the sanctions at all.
If Europe and Canada continue blacklisting Russia, the U.S-Russia energy development program gains exclusive benefits to Trump, Putin and other allies like Mohammed bin Salmon (Saudi Arabia), ASEAN nations and even Japan.
In very practical terms, someone like Viktor Orban (Hungary) would like nothing more than to violate ongoing Brussels sanctions against Russia, and as a consequence create a fracture point for European Union exit.
In practical terms, what would this look like? Well, the entire world would have lower energy prices, lower oil and natural gas prices, and lower gasoline prices by big margins. Meanwhile, Europe would have a massive disparity in their much higher energy costs – likely double the rest of the world. Think about the ramifications. Hungary, Georgia, Montenegro, and Serbia with 50% lower prices on gasoline and electricity than the EU. lolol It would be funny.
Unfortunately, with this in mind I find the EU threats hollow. As soon as the U.S-Russia-Ukraine work out a peace and security agreement, Europe will comply with whatever terms are negotiated for Russia. Failure to do so only isolates the Europeans and will create a problem amid their collective mindsets.
(Via Axios) Negotiations between the U.S. and Ukraine on Sunday focused on where the de facto border with Russia would be drawn under a peace deal, two Ukrainian officials tell Axios. They described the five-hour meeting as “difficult” and “intense,” but productive.
Why it matters: Russian President Vladimir Putin — who’s expected to meet with President Trump’s envoy on Tuesday — insists Russia won’t stop until it controls the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
After an hour in a wider format, the meeting narrowed to three officials from each side — with the line of territorial control virtually the only issue discussed, according to the two Ukrainian officials.
On the U.S. side were Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner. The Ukrainian side was represented by national security adviser Rustem Umerov, military chief of staff Gen. Andrii Hnatov and deputy head of military intelligence Vadym Skibitskyi.
After the talks with their teams ended, Umerov held another one-on-one meeting with Witkoff. Umerov then called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to brief him on the talks.
“It was intense but not negative. We really appreciate serious U.S. engagement. Our position is that we have to make everything to help U.S. succeed without losing our country and preventing another aggression from happening,” one of the Ukrainian officials wrote to Axios after the meeting.
Between the lines: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had wanted to discuss territory directly with Trump, but Trump said he’d only meet Zelensky or Putin again once a deal is close.
Umerov is expected to meet Zelensky in Paris on Monday and give him a more detailed report about the negotiations, Ukrainian officials say.
Witkoff plans to depart for Moscow on Monday and meet Putin on Tuesday.
“The main question is where the Russians stand and if their intentions are real. Let’s see what Witkoff brings from Moscow,” a Ukrainian official said. (more)
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This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
Centinel2012 