PrairiePundit

 DC Daily Journal: ... President Donald Trump intensified his call for NATO and European nations to halt all energy purchases from Russia, highlighting their failure to fully commit to countering Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine, as he considers his first sanctions since taking office this year. Speaking to reporters on September 14, Trump criticized Europe’s ongoing reliance on Russian oil and gas, particularly by NATO members like Hungary and Slovakia, and demanded stronger sanctions to match U.S. efforts. His stance, reiterated in a Truth Social post on September 13, points to a strategic move to pressure allies into aligning with America’s goal of crippling Russia’s war funding, while exposing the Democratic Party’s ineffective approach to global security and their tolerance of Europe’s half-measures. Trump told reporters, “They’re not doing the job. NATO has to get together. Europe has to get together. Europe… they’re my friends, but they’re buying oil from Russia, so we can’t b...

 Wall Street Journal: NATO Planes Shoot Down Russian Drones Deep Inside Poland Polish prime minister says line has been crossed; ‘Closest we have been to open conflict since World War II’  NATO-member warplanes shot down several Russian drones over Poland, the first time the alliance has engaged Russian drones over a member’s territory after what officials contend was a test of its defenses by Moscow. The incident, which Polish authorities said involved 19 incursions into its airspace, led authorities to close major Polish airports for the first time since the Ukraine war began. ... Putin is getting close to a war he cannot win.  His war in Ukraine has already been much more difficult than Russia ever imagined.  Russia is already over two years into the war in Ukraine, which it thought would be over in a matter of days, if not weeks.  Its casualties have also been significant.  

  NY Post: The Pavlovian left goes berserk at the mere prospect of each new Trump initiative. Its escalating reactive venom and hysteria are calibrated to the success of Trump’s latest policy. Yet the new hard-left Democratic Party offers no counter-agenda to explain its furor. Still less do Democrats attempt bipartisan efforts to craft shared legislation. Take foreign policy. Democratic senators trashed the recent Trump-Putin Alaska summit as a failure. Then they became depressed when, just days later, an entourage of European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suddenly flew to the White House. The Euros praised Trump for offering some sort of negotiated pathway to peace after over three years of war and some 1.5 million dead, wounded, missing and captured on both sides — on Europe’s doorstep. So why did Democrats object to such negotiations by Trump? Was the reason that no such thing occurred during the Biden administration, when Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, af...

 Federalist Wire: ... In a striking moment of diplomatic alignment, Russian President Vladimir Putin endorsed President Donald Trump’s claim that the war in Ukraine would never have ignited had Trump been in office instead of Joe Biden. The agreement came during a press conference following a summit at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday evening. “I can confirm that,” Putin declared, addressing reporters as the summit concluded. His statement bolstered Trump’s repeated assertions, made both during his campaign and after retaking the presidency, that his leadership could have averted the Ukrainian conflict. Critics have challenged Trump’s perspective, questioning his claims that Ukraine provoked the war and that Biden’s administration missed critical opportunities to prevent it. Yet Putin’s remarks lent a powerful voice to Trump’s narrative. “I’d like to add one more thing,” Putin said, reflecting on past diplomatic efforts. “I’d like to remind you that i...

  ISW: The United States and Ukraine's European allies agree that Europe, not the United States, will fund further military and security assistance to Ukraine.  US Vice President JD Vance gave an interview to Fox News on August 10 and reiterated the Trump Administration's consistent position that the United States will no longer directly fund the Ukrainian military effort, but that Europe can continue to buy weapons from US manufacturers for Ukraine and Europe's own defensive needs. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Mark Rutte stated in an interview with Face the Nation published on August 10 that the "floodgate" of lethal aid packages to Ukraine opened after US President Donald Trump met with Rutte on July 14 and that Canada and European NATO allies will continue to fund weapons for Ukraine. Rutte stated that these deliveries are in addition to Europe's investments in European and Ukrainian defense industrial facilities and t...

 Federalist Wire: ... President Donald Trump’s steadfast pressure on NATO allies has yielded a historic commitment to more than double their defense-spending target to 5% of GDP by 2035, a move that bolsters the alliance’s deterrence against threats like Russia’s aggression. At the recent NATO Summit, Trump’s affirmation of U.S. commitment to Article 5—the mutual-defense clause—reassured allies, with the president declaring, “I stand with it, that’s why I’m here. If I didn’t stand with it, I wouldn’t be here.” His leadership, praised as high praise from a president who called NATO “not a rip-off,” has galvanized European nations to take their security seriously, ensuring a stronger, more unified alliance. Trump’s approach, blending relentless advocacy with a clear-eyed focus on U.S. interests, has shifted NATO’s trajectory. His insistence that allies meet their obligations—coupled with the stark reality of Russia’s war in Ukraine and recent U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilitie...

 ISW: The Kremlin is projecting the narrative of a powerful Russia and a powerful Russian President Vladimir Putin to conceal the real weaknesses and limitations of Russia's capabilities and distract from Russia's battlefield failures. Putin has long held that the perception of weakness can be lethal in a system built on the premise of strength — a principle that applies to the stability of his regime as well as to Russia's position in the world. The world should not take the Kremlin's displays at face value, but should look past them to the realities of Russia and this war. The Kremlin is trying to portray the 80th Anniversary Victory Day parade in Moscow on May 9 as a diplomatic success to present Russia as a superpower and Putin as a respected world leader. The Kremlin boasted that senior leaders and representatives of over 20 foreign countries are attending the parade.[1] The Kremlin media particularly celebrated the attendance of People's Republic of China (PR...

 Newsmax: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia on Sunday of creating a false appearance of honoring an Easter ceasefire, saying Moscow continued to launch attacks after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a unilateral temporary truce. “As of Easter morning, we can say that the Russian army is trying to create a general impression of a ceasefire, but in some places, it does not abandon individual attempts to advance and inflict losses on Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X. Despite Putin’s declaration of an Easter ceasefire on Saturday, Zelenskyy said Sunday morning that Ukrainian forces had recorded 59 instances of Russian shelling and five assaults by units along the front line, as well as dozens of drone strikes. In a later update, Zelenskyy said that despite Ukraine declaring a symmetrical approach to Russian actions, there had been an increase in Russian shelling and drone attacks since 10 a.m (0700 GMT). He said, however, that it was “a good thing,...

 ISW: Russian President Vladimir Putin did not accept the US-Ukrainian proposal for a temporary ceasefire along the frontline and reiterated his demands for a resolution to the war that amount to Ukrainian capitulation.[1] Putin and US President Donald Trump held a phone call on March 18.[2] The Kremlin's official readout of the call stated that Putin emphasized the need to address the "root causes" of the war.[3] Russian officials have repeatedly defined these root causes as NATO's eastward expansion and Ukraine's alleged violations of the rights of Russian-speaking minorities in Ukraine. Russian officials’ calls for the elimination of these "root causes" amount to Russian demands for Ukraine's permanent neutrality and the installation of a pro-Russian government in Kyiv.[4] Putin demanded on March 18 that Ukraine stop mobilizing (i.e. recruiting and training) forces during a potential temporary ceasefire. Putin also called for a halt to all foreign...

 DC Daily Journal: ... While Biden’s foreign policy has earned high praise in Europe, the sentiment is far less favorable at home. A Gallup poll released Monday revealed that approval of U.S. leadership has risen in 26 of 30 NATO countries since 2020, with double-digit increases in 20 nations. However, domestically, Biden faces a starkly different picture, leaving office with a dismal 37% approval rating and 60% disapproval of his foreign policy, according to Real Clear Politics. Under Biden’s watch, several crises have escalated. He failed to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and fighting spread to Lebanon through Iranian proxies. In Ukraine, U.S.-supplied missiles struck targets within Russia, further intensifying the conflict, as Moscow now enlists North Korean troops to bolster its forces. Still, Biden touted his global accomplishments. He highlighted efforts to unify NATO against Russian aggression, counter China’s territorial ambitions in the South Pacific, and con...

 Fox News: Biden administration announces $988M in aid to Ukraine on same day Trump meets with Zelenskyy in Paris The Biden administration has committed to giving Ukraine as much aid as possible before Trump takes office in January ... During the campaign, Trump and running mate JD Vance heavily criticized the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion, and Trump said he would end the war before even entering office without offering further details. Vance also suggested earlier this year that the best way to end the war was for Ukraine to cede the land Russia has seized and for a demilitarized zone to be established, a proposal Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy flatly rejected. ... Russia's war with Ukraine has weakened both countries and exposed Russia's military as weak and inept.  While Ukraine is also weak militarily The US and its allies have attempted to prop it up.  If Russia has struggled to control Uraine it shows that Russia ...

 ISW: Russian forces have reportedly lost at least five divisions’ worth of armored vehicles and tanks in Pokrovsk Raion since beginning their offensive operation to seize Avdiivka in October 2023 and during intensified Russian offensive operations in western Donetsk Oblast in Summer 2024. An open-source X (formerly Twitter) user tracking visually confirmed Russian vehicle and equipment losses in Ukraine stated on October 4 that the user has confirmed that Russian forces have lost 1,830 pieces of heavy equipment in Pokrovsk Raion since October 9, 2023.[1] The X user stated that Russian forces have lost a total of 539 tanks (roughly a division and a half's worth of Russian tanks) and 1,020 infantry fighting vehicles (roughly four to five mechanized infantry divisions’ worth of vehicles) during offensive operations in Pokrovsk Raion and specified that Ukrainian forces destroyed 381 of the 539 Russian tanks and 835 of the 1,020 armored vehicles. The X user noted that Russian forces ha...

 Daily Mail: NATO is developing mass evacuation and rescue plans in case of a future war with Russia , a senior general has declared. Lieutenant-General Alexander Sollfrank, the head of NATO's logistics command, confirmed this week the security bloc is working to ensure it has the operational capability to extract large numbers of wounded troops from the front lines. The German general warned that, unlike allies' experience in Afghanistan and Iraq , an all-out war with Russia would likely see NATO incur heavy losses across a huge battlefield. What's more, Russia's air force and its vaunted rocket and missile stockpiles mean that medical evacuations via aircraft would be too risky - a factor that could force NATO's troops to operate 'hospital trains' to extract the wounded en masse. 'The challenge will be to swiftly ensure high-quality care for, in the worst case, a great number of wounded,' he said. Sollfrank's warning comes as the German milit...

 Reuters: ... The causes of the shell crisis began years ago. They are rooted in decisions and miscalculations made by the U.S. military and its NATO allies that occurred well before Russia’s 2022 invasion, a Reuters investigation found. A decade of strategic, funding and production mistakes played a far greater role in the shell shortage than did the recent U.S. congressional delays of aid, Reuters found. In the years between Russia’s 2014 seizure of Crimea and its 2022 invasion, for example, repeated warnings from top NATO commanders and from officials who operated or supervised U.S. munitions plants went largely unheeded. They advised their governments, both publicly and privately, that the alliance’s munitions industry was ill-equipped to surge production should war demand it. Because of the failure to respond to those warnings, many artillery production lines at already-ancient factories in the United States and Europe slowed to a crawl or closed altogether. ... Particularly i...

 Newsmax: President Vladimir Putin warned Germany on Wednesday that the use of its weapons by Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia would mark a “dangerous step,” and he said Moscow could in turn provide long-range weapons to others to strike Western targets. Such action by the West will further undermine international security and could lead to “very serious problems.” he said. “That would mark their direct involvement in the war against the Russian Federation, and we reserve the right to act the same way,” Putin added. Because using such Western weapons for striking Russian territory involves military personnel of the respective countries controlling the missiles and selecting targets, Putin said, Moscow could take “asymmetrical” steps. That could include giving such weapons to others to target facilities of respective countries elsewhere in the world, he added. ... The West has been providing weapons to Ukraine which has been under attack by Russia.  The Russian aggressio...

 Business Insider: Russian President Vladimir Putin 's focus on reviving the Russian economy isn't just about funding the country's war on Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War says. "Several Russian financial, economic, and military indicators suggest that Russia is preparing for a large-scale conventional conflict with NATO, not imminently but likely on a shorter timeline than what some Western analysts have initially posited," the ISW wrote in a report on Wednesday. The think tank cited a meeting Putin held with the Russian Duma on Tuesday, just days after the Russian leader claimed a landslide victory in his fifth presidential election on Sunday. During the meeting, Putin discussed the areas he wanted to focus on in his fifth presidential term. The most important thing, Putin told lawmakers, was about "saving people" and "helping out families." "All this can be done, of course, only on the basis of economic development," ...

DC Daily Journal: ... One of the major concerns the political class has is that Donald Trump is going to take the United States out of NATO and burn that bridge entirely. Well the former president has a new announcement on that front. Donald Trump has shared with reporters that he intends to keep the United States in the NATO alliance, but on one condition. That condition is that the rest of the members of NATO keep good on their promises of their NATO membership. In an interview with the former British politician and now TV journalist, Nigel Farage, Donald Trump lamented that the United States is being taken “advantage” of by doing all the heavy lifting, specifically in terms of defense spending. “NATO has to treat the U.S. fairly, because if it’s not for the United States, NATO literally doesn’t even exist,” Trump shared with Nigel Farage. “But they took advantage of us — like most countries do.” Nigel then asked Donald Trump if he would view the United States’ relationship with NATO...

  National Review: Russian president Vladimir Putin on Thursday threatened Western nations with the prospect of nuclear war, saying Moscow has the ability to strike “targets on their territory” if they continue supporting Ukraine. “(Western nations) must realize that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory,” Putin said during his annual State of the Nation address to the Russian parliament. “All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don’t they get that?!” Putin’s warning comes after European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen suggested using frozen Russian assets to fund the Ukrainian war effort. In a Wednesday speech, she said there is “no stronger symbol and no greater use” for the Russian profits than to buy military equipment for Ukraine. Days before, French president Emmanuel Macron said sending Western troops to Ukraine through NATO should not be “ruled out.” This idea has been reject...

 Newsbusters: On Sunday, ABC’s Martha Raddatz tried and failed to get Gen. Charles Brown to attack Donald Trump as he tries to pull a Grover Cleveland and return to the presidency. On Wednesday, it was CNN’s Poppy Harlow’s turn to try to get someone to denounce Trump. However not only did Harlow, like Raddatz, fail, but NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg actually had positive things to say about Trump. Harlow teed up a clip of Trump by declaring that he “is likely the Republican nominee for president. He has been very clear how he feels about NATO. He reiterated that feeling just a couple days ago. Listen to this.” ... Trump was then shown at a rally telling the crowd “We're paying for NATO, and we don't get so much out of it. And, you know, I hate to tell you this about NATO. If we ever needed their help, let's say we were attacked, I don't believe they'd be there.” Harlow then asked “You look at the Trump campaign website, Mr. Secretary General, it says, quo...

 Telegraph: The US will gain access to 15 military bases along the border with Russia under a defence deal to be signed with Finland next week. Russia would regard the presence of Nato infrastructure near its borders as a threat, said Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman . “This will certainly lead to tension. We can only regret this,” Mr Peskov said. The treaty must be approved by Finland’s parliament. Elina Valtonen, the country’s foreign minister , will be present in Washington during the signing to meet Antony Blinken, the United States secretary of state . Washington signed a similar pact with Sweden on Dec 6 that gives the US access to 17 military bases. Concerns raised by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 led both Finland and Sweden to abandon their military non-alignment and apply for membership in the Nato. Finland joined in April , while Sweden is still waiting for its bid to be ratified by Nato members Hungary and Turkey. ‘There were no problems’ with Finlan...