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Posted on 10/29/2026 3:14:10 PM PDT by UMCRevMom@aol.com
WASHINGTON -- Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown no willingness to end his war against Ukraine, warning that Moscow’s growing cooperation with Beijing, Tehran, and Pyongyang poses a serious challenge to Western security.
In an interview with RFE/RL on October 29, Pompeo, who served in President Donald Trump’s first administration, discussed Ukraine’s prospects for peace, the risks of negotiating with Putin, Iran’s support for Moscow, and the need for stronger Western security guarantees for Kyiv.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
RFE/RL: With a fresh round of attacks on the ground, mounting pressure on Kyiv, and high-stakes diplomatic maneuvering, the situation appears to be shifting quickly in Ukraine. What are you observing on the ground, and how do you assess the current calculus?
Mike Pompeo: What I think everyone is seeing is that we are not yet at a point where Vladimir Putin has demonstrated any willingness to back off on his terror campaign, and that's precisely what he's been engaged in. The costs clearly, in his judgment, don't exceed the benefits of him continuing this conflict.
And so you're right; he's trying to make this an incredibly difficult winter for the Ukrainian people, not for the Ukrainian military.
The Ukrainian military is crushing him, -- 42,000 casualties a month -- but [he's targeting] the Ukrainian people...to convince the political leadership -- and frankly, the political leadership in Washington and in Brussels and in European capitals -- that it's not worth continuing the support that they've provided to Ukraine to date.
RFE/RL: Can Washington and its allies afford to trust any diplomatic framework offered by Vladimir Putin right now?
I think Putin is wrong in his judgment that he is winning."
Pompeo: Well, the answer to that is no, but that doesn't mean you don't continue to pursue diplomacy, right? But you don't believe a single thing that he says. You simply observe the actions that he takes. But it's not unheard of to talk to someone that you don't trust.
In the end, you try to develop a framework and agreement, and then you sign it, and then you watch it be executed, and you believe it only when the execution takes place.
And so, you know, the fact that he's been unwilling to even conduct more than just the most minuscule cease-fires. Right now, there's this temporary, short-term ceasefire in one town (Oleshky, in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine). When [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy has agreed to broad cease-fires on energy, on agriculture at the Black Sea, has agreed to [and] publicly announced that he'd be prepared to take a cease-fire along the military lines as they currently exist, that is radically different from the obstinacy with which Vladimir Putin has treated the discussions.
RFE/RL: President Zelenskyy warns that Ukraine is facing severe, compounding political and military pressure. Is the West inadvertently pushing Kyiv into bad-faith concessions?
Pompeo: I can't imagine that Kyiv will ultimately take a bad concession. They've been at this too long. They've been fighting too hard. They've frankly been too successful, with, by the way, enormous support from the United States and Europe.
So, I suspect that President Putin's belief that he can convince the West to drive Kyiv to the table to take a bad deal will prove not to be an outcome that is ultimately achieved. I think Putin is wrong in his judgment that he is winning.
RFE/RL: What does a realistic, secure end-state look like that doesn't simply plant the seeds for another Russian invasion?
Pompeo: That's perhaps the most important question. What is the outcome that defends Western civilization adequately?
I think the answer to that is less dependent on where the lines are. It tends to be that that's the focus of the] conversation. What's more important is that there is a long-term commitment, a security architecture that makes the cost of the next advance by Vladimir Putin simply unacceptable.
That would be whether it's NATO or non-NATO. I don't know that that's as important, but European non-Ukrainian forces on the line would make an attack that happened after the agreement is implemented and in place truly an attack on the West, not simply an attack on Ukraine.
RFE/RL: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is set to visit Atlanta for the G20 ministerial this weekend. What is the single most important line in the sand the United States must draw for him face-to-face?
Pompeo: Oh, goodness, it's a line that, frankly, Americans haven't been prepared to draw to date, right? Nor has Europe, right? I've seen the critiques, including mine, that the diesel agreement -- that President Trump recently said we take some Russian diesel -- I don't think it solves the energy problem for America, nor do I think it draws us any closer to a negotiated solution.
But, frankly, the Europeans continue to spend enormous amounts of money upholding the Russian war machine, right? That's hypocrisy. "Critical" is the nicest thing one can say about that.
And so it's not about what they say to Lavrov in Atlanta this weekend. It's about the actions that the West is prepared to take to support Ukraine's effort to defend its border from this terrorist attack, this aggressive terrorist attack that has so harmed European sovereignty.
RFE/RL: President Zelenskyy has also raised concerns about restrictions on Ukraine's Starlink access affecting defensive drone operations. Given your multiple recent visits to Kyiv and the region, and your firsthand look at Ukrainian command centers, how dangerous is it when technology companies' decisions disrupt frontline military operations?
Pompeo: You know, it's complicated. I mean, the easy answer is it's very dangerous. I've seen multiple explanations for what actually happened: who said what to whom, and when, and how long it actually was. Was the speed limited? I don't know. I don't know what to make of those, other than there seems to be a consensus that there was a limitation for a period of time.
That's very difficult for the Ukrainian forces. Having said that, one of the hallmarks of Ukrainian success is that they have been able to deliver autonomous solutions by themselves, a set of capabilities that they have delivered, not dependent on anyone from any place else.
I think this highlights for every nation the fact that they need their own set of capabilities to do what's necessary. I'm very happy that the United States continues to support Ukraine with intelligence assistance and with an American product developed by an amazing American company, right? Developed by Elon [Musk] and his team. But it does highlight the fact that we need to be good partners in that effort.
RFE/RL: You've warned for years that Moscow isn't acting alone, and that we're witnessing a coordinated effort between Russia, Beijing, and Tehran to systematically undermine Western security. Are we witnessing a formal wartime alliance or simply a coalition of convenience aimed at neutralizing American power?
Pompeo: You know, it's interesting. I don't know that it matters that much which of the two it is. It is clear that there is an alliance. It is clear that they are working together. It would really be Pyongyang, Beijing, Tehran, and Moscow working together. And it would have been the Venezuelans, but we've taken down that risk materially...
They have many disagreements with each other. They'll find places where they can't cooperate. But on destroying Western civilization, this is something they all agree on. These are a collective set of leaders who don't give a rip about human life, who don't give a rip for basic property rights, who don't care remotely about religious freedom.
They share that common set of understandings. Their principles and their values reflect that understanding of humanity. And so, when they can advance that vision for how the world ought to look, they will work together, even in spite of the fact that they'll have disagreements among themselves.
You see it at the tactical level with weapons systems, with electronic components, with tactical and even strategic-level intelligence sharing. But more importantly, you see it at the senior-leader level, at the nation-state level, where these countries have clearly demonstrated their willingness to work together to undermine that post-World War II architecture that has been so good for the United States, so wonderful for Europe, and frankly amazing for freedom all around the world.
RFE/RL: Given that cooperation, is the current Western defense strategy sufficiently equipped to deter a multitheater conflict involving China in the Indo-Pacific and Russia in Europe simultaneously? Does the West have the military capacity and strategy to handle both theaters at once?
Pompeo: Look, I'll cut to the bottom line. We're going to crush them. That is, to prevail, but it's going to take an enormous amount of determination. It's going to take amazing political leadership. It's going to take European leaders who are prepared to talk to their people about why it is the case that they have this responsibility, why it's in Europeans' best interest.
Every [EU] nation, all two dozen-plus of them, needs to work to deliver good outcomes for their own people. That means spending money, it means training soldiers, it means participating in your military and your strategic efforts. This will take real political leadership, and I hope people across the world can see what happens to nations that aren't prepared to do that.
If you don't defend your borders, you end up with Islamists inside your country. If you don't secure your own freedom by developing a military capable of participating in this civilizational effort, then the bad guys will try to take advantage of it, and every nation has to do this to protect its own sovereignty and to work at it diligently. I'm convinced we will all do that, but there's a lot of work that remains.
RFE/RL: What concrete steps should the United States and its allies take today to dismantle the supply lines connecting Tehran to Moscow?
Pompeo: Yes, so there are many things. There are, I'll call them, tactical and military measures that one can take, right? You can stop ships from sailing. You can interdict goods. The United States has done that with the Europeans, and, frankly, others were more actively engaged in that.
The economic pressure that the United States is putting on Iran and Tehran's leadership is very real. You know, [US Treasury Secretary Scott] Bessent has talked about weeks [for a possible collapse of Iran's economy]. I don't know if it's just weeks, but it will happen. This regime will collapse. As we saw with the Soviet Union, you can't predict the day or the hour or even the year, but the regime cannot possibly withstand the combination of the blockade that sits in place, the economic pressures that have been applied, and, I hope, the continued effort, the continued kinetic efforts that President Trump has indicated he may well be prepared to undertake in the coming weeks as well.
This will give the Iranian people the chance to do what's necessary. We will be able to tip the regime over in a way that delivers an outcome that is remarkable for the Iranian people, incredibly important for the Gulf Arab states and Israel, and enormously valuable to the United States of America as well.
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VIDEO https://gdb.rferl.org/6beb6912-3a2a-42cb-6049-08de3c91433d_w650_r1.png
Hmmm.. Reverend Mom and war lover Mike Pompeo… together again.
ARTICLE
Ukraine war latest: ‘Russia’s mass murder’ — Deadly Russian strikes on Dnipro, Chernihiv, Kremenchuk
The Kyiv Independent news desk
October 29, 2026 9:42 pm
https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-war-latest-russias-mass-murder-deadly-russian-strikes-on-dnipro-chernihiv-kremenchuk/
Key developments on Oct. 28:
‘Russia’s mass murder:’ Drone strike on Dnipro station kills 14 amid deadly daytime attacks on Chernihiv, Kremenchuk
Ukraine destroys 2 Russian Su-34 bomber jets in Neptune missile strike on airfield, Navy says
Route demining completed in Russian-occupied Oleshky as humanitarian convoy prepares to enter, Ukraine’s ombudsman says
Ukraine strikes Russian ‘drone port’ in Bryansk Oblast, damaging storage facilities, military says
UN appoints Russian diplomat to oversee mine action, as Ukraine clears over 300,000 explosives in Kherson Oblast
Russian general charged in absentia for missile strike on museum dedicated to 18th century Ukrainian philosopher
Russian forces struck a train platform at Dnipro railway station on the morning of Oct. 29, killing at least 14 people and wounding at least 14 more, authorities said.
A passenger train was preparing to depart the platform for Zaporizhzhia when the station was attacked by a Russian jet-powered drone, Ukrainian Railways wrote on social media.
The brazen daytime attack was followed in close succession by deadly strikes against civilians in Chernihiv and Kremenchuk.
The strikes on civilians come not only in the middle of a scheduled local ceasefire in Kherson Oblast, agreed to by Kyiv and Moscow to help evacuate and deliver aid to the residents of the occupied city of Oleshky, but also ahead of the first trilateral “peace negotiations” mediated by the United States since February this year.
According to Ukraine’s Air Force, Dnipro was attacked around 11:00 a.m. by four Russian jet-powered drones, three of which were downed by Ukrainian air defense before reaching their targets.
Despite the air raid alert and announcements of a heightened threat, people remained on the platform, Ukrainian Railways said.
Passengers were told to evacuate from the stationary train around ten minutes before the strike, with station and train staff checking each train car one by one.
At 11:29 a.m., Dnipropetrovsk Oblast governor Oleksandr Hanzha reported that medics were already at the scene of the attack, providing first aid.
“A horrific Russian attack on Dnipro train station,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media in response to the attack. “The Russians used a drone to attack a platform where a regular commuter train and a regular passenger train were standing.”
“How many such terrorist attacks has Russia carried out on our people after lifting sanctions on some Russian oligarchs and energy companies instead of de-escalating.”
Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze described the attack on Dnipro as “mass murder.”
Following the Russian attack on Dnipro, 25,000 people in the city and surrounding Oblast were left without electricity, Hanzha said in the afternoon.
Later in the day, Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov reported that a Russian drone struck the dormitory of a vocational school in Dnipro, setting the entire fifth floor on fire. There were no injuries, Filatov said, as the students had managed to reach the shelter before the strike.
Throughout the day, Russian attacks across Dnipropetrovsk Oblast injured four more people, including a 15-year-old girl, Hanzha said in an evening statement.
Elsewhere across Ukraine, the cities of Chernihiv and Kremenchuk were also targeted by daytime Russian attacks.
Around noon, Russian forces struck the center of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine with Banderol cruise missiles, killing two 15-year-old girls, regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said.
At least 25 more people were injured in the attack, including four children, the youngest one 10-months-old, Chaus later said.
Meanwhile, in the city of Kremenchuk in Poltava Oblast, at least three people were killed and 32 injured, including six children and two people still in critical condition, after Russian drones struck an apartment building in a residential area, according to local authorities. Oct. 30 has been declared a day of mourning in Poltava Oblast.
Tell us again why he’s not in Trump’s Cabinet…
Ukraine has no desire to do anything but get 100% of everything back.
So it’s not only Russia that’s pig-headed.
I am for both sides being whatever they want, but I don’t want to have any US involvement or monies for the war effort, either way.
Mike Pompeo is a deep deep-state clown. The last opinion I want is his.
Former, meaning nothing to contribute except his big mouth.
You beat me to it. I was hoping we’d never hear from this jackass again after the first Trump administration.
“Putin Agrees to Resume 3 Way Peace Talks with Ukraine and US”
Reuters headline, October 21, 2026
Since when is this turncoat in the loop.
The only reason the globalists started the war in the Ukraine was to prevent Russia’s influence in Europe.
In 1997, globalist Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote:
“Ukraine, a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard, is a geopolitical pivot because its very existence as an independent country helps to transform Russia. Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire.”
“However, if Moscow regains control over Ukraine, with its 52 million people and major resources as well as access to the Black Sea, Russia automatically again regains the wherewithal to become a powerful imperial state, spanning Europe and Asia.”
The war between the Ukraine and Russia was planned by the globalists for decades.
In 2014, Obama took steps to get things started.
Pompeo is one of the architects of this conflict.
Of course he’s going to sell it.
Ukraine is the first conflict I know of, that got sold to the public like this, but where you literally cannot explain to the average American (not without massive hyperbole) how this made them more safe, wealthy, or free.
Are there any terrorists or communists out there that Trump doesn’t criticize?
If Russia is guilty of terrorism, then why does Trump not say anything about it?
I agree.
I truly wish, those behind this war, would have their children grabbed from a street, stuffed in a uniform, and stuck in a trench.
And it looks like Pompeo’s in some middle eastern hotel room. The twerp Zelensky says he won’t do peace talks unless the Euroweenies are involved. I haven’t heard Putin make any demands for peace talks to take place.
I see he's lost a ton of weight. Must be the Trump admin cut off his EBT funds.
Try again. Putin, and only Putin, started this war and he could end it tomorrow. There are no globalist boogeymen under your bed.
“More than 60,000 noncombatants (French men, women & children) were killed in connection with a D-Day bombing campaign by the Allies, which began three months earlier to isolate the battlefield ahead of the June 6, 1944, ground invasion.
Read more at:
Source - Stars and Stripes
Mike Pompeo? Is he still a thing?
“1 May 2021”
“Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones destroyed 114 Armenian tanks, i.e. more than three battalions, 43 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, 141 artillery installation and MLRS, as well as a bunch of other military equipment of the Armenian army, and this is only in 24 days. The military conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia lasted 44 days”
“Even loitering ammunition purchased from Israel hit fewer armored vehicles than Turkish drones.”
“It is possible that this infographic is actually part of an information war, which was supposed to show Armenia that Azerbaijan is armed with “the most reliable attack drone” capable of destroying a bunch of enemy weapons without losing a single UAV.”
Moscow Times [10/27/2021]
The neighboring separatist-held Luhansk People’s Republic accused Kiev of using the Bayraktar in violation of ceasefire agreements that ban the deployment of foreign drones on the front line.
The Kremlin said Wednesday that Turkey’s supply of drones to Ukraine risks destabilizing the eastern Ukraine conflict
The Ukrainian army has been locked in a long-running conflict with separatist fighters in Donetsk and Luhansk since 2014 after Moscow annexed the peninsula of Crimea from Kiev. The conflict has claimed more than 13,000 lives.
Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Russia of sending troops and arms to support the separatists, which Moscow denies.
Warsaw Institute [27 October 2021]
“The Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 combat drone has been deployed at Donbas by the Ukrainian Joint Forces Operation for the first time, the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement. The drone targeted the positions of pro-Russian insurgents on October 26. The incident has been met with criticism from Moscow.”
“The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces stated that the unmanned aerial vehicle was used to attack a battery of howitzers that fired Ukrainian positions in Hranitne on the southern part of the line of contact. One Ukrainian soldier was killed and the other was wounded. Despite calls for a ceasefire from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, “Russian-terrorist” forces did not stop the fire. The Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces ordered the drone strike to “force the ceasefire.”
“The Ukrainian Joint Forces Operation said on October 26 that separatists made thirteen breaches to the ceasefire”
https://warsawinstitute.org/ukraine-uses-bayraktar-tb2-first-time-donbas/
New York Times [Nov. 15, 2021]
How a Dispute Over Groceries Led to Artillery Strikes in Ukraine
Deployed for the first time in combat by Ukraine and provided by a country that is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the drone hit a howitzer operated by the separatists. Things quickly escalated.
Across the border, Russia scrambled jets. The next day, Russian tanks mounted on rail cars rumbled toward the Ukrainian border.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/15/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-putin.html
BBC [26 November 2021]
they see the Kremlin sending a message that it’s ready to defend its “red lines” on Ukraine: above all, that it must not join Nato.
“I think for Putin it’s really important. He thinks the West has begun giving Ukraine’s elite hope about joining Nato,” political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya at R.Politik told the BBC.
“The training, the weapons and so on are like a red rag to a bull for Putin and he thinks if he doesn’t act today, then tomorrow there will be Nato bases in Ukraine. He needs to put a stop to that.”
Ukraine’s desire to join the security bloc is nothing new, nor is Russia’s insistence on vetoing that ambition in what it sees as its own “back yard”.
But Moscow has been rattled recently by the Ukrainian military using Turkish drones against Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine; the flight near Crimea of two nuclear-capable US bombers was an extra irritant.
“At a meeting between Putin and Biden, neither will give clear commitments but there may be some tacit understanding on how far the US is ready to go in increasing its military support to Ukraine,” Mr Kortunov argues. “That’s not impossible.”
“Whilst Putin has a flicker of hope that he can do a deal with Biden, he won’t take any rash steps. But if he thinks it’s all doomed, he could do the worst things we can imagine,” Tatiana Stanovaya warns.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59415885
Guardian [December 16, 2021]
“With tensions escalating along the border with Russia, Luke Harding visits troops in Ukraine’s Donbas region to gauge the mood ahead of a possible invasion. The war here has continued since 2014, when pro-Russian separatists seized Ukrainian cities.”
There’s a video I didn’t watch:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2021/dec/16/on-the-ukraine-frontline-only-the-dead-arent-afraid-video
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