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Shortly after Russia’s unprovoked invasion, Putin put his military’s nuclear forces on high alert. Putin formally reduced the requirements for the Kremlin to deploy its nuclear weapons last year following Ukrainian attacks on the western Russian city of Kursk. That cleared the way for Russia to use nukes against any nation that attacks its territory and has the backing of a nuclear power. Recently, Trump has begun to sound more glum about the prospects of getting a deal done between the two sides. “Maybe it’s not possible to do,” Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview that aired...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said his troops had crossed into Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region -- a first ground attack there since 2022 -- but Kyiv swiftly denied the claim. "I was told an hour ago that at night fighters of the 810th brigade crossed the border of the Russian Federation and Ukraine, and entered the territory of the enemy," Putin said in televised remarks.

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Ukrainian drones have attacked a pumping station responsible for transporting oil through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC). This is not a Russian asset; the oil in this pipeline is classified as international property, belonging in various proportions to multiple companies, primarily American and European. The pipeline transports oil from Kazakhstan’s major oil projects—Tengiz, Karachaganak, and Kashagan. In 2024, American businesses accounted for over 40% of CPC oil shipments, and together with other Western companies, their total share exceeded 65%. The neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv was well aware of this. And despite its extreme dependence on Washington, it deliberately struck American...

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that his country has intelligence that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to “wage war” against NATO countries. Zelensky said, “We see how he is preparing to train mostly on the territory of Belarus.” He continued, “We know for sure that he is preparing that from the territory of Belarus this year. It can happen in summer, maybe in the beginning, maybe in the end of summer. I do not know when he prepares it. But it will happen. And at that moment. knowing that he did not succeed in...

In an interview with NBC News' Meet The Press, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told moderator Kristen Welker, “I will never accept any decisions between the United States and Russia about Ukraine, never." “This is the war in Ukraine, against us, and it’s our human losses," Zelenskyy stressed to Welker that the risk of Russia occupying Europe is 100%. "If the United States pulls out of NATO, Russia will occupy Europe," Welker repeated, to which the Ukrainian president clarified: "Not all of Europe at first; they will begin with small countries that have been in the USSR, the Soviet Union," adding...

-snip- “Putin's aims are extraordinarily ambitious, way beyond the capacity of his country, which he is ruining,” he added. Sikorski called the full-scale invasion a “civilizational struggle.” “We [Europe] represent the world of rules, of peace, of prosperity. And Putin has gone back to the world of Genghis Khan.”

BRUSSELS (AP) — Increasingly alarmed that U.S. security priorities lie elsewhere, a group of European countries has been quietly working on a plan to send troops into Ukraine to help enforce any future peace settlement with Russia. Britain and France are at the forefront of the effort, though details remain scarce. The countries involved in the discussions are reluctant to tip their hand and give Russian President Vladimir Putin an edge should he agree to negotiate an end to the war he launched three years ago. What is clear is that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy needs a guarantee that his...

Good morning from JD Vance! Nothing like waking up on a Friday to see your vice president delivering a smackdown to the holier-than-thou Eurotrash who are working overtime to turn their continent into a totalitarian state. 👇 JUST IN: Vice President JD Vance rips European leaders to their faces at the Munich security conference, calls them out for criminalizing free speech.🔥🔥Vance specifically called out the United Kingdom for being the worst of them all.“I wish I could say that this was a… pic.twitter.com/1bj9TKxP4q— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 14, 2025I look at Brussels, where EU commissars warn citizens that they intend...

Donald Trump's peace plan for the Ukraine/Russia conflict is coming under fire from some entertaining quarters. There is, of course, the domestic whining from the likes of John Bolton, who said “I think we know exactly what's gonna happen. President Trump has effectively surrendered to Putin before the negotiations have even begun.” I asked Grok what Bolton's solution to the conflict and it said this: No Negotiations with Russia: At various times, Bolton has argued against negotiating with Russia from a position of anything less than strength. He believes that as long as the conflict can be won militarily, talks...

The Kremlin on Friday called for clarification on recent remarks by US Vice President JD Vance regarding the possible deployment of American troops to Ukraine and new anti-Russian sanctions, saying these statements introduce “new elements” in Washington’s position. Speaking at a press briefing in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia expects further explanation during upcoming contacts with US officials. "We have not heard such formulations before, they have not been expressed previously," Peskov said. "Naturally, during the very contacts we discussed, we hope to receive further clarification." In an interview with the US media, Vance said the option of...

According to JD Vance, the Trump administration is very concerned about the state of European securityMUNICH, February 14. /TASS/. The United States believes that the biggest threat to Europe’s security is coming neither from Russia nor from China, but is inside Europe, US Vice President JD Vance said at the Munich Security Conference. "The Trump administration is very concerned about the state of European security, and we hope that we can reach a rational agreement between Russia and Ukraine," he said, adding that Europe should dramatically increase its defense spending in the coming years. "The threat that worries me the...

President Trump is looking forward to a fundamentally productive negotiation with Russia’s Putin and Ukraine’s Zelensky, Vice President JD Vance has said, in comments mischaracterised by the Wall Street Journal as a threat of war.U.S. Vice President JD Vance is speaking at the Munich Security Conference — taking place just one day after what is said to have been a terror attack in the city — and meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal before these engagements, Vance communicated President Donald Trump’s determination to make a peace deal in Ukraine and the incentives on...

Vice President JD Vance urged European leaders on Friday to fight back against censorship, declaring that their contempt for and even criminalization of free speech was posing the biggest threat on the continent — more even than Russian aggression. “The threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor,” Vance said in an address at the Munich Security Conference. “What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.” Vance...

Washington could impose tougher sanctions on Moscow and send U.S. troops to Ukraine if Russian President Vladimir Putin fails to negotiate a Ukraine peace deal in good faith, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Friday. “There are economic tools of leverage, there are of course military tools of leverage,” Vance was quoted as saying. “I think there is a deal that is going to come out of this that’s going to shock a lot of people.”

Realpolitik, politics based on practical objectives rather than on ideals. The word does not mean “real” in the English sense but rather connotes “things”—hence a politics of adaptation to things as they are. Realpolitik thus suggests a pragmatic, no-nonsense view and a disregard for ethical considerations. In diplomacy it is often associated with relentless, though realistic, pursuit of the national interest. Détente, French for “relaxation,” is “a process of managing relations with a potentially hostile country in order to preserve peace while maintaining our vital interests,” Henry Kissinger, then U.S. secretary of state, told a Congressional committee in 1974. But...

when "things have calmed down" to "cut our military budget in half"