Witkoff: Doing peace deals becomes infectious — leaders now call to the White House asking how to move a peace deal forward in Ukraine. 1/
Witkoff: The Israeli strike had a metastasizing effect. After it, Qatar — the main channel to Hamas — lost confidence, Hamas went underground, and communication broke down.
A Trump-brokered apology from Netanyahu was pivotal, the lynch pin that got us to the next place
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Jared Kushner: Trump told Netanyahu it’s time to make peace.
We’re not going to make you do anything that will create long-term security issues, but we need you to be flexible so we can get the Arab world on board and get this deal done.
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On July 28, 2024, the Armed Forces of Ukraine killed 6 members of the Russian elite unit Senezh in a border fight.
Senezh undergoes strict selection and Western-style training, performing the most difficult and dangerous tasks.
Suspilne made a documentary about them. 1/
“Senezh is the highest level of training and organization in Russia’s special operations forces — the elite of the elite.
Created under Defense Minister Serdyukov, it has a large structure and many specialists, often among the first sent to hot spots.” 2/
Ukrainian forces watched Senezh's advance.
"We pretended that they had simply been blown up by a mine. And when their comrades began to drag the two combatants away, we had already begun to fully use all our firepower that we had at that time." 3/
Europe can avoid the next war by arming with Ukraine, not just arming Ukraine.
Ex. Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi writes for the Eastern Flank Institute that Europe must integrate with Ukraine’s defense industry now — or face a stronger Russia by 2030.
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He argues that no country alone can sustain the tempo of modern warfare.
The EU should open joint production of ammunition, drones, and air-defense systems with Ukrainian engineers inside European factories — not as aid, but as mutual security.
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Zaluzhnyi calls for measurable output goals: how many shells per month, interceptors per quarter, and drones per week.
Fixed production targets would let Europe replace what it spends in Ukraine and prepare for a future crisis at the same time.
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Bolton: Whatever Putin thinks of Trump, he’s not his friend. Putin knows Russian national interests and pursues them, not to make Trump happy.
He has completely different objectives. The same pattern applies with Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un. 1/
Bolton: Zelenskyy worked hard to develop the personal relationship with Trump and did a very good job of regaining lost ground. Putin showed close to contempt for Trump at the Alaska.
Hope Trump decides to send Tomahawks to Ukraine. Decision is close, but not yet made. 2/
Bolton: Trump wants out of this situation. He divides the world into winners and losers. He is always a winner, and he’s not winning now in the Ukraine-Russia situation.
So he wants to get out and hopes maybe a Middle East outcome will win him the Nobel Peace Prize. 3/
Russia’s war machine looks strong on paper but it is brittle in practice.
Moscow spends 40% of its federal budget on defense, yet factories are at capacity.
Russia can rebuild in 7–10 years and be ready to attack another country, writes Alexandra Prokopenko in FA.
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Moscow ramped up drone and ammunition lines, but most frontline armor and vehicles are refurbished Soviet kit, not new NATO gear.
Expanding production further would force a full wartime economy - a step the Kremlin avoids because it would spark shortages and protests.
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The fiscal picture is worsening. Federal revenues dropped 16.9% in H1 2025.
GDP growth slowed to 1.1% after 3.6–4.1% in 2023–24, and the 2026 draft budget shows defense spending flattening for the first time since the invasion.
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Russian state TV turned Trump’s call with Putin into a weeklong circus of mockery and propaganda.
On-air panels called it “Putin’s bait” and joked “Zelenskyy is the week’s main loser.” Hosts claimed Trump followed Russian script to lure Zelenskyy into surrender - Daily Beast. 1/
On 60 Minutes, host Yevgeny Popov compared Trump’s Tomahawk offer to “a carrot for a donkey,” mocking how Trump “teased Zelenskyy and then flipped the board.”
Correspondent Valentin Bogdanov said the missile story was just a trap for Zelenskyy to sign surrender papers. 2/
On One’s Own Truth, pundits said “the pendulum swung back” and Trump was “Putin’s man again.”
American commentator Michael Bohm told viewers that Putin “leads Trump by the nose,” while Moscow analysts called the Budapest meeting a staged show for cameras. 3/