So Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a partial, very limited cease fire:
Ukraine and Russia agreed to cease fighting in the Black Sea and to hash out the details for halting strikes on energy facilities, the White House said on Tuesday, in what would be the first significant step toward a cease-fire three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion.
But the deal falls short of a complete pause in combat, which Trump administration officials have been pushing, and it remains unclear how and when such a limited truce would be carried out or how firm was either side’s commitment. Last week, Russia and Ukraine agreed in principle to stop attacking energy facilities, only to quickly accuse each other of continuing such strikes.
[…]
And while both Ukraine and Russia confirmed the agreement, which came after three days of intense negotiations in Saudi Arabia, Moscow added significant caveats, at least some of which the United States appeared to agree to while gaining little in return. In a statement, the Kremlin said it would honor the maritime security portion of the deal only after Western countries removed restrictions imposed on Russian agricultural exports after the invasion began in 2022.
Man, Trump and Witkoff really know how to drive a hard bargain, don’t they?
Even amid the uncertainty, the White House’s willingness to cede to a Russian demand over Ukrainian objections was the latest sign of President Trump’s increasing alignment with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Mr. Trump has long complained without evidence that they were both politically persecuted during a Justice Department investigation into Russia’s interference in U.S. elections and had refused in recent weeks to say it was Russia that started the war by invading Ukraine.
Trump administration officials have expressed interest in broadly improving U.S. relations with Russia. In a summary of a call between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin last week, administration officials said the leaders had agreed that an improved relationship “has huge upside,” including “enormous economic deals and geopolitical stability when peace has been achieved.”
It’s not a question anymore as to what Trump and Putin want and what they are working together to achieve. Putin wants as much of Ukraine as he can get and the total normalization of the relationship between Russia and the United States. And that’s just the first step. He’s pushing Trump to drop out of NATO so that he can launch incursions into Europe. Trump is more than happy to let him do all of that. He thinks there are some hot real estate deals to be done, which is the key to world peace and prosperity. It’s why he and Steve Witkoff are the only people who can get this job done.
Seriously, in Trump’s mind, his territorial expansionism is just about real estate. It’s like taking over the Gulf and Western building in Manhattan and turning it into Trump Tower. No difference. This is all he knows. He is 78 years old and he has no other frame of reference. I think his buddy Witkoff is exactly the same.
He wants to take over Canada and turn it into an American state (or several.) He wants to take over Greenland and turn it into an American territory and extract its resources. Maybe they can turn it into a Trump resort of some sort as well. And, as we saw, the demented weirdo suggested to the entire world that he wants to take over Gaza and turn it into an “international resort” (after he cleaned it o Palestinians who he believes would be happy to go since he’ll build them some nice condos somewhere.)
Trump believes that foreign policy is nothing more than a real estate transaction and doing a “great deal” will win him the Nobel Peace Prize. It’s ridiculous but even if it were true I think it’s important to remember that he inherited his wealth and his companies went bankrupt 6 times. (Oh, and he and his company have been convicted of massive fraud.) If his alleged business acumen is transferred to his territorial expansionism, we should expect that it will end in a war.