Donald Trump Moves Closer to an Alliance With Russia

Let's start with President Trump and his latest turn in what he calls his effort to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.

On Friday, he announced he's waiving for an indefinite period the sanctions in the Lindsey Graham bill he recently signed.

This follows his deal to waive sanctions on Russian diesel oil sales, which the Kremlin uses to fund its war in Iran.

And it follows...

The news that Ukraine's use of the Starlink satellite network to monitor Russian drones and help defend against Russian attacks was suspended.

And there's mixed reporting about who is responsible, whether it's continuing or not.

No one really seems to be claiming responsibility, but somebody's doing it.

So what do we make of all this, Jillian?

Well, I think it's a real strategic shift away from being Ukraine's partner.

This is really troublesome stuff.

I mean, look, under the Trump administration, we already knew that there was going to be a bit of a shift.

And we've seen the U.S. go from under the Biden administration giving Ukraine weapons to defend itself to a more transactional approach under the Trump administration.

All right, we'll give you these weapons, but you're a pass to pay for them.

This is something very different.

The sanctions relief is relieving pressure on Russia at a time that the financial pressure from Western sanctions and the so-called kinetic sanctions by Ukraine were really starting to take an effect.

And we know that Vladimir Putin uses energy revenue to fund his war machine.

And so this is going to be something that he can use to buy and produce more missiles and more drones to terrorize Ukrainian cities and civilians.

And then I think equally disturbing, hearing the reports that Ukraine sometimes in the past week has not received early notice of Russian missile launches.

We don't really have a good explanation on that.

Same with the SpaceX, Starlink equivalent for government and military purposes being throttled.

What the effect of that is, is first and foremost on civilian populations.

I mean, that early warning, and I'm saying this as somebody who's had to rely on that early warning to get to a bomb shelter in time, especially in cities like Kharkiv or Sumy, places close to the border, you may have three minutes or less.

So that is a critical life-saving measure.

And then on Starlink access, you know, some of it is for jet drone interception, the very fast Russian new Shahids.

But some of it is also for the mid-range drone missions that Ukraine has been launching on Russian positions.