Today’s discussion with Professor Glenn Diesen was far-reaching and no doubt viewers will find it especially rewarding.

As the title indicates, we began with review of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s irresponsible decision to approve supplying Kiev with the long-range German cruise missile Taurus by one means or another. In fact, as I remark here, the logic is that he already has delivered some missiles there in violation of his commitments to his coalition partners.

We concluded with considerations on how this war may end after Donald Trump withdraws the United States from participation. As I suggest, the inevitable capitulation of Ukraine will also signify the capitulation of NATO, and at that point finally negotiations will begin to draw up a new security architecture for Europe, as the Russian proposed back in December 2021 but the USA and NATO haughtily rejected out of hand.

In between we discussed why Donald Trump is play acting all the time, why we must look closely not at what he says, which is calculated to confuse and disarm his opponents, but at what he does.  The man who approved closing down USAID, the main instrument of regime change paid for by the CIA, the man who has decapitated the US intelligence agencies, who is now purging the State Department, who is scaling back the National Security Council from its bloated 200 staff under Biden to its prior headcount of 60 – the man who is doing all this cannot be a buffoon. Let us put aside his egotistical personality and admit that Trump is intelligent and brave and knows what he wants to do with the U.S. government.  As I also state here, it is very wrong-headed to believe that Trump is under-informed or misinformed about the international situation by his subordinates. On the contrary, it is more believable that he knows more about what is going on in the Russia-Ukraine war than any of us commentators on youtube today. That is just how it should be.

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2025

Translation below into German (Andreas Mylaeus)

Interview mit Glenn Diesen, 29. Mai 2025: Deutschland und Russland auf dem Weg zum Krieg

Die heutige Diskussion mit Professor Glenn Diesen war sehr aufschlussreich und wird für die Zuschauer zweifellos besonders interessant sein.

Wie der Titel schon andeutet, begannen wir mit einer Rückschau auf die unverantwortliche Entscheidung des deutschen Bundeskanzlers Friedrich Merz, die Lieferung der deutschen Langstrecken-Marschflugkörper vom Typ Taurus an Kiew auf die eine oder andere Weise zu genehmigen. Wie ich hier bereits angemerkt habe, hat er damit gegen seine Verpflichtungen gegenüber seinen Koalitionspartnern verstoßen, da er bereits einige Raketen dorthin geliefert hat.

Wir schlossen mit Überlegungen dazu, wie dieser Krieg enden könnte, nachdem Donald Trump die Vereinigten Staaten aus dem Konflikt zurückgezogen hat. Wie ich vermute, wird die unvermeidliche Kapitulation der Ukraine auch die Kapitulation der NATO bedeuten, und an diesem Punkt werden endlich Verhandlungen beginnen, um eine neue Sicherheitsarchitektur für Europa zu entwerfen, wie sie Russland bereits im Dezember 2021 vorgeschlagen hatte, die aber von den USA und der NATO hochmütig abgelehnt wurde.

Zwischendurch diskutierten wir, warum Donald Trump ständig Theater spielt, warum wir nicht auf das achten dürfen, was er sagt, denn das ist darauf ausgelegt, seine Gegner zu verwirren und zu entwaffnen, sondern auf das, was er tut. Der Mann, der die Schließung der USAID genehmigt hat, dem wichtigsten Instrument für Regimewechsel, das von der CIA finanziert wird, der Mann, der die US-Geheimdienste enthauptet hat, der jetzt das Außenministerium säubert, der den Nationalen Sicherheitsrat von seinen aufgeblähten 200 Mitarbeitern unter Biden auf die frühere Personalstärke von 60 Mitarbeitern reduziert – der Mann, der all das tut, kann kein Clown sein. Lassen wir seine egoistische Persönlichkeit beiseite und geben wir zu, dass Trump intelligent und mutig ist und weiß, was er mit der US-Regierung vorhat. Wie ich auch hier feststelle, ist es sehr kurzsichtig zu glauben, dass Trump von seinen Untergebenen schlecht oder falsch über die internationale Lage informiert wird. Im Gegenteil, sollten wir eher annehmen, dass er mehr über den Krieg zwischen Russland und der Ukraine weiß als jeder von uns Kommentatoren auf YouTube heute. So sollte es auch sein.

Transcript submitted by a reader

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW9y77Z0TVQ

Napolitano: 0:34
Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for “Judging Freedom”. Today is Thursday, May 29th, 2025. Professor Gilbert Doctorow joins us in just a moment on just how dire is the situation in Ukraine.

[commercial message]

2:21
Professor Doctorow, welcome here, my dear friend. Congratulations on your new book, “War Diaries …”, which, of course, we will discuss at some point during our interview today. I do want to start with the latest out of Germany. Has the decision of Chancellor Merz to deliver Taurus missiles to Ukraine without geographical limits made Germany a co-belligerent in the war in the eyes of the Kremlin?

Gilbert Doctorow, PhD:
Definitely, yes. I’d say the language has changed a little bit in the last week or two. Now, what Mr. Lavrov said most recently about Merz, is a hair’s breadth away from calling him a Nazi. Lavrov said that like Hitler, Merz is doing this and that. Well, like Hitler, it means that he’s already associating Mr. Merz with the Hitler heritage or legacy.

3:22
And that is a dramatic change in the language coming out of the Kremlin. The Russians have said very plainly that if Merz proceeds with this– and the last news, updated news is that they probably have already shipped the missile to Kiev. When Merz said yesterday that it could be, as soon as a few weeks from now, well, judging by the last three years, we know that when statements like that are made, the shipments have been made weeks before, so that we may assume that this missile is already in the possession of the Ukrainians. For the Russians, that is war.

Napolitano:
What do you expect President Putin to do about it? I mean, Prime Minister, or Foreign Minister Lavrov’s words are strong, but they’re just words. I don’t mean that to demean him, as you know, I’m very fond of him personally and professionally, but what do you think President Putin will do?

Doctorow:
I don’t think that President Putin has any margin for his own opinions in this matter. The latest opinion polls in Russia show that he has gone up to an 82 percent approval rating.

Napolitano:
Wow.

Doctorow:
But let’s not deceive ourselves. The popular mood in Russia has changed, whereas some of my peers and colleagues were saying as long ago as two years ago, that the Russian general staff didn’t like the go slowly approach, softly, softly approach of Mr. Putin and wanted something more dramatic. I didn’t put much credence in what they think or say privately, because the military is wholly under the control of civilian rule in Russia. However, the indications [are]–and this even came up in recent talk show programs from Moscow– that the popular mood has changed, and people are weary of this go-slow approach.

5:10
And they– I don’t believe that Mr. Putin would stay in power if he failed to respond to … attacks by the Ukrainians using the the Taurus missile against against their military or civilian assets.

Napolitano:
I know your field is not military tactics, but how far can these Taurus missiles reach? Can they reach Moscow?

Doctorow:
Not quite, but the objective that Mr. Merz himself made when he first discussed shipping them was to do something dramatic, something that would humiliate Moscow and would put Russia in an impossible position, the regime in an impossible position, namely to destroy the Crimean bridge. And for that purpose, the German missile is much more effective than the shorter range missiles from Britain and from France, the Storm Shadow, that were supplied previously. They are not, those were not in their targeting capabilities and in the power of their punch, they were not capable of delivering a really destructive blow against bridges or fortified underground positions. This missile, the Taurus, has that capability, and the Russians have no experience dealing with the unique features of its targeting and of its path. This is a cruise missile, so it has changeable paths of attack and is difficult to intercept.

7:09
For that reason, the Russians are particularly concerned about its becoming available to Kiev, since it could do what the previous deliveries from Britain and France and the United States with HIMARS were incapable of.

Napolitano:
One of our viewers writes that the range is 300 kilometers. Is that, if that is accurate, and if this is fired from Ukraine territory, can it reach that bridge?

Doctorow:
Well, the, as far as I know, 350 kilometers is the limit on Storm Shadow. The Taurus is 500 kilometers. And that is the significance of Merz saying two days ago that limitations on range no longer hold. He meant precisely the longer-range Taurus.

Napolitano:
Are the Germans prepared for a couple of Oreshniks aimed at their industrial base?

Doctorow: 8:13
I don’t think that Mr. Merz takes seriously the Russian threats. After all, he could say, with entire logic, that the Russians never responded to the American shipment of long-range missiles, the HIMARS, the ATACMS, they never responded to the Storm Shadow. However, that is ignoring the Russian view of Germany as opposed to its former allies. Russia is neuralgic, is hypersensitive to what the Germans do. And the recent celebration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Europe on May 9th, we were all reminded about the 26 million Russians who died in that conflict, largely due to German military efforts. And that is unforgivable, unforgettable.

9:09
So anything that Germany does, is a special case for Russia. And as I said, whatever the personal preferences of Mr. Putin, he cannot go against the popular will. He wouldn’t want to. The popular will in Russia is to differentiate between German missiles and the others, in a way that means the Russians will have to respond in a dramatic way.

Now, taking out military production facilities, I’m not sure that that would be the first thing that happens, because that particular facility making the Taurus has been idle for more than a year. They have not been producing it, so it wouldn’t accomplish much to bomb it out. That means that they will probably have to find another target for Orashniks. The Russian talk shows spoke vaguely about Berlin. What exactly is meant, we don’t know.

Napolitano:
Wow. Here’s Chancellor Merz two days ago on this very topic. Chris, cut number seven.

Merz:
There are no longer any range restrictions on weapons delivered to Ukraine neither from the British nor the French nor from us nor from the Americans. This means that Ukraine can now also defend itself, including, for example, by taking actions such as attacking military positions located within Russia, or by targeting other strategic sites as necessary. Until recently it was not able to do that. Until recently, with very few exceptions, it also did not do that. Now it can.

In jargon, we call this long-range fire, meaning equipping Ukraine with weapons that can attack military targets in the rear. And this is the decisive, this is the crucial qualitative difference in Ukraine’s conduct of the war. Russia attacks civilian targets completely ruthlessly, bombing cities, kindergartens, hospitals and nursing homes. Ukraine does not do that and we place great importance on ensuring that it stays that way. But a country that can only confront an aggressor on its own territory is not defending itself adequately. So, and this defense of Ukraine is now also taking place against military infrastructure on Russian territory.

Napolitano: 11:24
Before I ask you to analyze that, that was an AI translation from German to English using his voice, amazing what can be done today. What is he trying to accomplish?

Doctorow:
He is preparing a justification in advance for the deployment of these missiles, for their use in striking against Russian targets, and he is lying through his teeth. Everything that he said about the Russian conduct of the war is an outrageous lie scripted in Kiev.

12:02
It is precisely the Ukrainians that have been using terror techniques and deploying their drones and what missiles they have, primarily against civilian targets. That’s been the nature of the warfare going back to 2014. They were destroying civilian residential neighborhoods and playgrounds and hospitals and the rest. And that’s continued to this date.

They have used, the Ukrainians have made some attacks on militarily important facilities. But that is the number of such attacks versus their overall activity, like 2,000 drones were sent into the Russian Federation in the last two weeks by the Ukrainians. They knocked out, or they hit at least, one facility producing chips or something or other for military use. Otherwise it is all ambulances, buses and the rest of it.

13:07
So Mr. Merz is turning everything on its head. The reality is just the opposite. And the Russians have demonstrated this on air, what exactly they targeted and with what effect, because they have drones that inspect, that follow, monitor the destruction.

Napolitano:
Is it too early in his chancellorship for me to ask you fairly, in fairness to you, whether you agree with the Scott Ritter analysis that Merz is the most dangerous German Chancellor since Hitler?

Doctorow: 13:43
Well, I agree completely with that. He is utterly irresponsible, and he is courting disaster for his country. If he believes, and there’s another factor here, that he may well think, first, that the Russians won’t dare strike against Germany. There is dead wrong. They’ve said it openly. They will.

And second, that if they were to do so, then the United States and the other allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would respond and come to Germany’s aid. Nonsense, maybe other European countries singly will do that, but the United States, I believe, will abstain. And that will condemn completely the notion of the united defense to save Germany from itself. Therefore, Germany will likely suffer uniquely Russian revenge.

Napolitano:
Wow. Let’s transition a little bit. In one of your recent pieces, you wrote about the things Ukrainian soldiers returning from the front are saying about their Russian counterparts. What are they saying?

Doctorow:
Well, I want to point out that this came from an article that was posted by a non-staff person from the “Financial Times” on the front page of their newspaper online, perhaps two days ago. And it was quite astonishing, because of the openness, transparency of the reporting. Much of the information was coming in fact from Russian television. Though the reporter, the writer, author of this piece did not refer to Russian television. Nonetheless, he also interviewed on the battlefield, on the front, Ukrainian soldiers who were saying openly that the Russians are using very effective new tactics. For example, they are instead of coming in on tanks, which are quite vulnerable to destruction by Ukrainian drones as well as others, they are coming in on scooters. They’re coming in on motorcycles in small groups.

16:05
And they’re surprising the Ukrainian defenders of various hamlets on the front line and taking over territory. But the Russians are being very inventive while also they are supporting their forward movement by heavy artillery, by glide bombs, and other serious military equipment. So the Ukrainians are acknowledging the Russian advantage technically in the drone warfare where Russians started out at a big disadvantage three years ago.

Napolitano:16:42
What are the numerical differences of which you’re aware and which you find credible … between Russian enlistments and Ukrainian conscriptions.

Doctorow:
Again, this was also repeated in the article I’m making reference to. And the importance of citing this article is that, editorially, the “Financial Times” is viciously anti-Russian. Some of their journalists slip in some interesting and useful information, considering it is a business newspaper, after all, regarding the state of the Russian economy. Even yesterday, they had an article citing the prosperity and the good feelings of the Russian consumers and general population.

But the newspaper is anti-Russian, and yet they are putting up this material that I just described as a kind of forewarning, I think, to their business subscribers to expect a Ukrainian defeat, something which would not have been acknowledged in any way going back a few months ago.

Napolitano:
Let’s talk for a moment, if we could, about the attempted— this has gotten very, very little play in the West— the attempted assassination of President Putin using drones while he was in a helicopter. Isn’t it reasonable to believe that the information about his presence in that helicopter and the location of the helicopter was supplied to the Ukrainians by either MI6, CIA or Mossad?

Doctorow: 18:25
It is possible, but not necessary. One of the points that bears mentioning and the way that military intelligence has changed in the course of the war, thanks to drones.

The Russian targeting of Ukrainian Western- supplied equipment is largely coming from constant reconnaissance drones. It’s not coming from satellites. And so it is entirely possible that the Ukrainians themselves could have detected a special movement. After all, Putin was coming close to the border. He was visiting Kursk, and that is a bordering oblast. So it is possible the Ukrainians could have learned this through their own reconnaissance, that is, technical means, or they could have learned it from espionage, from leaks.

19:25
Let’s face it, it recently came out, that the reason why the Ukrainian incursion, later invasion of Kursk succeeded so well, was because of widespread corruption in the oblast of Kursk. And this has come out in the last several days. Severe attack on a local administration, which had stolen the money that had been appropriated for defense of the border. It is possible that there are Russians within Kursk who are working for Ukraine.

Napolitano:
But the concept of assassinating President Putin, is it rational that that plan would have been hatched without the Americans knowing about it?

Doctorow:
I think we have to acknowledge that the Ukrainian government, regime, what you want to call it, is desperate. Now, this leads us to the question, is a collapse of the army imminent? I don’t think so. But they are desperate. They are fearing, perhaps, that they will be overthrown because of the military reverses. And they are ready for anything, meaning primarily terrorism.

20:44
Let me alert you to something that isn’t talked about. Turkish airlines have warned passengers on their flights to Russia now that they may be grounded if Turkey believes that its flights from Istanbul could be subject to Ukrainian drones. So that the Ukrainians would even think of attacking Turkish airlines shows you how desperate and totally violent and irresponsible ,and terrorist in nature, the Ukrainian government has become.

Napolitano:
Do you think that mainstream media here in the West is beginning to recognize all this ,or is the “Financial Times” not a barometer of mainstream media?

Doctorow:
No, I think it is a barometer, but that doesn’t mean that they are totally current in and bringing up to date all aspects of Ukrainian activities. As recently as a day ago, nobody was talking in the “Financial Times”, just as they weren’t talking in other Western mainstream, about the massive increase in Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia that preceded the Russian counterattack, which is the only thing that has been covered, in which the Russians have done massive bombing of Kiev and other cities.

22:11
That got everybody’s attention, but what provoked it has been ignored by the “Financial Times”, as well as the rest of mainstream.

Napolitano: 22:21
Here’s President Trump expressing disappointment with the current state of affairs. Chris, cut number 13.
——–

Reporter:
Do you believe the Russians are being disrespectful when they say that your criticisms of Putin are simply an emotional response, and do you still believe that Putin actually wants to end the war?

Trump:
I can’t tell you that, but I’ll let you know in about two weeks, within two weeks. We’re going to find out very soon. We’re going to find out whether or not he’s tapping us along or not. And if he is, we’ll respond a little bit differently. But it’ll take about a week and a half, two weeks.

We have, Mr. Witkoff is here, who’s doing a phenomenal job, is dealing with them very strongly right now. They seem to want to do something, but until the document is signed, I can’t tell you. Nobody can. I can say this, I can say this, that I’m very disappointed at what happened a couple of nights now where people were killed in the middle of what you would call a negotiation.

I’m very disappointed by that. Very, very disappointed. Yeah, please.
——–

Napolitano: 23:30
What do the Russians think of him when he makes comments like that?

Doctorow:
Let’s divide this between what they think and what they say. What they say is very diplomatic. You know what Pieskov said, precisely that the Americans are reacting emotionally, that it’s very tense and therefore it could be explained away. However that’s not what Moscow thinks. That’s what Moscow feels obliged to say, not to tip its hands to the to Donald Trump’s enemies and opponents.

They would– what Moscow thinks is that Mr. Trump is basically well disposed, is looking for detente, and they applaud his efforts, but they are very open to acknowledging the level of opposition that he faces, which was most recent. It was called out also on Russian news yesterday that is Lindsey Graham’s 80 Senate signatures on the bill that he has advanced to call for drastic sanctions to be imposed on Russia. This is a bill that will be veto-proof and this may condition what Mr. Trump was saying yesterday. You’ll see in two weeks what our response will be.

24:48
I think that if this motion by Lindsey Graham and that’s 80 he signed up, proceeds and they force Trump’s hand on this issue, that he will respond by indeed walking away from the negotiations, saying “We’ve done our best” and leaving with a fair-handed equal treatment. That is, the Russians will get more sanctions and the Ukrainians will get no more financial, military aid or reconnaissance aid from the United States. And that will look very good.

Napolitano:
Wow.

Doctorow:
He’s prepared. But I do say that he is not ignorant. The man who delivered that speech in Saudi Arabia, which you, I, and so many others consider to be a brilliant and the most astonishing denunciation of the whole ideology of neocons in the presence of the Saudi leaders, saying that “You’ve done it yourself, you’ve gotten democracy, you’ve gotten prosperity, no thanks to us, because we’ve only brought death and destruction wherever we tried to do nation building.”

The man who delivered that, he didn’t write it, it’s not important, he delivered it, and he knew what he was delivering. That man cannot be described as a buffoon. I am certain, Judge, that he knows as much and probably a lot more than you or I or anyone else around, about what the situation is on the ground in Russia today. And it’s not thanks to the National Security Council, which he has been busy depopulating.

Napolitano:
Right, right.

Doctorow:
Because it was packed by Biden.

Napolitano:
I have to note that standing next to him, I don’t know if you could just put up an image, Chris, of what we just saw from Cut 13 where President Trump was speaking just for a second. Just put up the beginning of number 13. Chris? All right, maybe we can’t get it out.
——–

Reporter:
Do you believe the Russians are being disrespectful when they say that your criticisms of Putin are simply an emotional response, and do you still believe that Putin actually wants to end the war?

Trump:
I can’t tell you that, but I’ll let you know in about two weeks, within two weeks. We’re going to find out very soon. We’re going to find out whether or not he’s tapping us along or not. And if he is, we’ll respond a little bit differently. But it’ll take about a week and a half, two weeks.

We have, Mr. Witkoff is here, who’s doing a phenomenal job, is dealing with them very strongly right now. They they seem to want to do something, but until the document is signed, I can’t tell you. Nobody can. I can say this.
——–

Napolitano: 27:34
Right. I had to comment about the woman standing next to him. That is Janine Pirro, the interim US attorney for Washington DC, my former colleague at Fox News, whom I’ve known for 20 years. That is the longest she’s ever been in front of a camera without saying a word. Tell us about your new book, “War Diaries”, Professor.

Doctorow:
Well, this is a book– I’ve noticed when I went to Amazon that somebody in Ukrainian has published “War Diary” in singular, about a year ago, telling the story from the perspective of the Ukrainians. I’m telling the story as in how it looked, how the development of the war looked on the ground in Russia from my visits there, from my close following their press and so forth.

28:24
It is not intended to be a comprehensive history of the war; it’s intended to be a personal account of what has changed in Russia, how society has changed, the thinking of the man on the street, the thinking of the intelligentsia, the rise in patriotism. All of these are features that I tracked over the course of the war, as you know, in essays that I wrote day by day, week by week.

Napolitano:
Right.

Doctorow:
And I have culled that to produce this very large book, which in some respects will be a reference book. But I think that readers will find that there are good chunks of it which speak to them directly and interest them, particularly my travels in Russia, which were four times a year before I curtailed them as travel became more difficult. Nonetheless, this was a unique reportage because Western journalists all left the country at the start of the special military operation. I think it’s ultimately a valuable contribution.

There will be a volume two. I’m hoping that I can produce it by the end of this year, because the war will be over by then. But of course, nobody knows.

Napolitano:
Nobody knows. Well, we all know how much we appreciate you. Thank you for sending the essays, however long or short they may be. I have the benefit of your thinking all the time and almost instantaneously. I can’t wait to get my copy of the book. And thank you very much for your time today and I’ve already heard from Janine Pirro who apparently is watching this. She loved the wisecrack that I made. All the best. Thank you for joining us, Professor.

30:09
Well, thank you.

Napolitano:
Of course. And coming up later today, we have a full day for you, at 2.15 this afternoon, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson; at three o’clock, Professor John Mearsheimer; at four o’clock from wherever he is on the planet, Max Blumenthal; and at five o’clock, Professor Jeffrey Sachs.

30:31
Judge Napolitano for “Judging Freedom”.

Today’s chat examines the very provocative plans of German Chancellor Merz to supply the Taurus missile to Ukraine. I believe he may not properly appreciate the way the Russians distinguish between American, French, British missiles and those the Germans are providing.  As I say here, President Putin will have no choice but to respond with missiles destroying German military assets because a large and vocal part of the Russian population will not allow him to sit on his hands.

Do heads of state determine the will of the people or are they implementers of the will of the people? The question was posed by Lev Tolstoy as the central issue of War and Peace.  Here and now my call is that Putin must implement the will of the people and not his own predispositions. Hence. If the Germans do go through with deliveries of Taurus to Kiev, Putin will attack Germany with Oreshnik hypersonic missiles, likely after making his case before the UN Security Council. There is no reason for him to conceal his intentions. There is no need to be surreptitious: the Oreshniks are unstoppable.

Donald Trump is in a similar situation. His predisposition is to oversee a peace negotiation that ends in a treaty closely approximating Russian demands. However, the political forces in Europe and on Capitol Hill work against that. In this chat we discuss the bill that Lindsey Graham has introduced in the Senate calling for imposition of very harsh new economic sanctions on Russia with reference to Russia’s latest drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities. Graham says the bill is approved by 80 Senators, making it veto-proof. 

I believe Graham’s bill will precipitate the long-awaited declaration by Trump that the USA is leaving the peace process and ending its involvement in the Ukraine war.  In that case, Trump can claim to be even-handed. He will accept the inevitable with respect to new sanctions, saying the intention is to moderate Russian demands to conclude a peace.  And he will simultaneously end U.S. military, financial and intelligence aid to Ukraine to moderate Ukrainian demands.  The net effect will indeed be to end the war on the terms of the victor, Russia, sooner rather than later.

Otherwise, in this interview Judge Napolitano posted a video of Merz claiming that Russia has been attacking civilian targets in Ukraine – apartment buildings, hospitals, kindergartens.  These are outrageous lies coming from Kiev and disseminated irresponsibly by Merz. In this regard, he is now rivaling British Prime Minister Starmer in the Pinocchio rankings.

I was particularly pleased to deal with the question of the drone attack on President Putin’s helicopter when he toured the Kursk oblast at the start of the week.  Some analysts have said that this indicated that US or British intelligence sharing with Kiev had enabled this assassination attempt.  There is even the suggestion that Trump may have had foreknowledge of the attack. However, there are, as I say here, other possible explanations, including the Ukraine’s own surveillance with drones given that the Russian President was flying just across the border from Ukrainian positions. Or, more likely their intelligence could have been provided by Russian traitors based in Kursk.

In the past several days the Russian authorities have made arrests of Kursk officials for expropriating defense funds that were allocated to the oblast early in the Special Military Operation. This theft, it is said, made possible the successful Ukrainian incursion in August 2024.  Russian news reports yesterday emphasized the rampant corruption in Kursk. It is not inconceivable that in such an environment there have been willing collaborators in Kursk selling intelligence to the Ukrainians.

Finally, I am grateful to Judge Napolitano for featuring my just published War Diaries. The Russia-Ukraine War, 2022-2023 and inviting my comments on why the book should interest readers.

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2025

Translation into German (Andreas Mylaeus)

„Judging Freedom“, Ausgabe vom 29. Mai: Wie prekär ist die Lage in der Ukraine?

Im heutigen Chat geht es um die sehr provokanten Pläne des deutschen Bundeskanzlers Merz, die Ukraine mit Taurus-Raketen zu beliefern. Ich glaube, er unterschätzt möglicherweise, wie sehr die Russen zwischen amerikanischen, französischen und britischen Raketen einerseits und den von Deutschland gelieferten Raketen andererseits unterscheiden. Wie ich hier bereits gesagt habe, wird Präsident Putin keine andere Wahl haben, als mit Raketenangriffen auf deutsche Militärmittel und -anlagen zu reagieren, da ein großer und lautstarker Teil der russischen Bevölkerung ihm nicht erlauben wird, untätig zu bleiben.

Bestimmen Staatschefs den Willen des Volkes oder sind sie nur Ausführende des Volkswillens? Diese Frage stellte Lew Tolstoi als zentrale Frage in „Krieg und Frieden“. Hier und jetzt sage ich deutlich, dass Putin den Willen des Volkes umsetzen muss und nicht seine eigenen Vorlieben. Wenn die Deutschen also die Lieferungen von Taurus an Kiew tatsächlich durchführen, wird Putin Deutschland mit Oreshnik-Hyperschallraketen angreifen, wahrscheinlich nachdem er seine Argumente vor dem UN-Sicherheitsrat vorgebracht hat. Es gibt keinen Grund für ihn, seine Absichten zu verbergen. Es besteht kein Grund zur Heimlichtuerei: Die Oreshniks sind nicht aufzuhalten.

Donald Trump befindet sich in einer ähnlichen Situation. Er neigt dazu, Friedensverhandlungen zu leiten, die zu einem Vertrag führen, der den russischen Forderungen weitgehend entspricht. Die politischen Kräfte in Europa und im US-Kongress arbeiten jedoch dagegen. In diesem Chat diskutieren wir den Gesetzentwurf, den Lindsey Graham im Senat eingebracht hat und der sehr harte neue Wirtschaftssanktionen gegen Russland fordert, unter Verweis auf die jüngsten Drohnen- und Raketenangriffe Russlands auf ukrainische Städte. Graham sagt, der Gesetzentwurf sei von 80 Senatoren gebilligt worden und damit veto-sicher.

Ich glaube, dass Grahams Gesetzentwurf die lang erwartete Erklärung Trumps beschleunigen wird, dass die USA aus dem Friedensprozess aussteigen und ihr Engagement im Ukraine-Krieg beenden. In diesem Fall kann Trump behaupten, unparteiisch zu sein. Er wird die unvermeidlichen neuen Sanktionen akzeptieren und sagen, dass damit die russischen Forderungen nach einem Friedensabschluss gemildert werden sollen. Gleichzeitig wird er die militärische, finanzielle und geheimdienstliche Hilfe der USA für die Ukraine einstellen, um die ukrainischen Forderungen zu mäßigen. Der Nettoeffekt wird in der Tat sein, dass der Krieg eher früher als später zu den Bedingungen des Siegers, Russland, beendet wird.

Ansonsten hat Judge Napolitano in diesem Interview ein Video von Merz gepostet, in dem dieser behauptet, Russland habe zivile Ziele in der Ukraine angegriffen – Wohnhäuser, Krankenhäuser, Kindergärten. Das sind empörende Lügen, die aus Kiew stammen und von Merz unverantwortlich verbreitet werden. In dieser Hinsicht konkurriert er nun mit dem britischen Premierminister Starmer um den Pinocchio-Preis.

Besonders gefreut hat mich, dass ich auf die Frage nach dem Drohnenangriff auf den Hubschrauber von Präsident Putin eingehen konnte, als er Anfang der Woche die Region Kursk bereiste. Einige Analysten haben behauptet, dass dies darauf hindeute, dass der US-amerikanische oder britische Geheimdienst Kiew Informationen weitergegeben und so dieses Attentat ermöglicht habe. Es gibt sogar die Vermutung, dass Trump möglicherweise Vorwissen über den Angriff gehabt habe. Wie ich hier jedoch bereits dargelegt habe, gibt es andere mögliche Erklärungen, darunter die eigene Überwachung der Ukraine mit Drohnen, da der russische Präsident direkt über der Grenze zu ukrainischen Stellungen flog. Oder, was wahrscheinlicher ist, ihre Informationen könnten von russischen Verrätern in Kursk stammen.

In den letzten Tagen haben die russischen Behörden Beamte aus Kursk wegen Veruntreuung von Verteidigungsgeldern festgenommen, die zu Beginn der Sonder-Militäroperation für die Region bereitgestellt worden waren. Dieser Diebstahl soll den erfolgreichen Einmarsch der Ukraine im August 2024 ermöglicht haben. Russische Medienberichte betonten gestern die grassierende Korruption in Kursk. Es ist nicht auszuschließen, dass es in einem solchen Umfeld willige Kollaborateure in Kursk gab, die Informationen an die Ukrainer verkauft haben.

Abschließend möchte ich Judge Napolitano dafür danken, dass er mein gerade erschienenes Buch „War Diaries. The Russia-Ukraine War, 2022-2023“ vorgestellt und mich gebeten hat, zu erläutern, warum das Buch für Leser interessant sein könnte.

On 15 February 2022, at his joint news conference with Vladimir Putin which concluded his visit to Moscow, former German chancellor Olaf Scholz called ‘risible’ the Russian leader’s denunciation of the Kiev regime as neo-Nazi run.  How could a nation led by a Jew, Zelensky, behave in a Nazi manner, he asked with sarcasm. In saying this, Scholz discredited himself to the Russians once and for all. He also surely contributed to Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch the Special Military Operation on the 24^th by demonstrating that it was hopeless to find a diplomatic solution to the East-West confrontation since basic assumptions were too far apart.

To his credit, in the three years of warfare in and over Ukraine that followed Scholz had sufficient discipline and fear of overly antagonizing the neighbor to the East which compelled him to ignore the warlike pronouncements of his Foreign Minister from the Greens Analena Baerbock and his popular Defense Minister Pistorius. He refused to allow the shipment of Germany’s Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine lest this directly involve Germany in the war, leading to unpredictable but ominous Russian retaliation.

During his electoral campaign last fall, Scholz’s successor, Christian Democrat leader Friedrich Merz chose instead to light the fires of German revanchism to bolster voter support. He advocated the delivery of the Taurus to Kiev. Not only that, but he precisely recommended it be used to destroy Russia’s landmark Kerch bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula with mainland Russia, thereby inflicting a humiliation of enormous proportions on the Kremlin.

In the early weeks of his chancellorship, Merz was prevented from openly handing over Taurus to the Ukrainians by his coalition partners, the Social Democrats, who insisted on abiding by Scholz’s ruling. However, we see from the Chancellor’s meeting with Zelensky yesterday for consultations on further military assistance to Ukraine, that Merz has chosen to have his way by crook if not by hook. Their joint declaration speaks of technical cooperation enabling Kiev to manufacture precision long range missiles for the purpose of striking military bases deep inside the Russian Federation.

The formula advanced by Merz and Zelensky leaves it unclear exactly where the future production facility would be situated, but it is a safe guess to say that it would be inside Germany, because anything built within Ukraine would surely be destroyed by Russia’s Oreshniks before it produced the very first products. Merz is gambling on the notion that Russia will not dare strike Germany due to its protection under Article 5 of the NATO treaty.

In doing this, Merz is willfully ignoring the unmistakable remarks of Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Germany’s participation in sending Taurus missiles against the Russian Federation makes it a co-belligerent and that Russian retaliation against Germany will follow.

Friedrich Merz is now publicly identified by the Kremlin as a Hitler-like figure. No ifs, ands or buts.  He is viewed as the embodiment of German revanchism which will be smashed just as the Nazi armies were smashed 80 years ago. The German nation has been forewarned. We now wait to see how it will respond.

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2025

Occasionally over the past six months I have directed attention to articles in the very mainstream Financial Times dealing with the Russian economy that described fairly accurately the generalized rising prosperity in the country today notwithstanding the expenses of the war effort and an unprecedented volume of Western sanctions intended to degrade that economy. As I remarked, such reportage runs directly counter to the Russia-bashing line that the FT editors tend to impose on all coverage of Russia.

This weekend the level of truthfulness in FT reporting on the dire military, financial, economic and other circumstances of Ukraine reached a level on a par with what Alternative Media, including this newsletter have been saying for a couple of years.

See the report of Christopher Miller based in Kiev, ‘Expect no miracle’: Ukraine braces for Russia’s summer offensive.   

Miller has interviewed Ukrainian soldiers, who say openly how effective are Russia’s latest tactics of sending in infantry on motorcycles, even on electric scooters to catch the Ukrainian defenders of hamlets and settlements by surprise and seize territory. This, by the way, is precisely what Russian state television news is showing day by day.

But that is not all. Miller tells us: “Aiding the infantry is Russia’s heavy and high-tech weapons blasting its way through, with glide bombs, missiles and drones – including new models connected via fibre-optic cables that make them immune to electronic jamming. Defenders have been forced to pull back from towns including Toretsk and Chasiv Yar, where the cost of holding ground proved too high.”   All of this is very true, and it is all being said on Russian television.

He may based in Kiev, but it seems to me that Miller has his television properly tuned to where real as opposed to fake news is coming from.

Miller also speaks about the manpower shortages that leave the Ukrainian command with a losing hand:

“At a Kremlin meeting on economic development this month, Putin claimed that up to 60,000 Russians ‘volunteer’ to join the army each month – double the roughly 30,000 Ukrainians he said were being conscripted.”

Though Miller does not say it, he is taking those facts straight from Russian state news.

Finally, to the same point, in this article Miller alludes to a very damaging assessment of the overall Ukrainian situation delivered to an audience in London last week by Valery Zaluzhny, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United Kingdom, former four star general and commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces (to February 2024).  This speech was the source of the title that the FT assigned to his article: not to expect ‘some kind of miracle…that will bring peace to Ukraine.’ Specifically, Zaluzhny said: “With an enormous shortage of human resources and the catastrophic economic situation we’re facing”…etc, etc.

Once again, Miller was right in line with what Russian state television was reporting this past weekend. Director of Russian television news Dimitry Kiselyov called attention to the Zaluzhny speech in London as an indication that the political elites of the Ukraine are now challenging the narrative coming from Team Zelensky, indicating that the regime is cracking.

So far, so good.  I close my examination of this FT article by noting that in one important respect it is more truthful about the situation on the battlefield than what you will hear or read in the Alternative Media videos of some of my peers, who are still predicting Ukrainian collapse and capitulation next week.  After explaining how the Russians are outgunning, out manning the Ukrainians, he cites a Vienna-based military analyst, Franz-Stefan Gady: “We can expect gradual Russian advances but no imminent collapses, no collapse of the front line.” That corresponds to the generally cautious assessments you will hear on Russian state television.

All of the foregoing bears out my repeated justification for watching Russian state television news and relaying to the Community what they are saying.  Now even the FT has become a follower.

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Everything in moderation.  I do not want to suggest that all of Western mainstream has become transparent and truthful about the war all of the time. Western coverage of the Russian drone and missile attacks on Kiev and other Ukrainian cities the past few days is printing text written in Kiev, without any sideways glance at the Russian accounts.  We hear and read that Russia has been striking apartment buildings and other civilian targets, that it is clearly out to destroy the chances for continuing peace talks, blah blah and blah blah.  This is the propaganda line that Trump’s domestic and European opponents have been disseminating. To counter it, Trump issued his now very widely cited criticism of Putin as having gone ‘crazy, though to the disappointment of Neocons, Trump has not indicated any intention of sanctioning the Russians over this.  Indeed, mainstream media rightly understand that Trump’s feet are still  pointed in the direction of withdrawing the United States from the war.

Russian state television has been showing videos of precisely what they were attacking these past two days – factories producing drones, an airport from which a Ukrainian F-16 took off and fired Storm Shadow missiles at Russia, a container ship in the port of Odessa which was carrying war materiel. They also explained that these were ‘revenge attacks’ for the past week of massive Ukrainian drone attacks inside the Russian Federation and particularly concentrated on Moscow.

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Now I wish to comment briefly on a development in the war that has received almost no attention in Western mainstream though it has been picked up especially by Indian newscasters, namely the drone attack on the helicopter carrying Vladimir Putin on his visit two days ago to Kursk oblast, a region of the Russian Federation bordering on Ukraine which was partially occupied by the Ukrainians from August 2024 until its full liberation several weeks ago.

The Russians have said very little about this because the swarm attack of drones indicates a breach of security whereby Ukrainian intelligence knew when and where Putin would be traveling within the range of Ukrainian offensive weapons. One other explanation that is still more alarming is that American or European aerial or spatial reconnaissance information may have enabled the Ukrainian assassination attempt on Putin.

We do not know for a fact whether Putin was actually on the helicopter that was being targeted, but from Russian news there is reason to believe that he was, and that the incident did not lead to disaster only because Russian air defenses were sufficiently effective to down all of the attacking drones.

It is an open question what kind of revenge attack Moscow will now implement.  Will they see this as justifying the ‘neutralization’ of Zelensky for which so many Russian patriots are impatient? There is no doubt that his elimination by missile attack on Kiev is doable by the Kremlin at any time of its choosing.

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I close this overview of current Russia-Ukraine affairs by turning to Russian commentary on what German Chancellor Merz was hinting at in his latest statements about offensive weapons that Europe is supplying to Kiev. Two days ago, Merz said that there no longer is any limit on the range of missiles being supplied to the Ukrainians and that they must be able to strike military targets deep inside the Russian Federation.  Rightly or wrongly, Russian state television including Sixty Minutes and Evening with Vladimir Solovyov last night took this to mean that Merz is once again determined to ship the 500-km range German cruise missile Taurus to Ukraine with intent to knock out the Kerch (Crimean) bridge, for which it is very capable, more so than the French and British long range Storm Shadows supplied to Ukraine till now.

Russian commentators, who surely had the backing of the Kremlin in this instance, stated that supplying the Taurus to Ukraine will be viewed by Moscow as bringing Germany directly into the war and will require a suitable response.  The suitable response will be the launch of Russia’s unstoppable hypersonic Oreshnik missiles to strike one or another target inside Germany.  One panelist said that two Oreshniks should be sufficient to completely destroy the factory in Germany that has been producing Taurus (NB – there is presently no production of Taurus at that site).  Such destruction would take the Germans five years to recover from, putting paid to Merz’s plans of making his country the most powerful militarily in Europe. The speaker went on to say that before this attack, Russia should state its case justifying such a response to Germany directly joining the war. This justification would be read out in the United Nations Security Council.  Another panelist said the Oreshniks should be directed against Berlin without further details.

Allow me to note, that this entire discussion of Merz and his Taurus missiles was discussed in utter seriousness and in a visibly depressed mood. Readers of my War Diaries, Volume I will observe how there have been frequent flip flops in the mood of the hosts and panelists of the main Russian talk shows from confident expectation of victory to anxiety that the end of the world is approaching.   The mood on Russian television last night fell into the latter category.

Postscript, 28 May: ‘The Financial Times’ today has published another of its in-depth and very positive appraisals of the Russian economy. This is by its own staff and is based largely on their close scrutiny of help wanted announcements to determine how the salaries offered in starting positions have evolved over the past year. See “Vladimir Putin’s war economy is cooling, but Russians still feel richer”

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2025

Translation below into German (Andreas Mylaeus)

Die Mainstream-Medien holen bei der Berichterstattung über die dramatische Lage in der Ukraine gegenüber den alternativen Medien auf

In den letzten sechs Monaten habe ich gelegentlich auf Artikel in der sehr etablierten Financial Times hingewiesen, die sich mit der russischen Wirtschaft befassten und recht genau den allgemeinen Wohlstandsanstieg im Land beschrieben, trotz der Kosten für den Krieg und der beispiellosen westlichen Sanktionen, die darauf abzielen, die Wirtschaft zu schwächen. Wie ich bereits angemerkt habe, stehen solche Berichte in direktem Widerspruch zu der russlandfeindlichen Linie, die die FT-Redaktion sonst in ihrer gesamten Berichterstattung über Russland verfolgt.

An diesem Wochenende erreichte die Wahrhaftigkeit der FT-Berichterstattung über die katastrophale militärische, finanzielle, wirtschaftliche und sonstige Lage der Ukraine ein Niveau, das dem entspricht, was alternative Medien, darunter auch dieser Newsletter, seit einigen Jahren sagen.

Siehe den Bericht von Christopher Miller aus Kiew: „Erwartet kein Wunder“: Die Ukraine bereitet sich auf die Sommeroffensive Russlands vor.

Miller hat ukrainische Soldaten interviewt, die offen berichten, wie effektiv Russlands neueste Taktik ist, Infanteristen auf Motorrädern und sogar auf Elektrorollern einzusetzen, um die ukrainischen Verteidiger von Weilern und Siedlungen zu überraschen und Gebiete zu erobern. Das ist übrigens genau das, was die russischen Staatsfernsehsender Tag für Tag zeigen.

Aber das ist noch nicht alles. Miller berichtet: „Die Infanterie wird von russischen schweren und hochtechnologischen Waffen unterstützt, die sich mit Gleitbomben, Raketen und Drohnen den Weg bahnen – darunter neue Modelle, die über Glasfaserkabel verbunden und somit immun gegen elektronische Störsignale sind. Die Verteidiger waren gezwungen, sich aus Städten wie Toretsk und Chasiv Yar zurückzuziehen, wo die Kosten für die Verteidigung zu hoch waren.“ All das ist absolut wahr, und all das wird im russischen Fernsehen gesagt.

Miller mag zwar in Kiew ansässig sein, aber mir scheint, dass er seinen Fernseher richtig eingestellt hat, um echte Nachrichten zu empfangen und nicht Fake News.

Miller spricht auch über den Personalmangel, der das ukrainische Kommando in eine aussichtslose Lage bringt:

„Bei einem Treffen des Kremls zur wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung in diesem Monat behauptete Putin, dass sich jeden Monat bis zu 60.000 Russen ‚freiwillig‘ zur Armee melden – doppelt so viele wie die etwa 30.000 Ukrainer, die seiner Aussage zufolge eingezogen werden.“

Miller sagt es zwar nicht, aber er übernimmt diese Fakten direkt aus den russischen Staatsmedien.

Schließlich verweist Miller in diesem Artikel auf eine sehr vernichtende Einschätzung der allgemeinen Lage in der Ukraine, die Valery Zaluzhny, der ukrainische Botschafter im Vereinigten Königreich, ehemaliger Vier-Sterne-General und Oberbefehlshaber der ukrainischen Streitkräfte (bis Februar 2024), letzte Woche vor einem Publikum in London abgegeben hat. Diese Rede war die Quelle für den Titel, den die FT ihrem Artikel gab: „Keine ‚Wunder‘ erwarten, die Frieden in die Ukraine bringen werden“. Konkret sagte Zaluzhny: „Angesichts des enormen Mangels an Humanressourcen und der katastrophalen wirtschaftlichen Lage, in der wir uns befinden“ … usw. usw.

Wieder einmal lag Miller genau auf einer Linie mit den Berichten des russischen Staatsfernsehens vom vergangenen Wochenende. Der Direktor der russischen Fernsehnachrichten, Dimitri Kiseljow, wies auf die Rede von Zaluzhny in London als Zeichen dafür hin, dass die politischen Eliten der Ukraine nun die Narrative des Teams Selensky in Frage stellen, was darauf hindeute, dass das Regime bröckele.

So weit, so gut. Ich schließe meine Untersuchung dieses FT-Artikels mit der Feststellung, dass er in einem wichtigen Punkt wahrheitsgetreuer über die Lage an der Front berichtet als das, was Sie in den Videos einiger meiner Kollegen in den alternativen Medien hören oder lesen können, die immer noch den Zusammenbruch und die Kapitulation der Ukraine in der nächsten Woche prophezeien. Nachdem er erklärt hat, dass die Russen den Ukrainern an Waffen und Soldaten überlegen sind, zitiert er den in Wien ansässigen Militäranalysten Franz-Stefan Gady: „Wir können mit einem allmählichen Vormarsch der Russen rechnen, aber nicht mit einem baldigen Zusammenbruch oder einem Zusammenbruch der Frontlinie.“ Das entspricht den allgemein vorsichtigen Einschätzungen, die man im russischen Staatsfernsehen hört.

All das bestätigt meine wiederholte Begründung, warum ich die Nachrichten im russischen Staatsfernsehen verfolge und der Community weitergebe, was dort gesagt wird. Jetzt ist sogar die FT auf den Zug aufgesprungen.

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Alles in Maßen. Ich möchte nicht behaupten, dass der gesamte westliche Mainstream in Bezug auf den Krieg jederzeit transparent und wahrheitsgemäß ist. Die westliche Berichterstattung über die russischen Drohnen- und Raketenangriffe auf Kiew und andere ukrainische Städte in den letzten Tagen druckt Texte, die in Kiew geschrieben wurden, ohne auch nur einen Seitenblick auf die russischen Darstellungen zu werfen. Wir hören und lesen, dass Russland Wohnhäuser und andere zivile Ziele angreife, dass es eindeutig darauf aus sei, die Chancen für eine Fortsetzung der Friedensgespräche zu zerstören, bla bla bla. Das ist die Propagandalinie, die Trumps innenpolitische und europäische Gegner verbreiten. Um dem entgegenzuwirken, hat Trump seine mittlerweile viel zitierte Kritik an Putin veröffentlicht, der „verrückt geworden“ sei. Zur Enttäuschung der Neocons hat Trump jedoch keine Absicht signalisiert, Russland deswegen mit Sanktionen zu belegen. Die Mainstream-Medien haben richtig erkannt, dass Trump weiterhin darauf hinarbeitet, die USA aus dem Krieg zurückzuziehen.

Das russische Staatsfernsehen hat Videos gezeigt, die genau das zeigen, was sie in den letzten zwei Tagen angegriffen haben – Fabriken, in denen Drohnen hergestellt werden, einen Flughafen, von dem aus eine ukrainische F-16 gestartet ist und Storm-Shadow-Raketen auf Russland abgefeuert hat, ein Containerschiff im Hafen von Odessa, das Kriegsmaterial transportierte. Sie erklärten auch, dass es sich dabei um „Racheangriffe“ für die massiven Drohnenangriffe der Ukraine in der vergangenen Woche innerhalb der Russischen Föderation handele, die sich insbesondere auf Moskau konzentriert hätten.

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Nun möchte ich kurz auf eine Entwicklung im Krieg eingehen, die in den westlichen Mainstream-Medien fast keine Beachtung gefunden hat, obwohl sie insbesondere von indischen Nachrichtensendern aufgegriffen wurde, nämlich den Drohnenangriff auf den Hubschrauber, der Wladimir Putin vor zwei Tagen bei seinem Besuch in der Region Kursk beförderte, einer Region der Russischen Föderation an der Grenze zur Ukraine, die von August 2024 bis zu ihrer vollständigen Befreiung vor einigen Wochen teilweise von den Ukrainern besetzt war.

Die Russen haben sich dazu kaum geäußert, da der Schwarmangriff der Drohnen auf eine Sicherheitslücke hindeutet, durch die der ukrainische Geheimdienst wusste, wann und wo Putin sich in Reichweite ukrainischer Offensivwaffen bewegen würde. Eine andere, noch alarmierendere Erklärung ist, dass amerikanische oder europäische Luft- oder Weltraumaufklärungsinformationen den ukrainischen Attentatsversuch auf Putin ermöglicht haben könnten.

Wir wissen nicht mit Sicherheit, ob Putin tatsächlich in dem angegriffenen Hubschrauber saß, aber russische Medienberichte lassen vermuten, dass dies der Fall war und dass der Vorfall nur deshalb nicht zu einer Katastrophe führte, weil die russische Luftabwehr alle angreifenden Drohnen abschießen konnte.

Es ist offen, welche Art von Vergeltungsschlag Moskau nun durchführen wird. Wird man dies als Rechtfertigung für die „Neutralisierung“ von Selensky ansehen, auf die so viele russische Patrioten ungeduldig warten? Es besteht kein Zweifel, dass seine Eliminierung durch einen Raketenangriff auf Kiew für den Kreml jederzeit möglich ist.

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Ich schließe diesen Überblick über die aktuellen Ereignisse zwischen Russland und der Ukraine mit einem Blick auf russische Kommentare zu den Äußerungen des deutschen Bundeskanzlers Merz in seinen jüngsten Erklärungen zu den von Europa an Kiew gelieferten Offensivwaffen. Vor zwei Tagen sagte Merz, dass es keine Begrenzung mehr für die Reichweite der an die Ukrainer gelieferten Raketen gebe und dass diese in der Lage sein müssten, militärische Ziele tief im Inneren der Russischen Föderation zu treffen. Zu Recht oder zu Unrecht interpretierten russische Staatsfernsehsender, darunter „Sechzig Minuten“ und „Abend mit Vladimir Solovyov“ gestern Abend, dies so, dass Merz erneut entschlossen sei, die deutschen Marschflugkörper Taurus mit einer Reichweite von 500 km an die Ukraine zu liefern, um die Kertsch-Brücke (Krim) zu zerstören, wozu sie besser geeignet sind als die französischen und britischen Langstreckenraketen Storm Shadows, die bisher an die Ukraine geliefert wurden.

Russische Kommentatoren, die in diesem Fall sicherlich die Unterstützung des Kremls hatten, erklärten, dass die Lieferung des Taurus an die Ukraine von Moskau als direkte Einmischung Deutschlands in den Krieg angesehen werde und eine angemessene Reaktion erfordern werde. Die angemessene Reaktion werde der Start von Russlands unaufhaltsamen Hyperschallraketen vom Typ Oreshnik sein, um das eine oder andere Ziel in Deutschland zu treffen. Ein Diskussionsteilnehmer sagte, dass zwei Oreshniks ausreichen würden, um das Werk in Deutschland, in dem Taurus hergestellt wird, vollständig zu zerstören (Anmerkung: Derzeit findet an diesem Standort keine Produktion von Taurus statt). Von einer solchen Zerstörung würden sich die Deutschen fünf Jahre lang erholen müssen, was Merz’ Pläne, sein Land zum militärisch mächtigsten in Europa zu machen, zunichte machen würde. Der Redner fuhr fort, dass Russland vor diesem Angriff seine Gründe für eine solche Reaktion auf den direkten Kriegseintritt Deutschlands darlegen sollte. Diese Begründung würde im Sicherheitsrat der Vereinten Nationen verlesen werden. Ein anderer Diskussionsteilnehmer sagte, die Oreshniks sollten ohne weiteres gegen Berlin gerichtet werden.

Ich möchte anmerken, dass diese gesamte Diskussion über Merz und seine Taurus-Raketen in aller Ernsthaftigkeit und in einer sichtlich gedrückten Stimmung geführt wurde. Leser meines War Diaries, Band I werden feststellen, dass die Stimmung der Moderatoren und Diskussionsteilnehmer der wichtigsten russischen Talkshows häufig schwankt, von zuversichtiger Erwartung des Sieges bis hin zur Angst, dass das Ende der Welt naht. Die Stimmung im russischen Fernsehen gestern Abend fiel in die letztere Kategorie.

WION (India): Trump, Putin Bonhomie in Tatters

It was a pleasure and an honor to return to WION news commentary programming yesterday to discuss the latest developments in U.S.-Russian relations over resolving the Ukraine war.  WION is India’s largest global broadcaster in English with nearly 10 million subscribers.

As the headline attached to this video quoted above suggests, the starting point for our chat was Donald Trump’s latest remarks to reporters that he was outraged over new massive Russian drone and missile attacks on Kiev and other cities which violate the notion of continuing peace talks. Trump called Putin ‘absolutely crazy’ and said he could not understand what had gotten into the Russian leader.

Let us not mince words. I think I said clearly in my live commentary that Trump’s words were empty rhetoric. They were intended to shut up his domestic and foreign critics who demanded some strong response from the USA, hoping for an end to Trump’s peace efforts and full resumption of the war against Russia, both economic and kinetic, with redoubled American participation. That will not happen.

I also make reference in this video to the Russian warnings in advance of their latest missile and drone strikes that there would be revenge attacks for the unprecedented high level of Ukrainian drones being sent against their own cities, in particular against Moscow these past few days. To be sure, the Russians claim to have destroyed the thousand or more Ukrainian drones sent their way, but falling debris did cause injury and death to some civilians.

 I mention as well in the video the drone attack on President Putin’s helicopter during his visit to the Kursk region that was liberated several weeks ago from a Ukrainian occupation that began in August 2024.  Kiev’s murderous intentions against the Russian President will yet receive a suitable retaliation whatever Donald Trump and others in the West may say.  I will discuss this in greater detail in a separate essay later today.

Finally, I mention in the video the new direction in Western mainstream reporting on the war that now finally acknowledges the dire situation of Ukraine, militarily, financially, economically.  This issue, too, will figure in the essay to come.

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2025

Translation below into German (Andreas Mylaeus)

WION (Indien): Trump und Putin – die Freundschaft liegt in Trümmern

Es war mir eine Freude und Ehre, gestern wieder in der Nachrichtensendung von WION zu Gast zu sein, um über die neuesten Entwicklungen in den Beziehungen zwischen den USA und Russland im Hinblick auf die Beilegung des Ukraine-Konflikts zu sprechen. WION ist mit fast 10 Millionen Abonnenten der größte englischsprachige globale Sender Indiens.

Wie die Überschrift zu diesem Video oben andeutet, war der Ausgangspunkt für unser Gespräch Donald Trumps jüngste Äußerungen gegenüber Reportern, er sei empört über die neuen massiven russischen Drohnen- und Raketenangriffe auf Kiew und andere Städte, die gegen die Fortsetzung der Friedensgespräche verstießen. Trump bezeichnete Putin als „absolut verrückt“ und sagte, er könne nicht verstehen, was in den russischen Präsidenten gefahren sei.

Lassen Sie uns kein Blatt vor den Mund nehmen. Ich glaube, ich habe in meinem Live-Kommentar deutlich gesagt, dass Trumps Worte leere Rhetorik waren. Sie sollten seine Kritiker im In- und Ausland zum Schweigen bringen, die eine harte Reaktion der USA forderten und auf ein Ende von Trumps Friedensbemühungen und die vollständige Wiederaufnahme des Krieges gegen Russland hofften, sowohl in wirtschaftlicher als auch in militärischer Hinsicht, mit verstärkter Beteiligung der USA. Das wird nicht passieren.

Ich beziehe mich in diesem Video auch auf die Warnungen Russlands vor seinen jüngsten Raketen- und Drohnenangriffen, dass es Vergeltungsschläge für den beispiellos hohen Einsatz ukrainischer Drohnen gegen ihre eigenen Städte, insbesondere gegen Moskau in den letzten Tagen, geben werde. Zwar behaupten die Russen, die mehr als tausend ukrainischen Drohnen, die auf sie abgefeuert wurden, zerstört zu haben, doch verursachten herabfallende Trümmerteile Verletzungen und Todesfälle unter der Zivilbevölkerung.

Ich erwähne in dem Video auch den Drohnenangriff auf den Hubschrauber von Präsident Putin während seines Besuchs in der Region Kursk, die vor einigen Wochen von der ukrainischen Besatzung befreit wurde, die im August 2024 begonnen hatte. Die mörderischen Absichten Kiews gegenüber dem russischen Präsidenten werden noch eine angemessene Vergeltung erfahren, was auch immer Donald Trump und andere im Westen sagen mögen. Ich werde darauf später heute in einem separaten Essay näher eingehen.

Schließlich erwähne ich in dem Video die neue Richtung in der westlichen Mainstream-Berichterstattung über den Krieg, die nun endlich die desolate Lage der Ukraine in militärischer, finanzieller und wirtschaftlicher Hinsicht anerkennt. Auch dieses Thema wird in dem kommenden Essay behandelt werden.