On Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump emissaries Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with the Ukraine negotiating team in Florida to further discuss acceptable terms for a broader ceasefire and end to the war.

Still trying to recover from corruption charges against his senior presidential team, Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not at the talks. Instead, the Ukraine delegation was led by State Security Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, while Zelenskyy went to Paris for an emotional support session with Emmanuel Macron.

Secretary Rubio and Secretary Umerov spoke before and after their 5-hour negotiation session.  Secretary Rubio emphasized the main topic as securing the long-term future of Ukraine both from a security position and from an economic prosperity position.

This state security aspect comes as the Ukraine delegation is facing pressure to accept, they will lose most -if not all- of the Donbas region to Russia. “The end goal is obviously not just the end of the war. Obviously, that’s central and fundamental,” Rubio said. “It’s also about securing an end to the war that leaves Ukraine sovereign and independent and with an opportunity at real prosperity.”

In better-than-expected news, the EU is now saying they will not comply with any removal of sanctions against Russia.  If the U.S-Russia and Ukraine work out a negotiated settlement that permits legal or economic relief for Vladimir Putin, the European Union will not agree and will instead make up their own decision on the issues.

Europe is holding this position as a threat, because President Trump is not fully consulting with them on all the granular details.  However, this is the type of threat that is exactly beneficial to what appears to be the long-term strategy of Trump.

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On the sidelines of a trade and economic discussion with the govt of Kyrgyzstan and the CSTO summit, Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin took questions from media about the Ukraine -vs- Russia conflict.

Now, due to the significance of his remarks, and keeping in mind these responses are in the Russian language, it becomes important for WESTERN READERS to evaluate the translation.  Vladimir Putin speaks in direct terms that are often not understood in western translation, the nuance within the translation is important.

That said, I am going through the remarks; I will share the video and ongoing translation while extrapolating against the known backdrop of communication as shared by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Emissary Steve Witkoff and ultimately, President Donald Trump.

It appears that Russian President Putin is expecting the arrival of a U.S. delegation to Moscow, likely Witkoff, Saturday, Sunday or Monday (early next week).  This aligns with the prior statements of President Trump during remarks aboard Air Force One.

In general, and in the specifically official nuance that Russian President Vladimir Putin is known for, Putin affirmed that Steve Witkoff and Yury Ushakov are key “informal” negotiators. Each emissary from each leader allowed space for plain language discussions.  Witkoff represents the voice of Donald Trump, and Ushakov representing the voice of Vladimir Putin.

Witkoff and Ushakov can meet and discuss the reality of things without concern for the noise of diplomatic stakeholders. Both men are closely trusted advisors of their principals, Trump and Putin.  When the elements of their discussions need to transfer to formal contexts, Witkoff/Trump bring aboard Secretary Rubio while Ushakov/Putin bring in Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.  The official teams transfer the common language objective into diplomatic details.

As to the status of the current conflict from the Russian perspective.  Vladimir Putin was brutally honest and pragmatic in his remarks.

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President Donald Trump gave U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, all the tools and leverage needed to bring the Swiss govt to a substantive trade agreement.  The pressure was too much to bear, so Switzerland quickly negotiated a deal.

In the background President Trump’s global trade reset has been seriously damaging for the Swiss industrial economy.  The EU overall, Germany specifically and China, have stopped purchasing precision Swiss industrial machinery.

It’s not the direct tariffs against Swiss precision machinery itself that created the pressure, but rather the tariffs against nations who purchased the Swiss precision machinery.

China was a big purchaser of the Swiss machinery, until Beijing stole enough intellectual property to develop their own precision machining capacity.  Slowly China didn’t need Switzerland.

Germany and the EU economy then began to contract as the Trump tariffs bit hard against their exports to the USA.

Simultaneously, Chinese EV production started replacing more expensive European EV production, and the tooling purchases within the auto industry began contracting within Switzerland.

As things unfolded, the forecast for the future of the Swiss economy started to become very clear; their precision industrial exports were going to continue contracting.  Something needed to change, and fast.

Ambassador Jamieson Greer announces a major free trade agreement with Switzerland {SEE HERE} and the White House provides a fact sheet {SEE HERE}. A joint statement is then released:

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International politics can be boring at times, but the one constant in an ever-changing universe is the hubris of the European Union.

With President Trump outlining the breakthrough negotiations for a peace agreement in Gaza, Emmanuel Macron (France), Keir Starmer (U.K) and Friedrich Merz (Germany) call an urgent meeting of EU Foreign Ministers to organize their strategy to take over the Gaza “Board of Peace.”

EUROPE – Now that Donald Trump’s peace deal has the green light, European powers want a seat at the table.

As the news broke that Israel and Hamas had agreed the first phase of a ceasefire plan, French President Emmanuel Macron sent a rapid call out to other European allies and Arab nations to meet in Paris.

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul both broke away from a U.K.-hosted summit on the Western Balkans to meet fellow ministers in France.

[…] The trio of countries known as the “E3” is likely to argue for a representative on the “Board of Peace,” the body that will oversee the transitional governance of Gaza by a Palestinian committee. (read more)

At a topline review the demands of the EU are pure hubris.  However, when you review the underlying background of the EU state actors, the events are more appropriately considered pathetic.

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The heart of the European industrial economy is Germany, and there’s major trouble afoot within the largest industrial sector within Germany.

Following the “Build Back Better” agenda, the EU went all in for green energy proposals.  EU banking and finance followed suit, funding investment capital for electric vehicles (EVs) to replace combustion engines.  Unfortunately, this put the EU, specifically Germany, in the position of competing against the largest EV industrial base in the world, China.

The second major flaw was capital only flowing to the EV sector, and Europeans -along with the majority of the industrial west- are just not buying EVs at a production capacity to match prior investment.

Put it all together and Germany is trying to compete with China to produce a product their consumer base doesn’t want.

GERMANY – ZF Friedrichshafen’s announcement that it is cutting 7,600 positions adds to the German supplier industry’s troubles as parts makers struggle to manage the shift to EVs, along with falling demand for combustion engine components and increased competition from Chinese suppliers.

Including job losses at Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche, the German auto industry is expected to eliminate nearly 100,000 jobs by 2030, according to an analysis by Bloomberg.

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In a brutally honest Truth Social post today, President Trump calls out the EU/NATO nations to stop buying Russian energy products if they want him to lead the imposition of stronger sanctions against Russia.

The “coalition of the willing” has been openly and privately applying public pressure upon President Trump to push stronger sanctions against Russia.  However, at the same time the EU/NATO are making these demands, they are also purchasing Russian energy products as delivered through third parties.

So today, President Trump posts this:

[SOURCE]

A non-diplomatic way of saying, ‘put up or shut up.’

Those of you who understand business terms can well understand “making the monkey jump.”  President Trump is not taking their monkey.

This is a direct response to the public statements being made by EU/NATO leadership, who are -by design- trying to put the responsibility onto President Trump, and defer all their own culpability in the process.

This is similar to the approach President Trump took in 2018 when he very publicly called out German Chancellor Angela Merkel for continuing the Nordstream II Pipeline deal with Russia while simultaneously expecting President Trump to fortify NATO against Russia.

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Two significant shifts for Canadians appear to come out of the recent tour of Europe as highlighted today by Prime Minister Mark Carney.

The first development is the formal declaration that Canada has joined the “coalition of the willing”, along with the U.K, France and Germany.  The second announcement is that Canadian troops will join the coalition of the willing and put boots on the ground in Ukraine, as part of the coalition’s security guarantees for Ukraine.  WATCH: Prompted

Additionally, at the 33:00-minute point, Mark Carney discusses the Canadian effort to prepare for the USMCA renegotiations.

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Like pathetic children who demand that Daddy Trump step into the chaos and punch Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin in the face, the EU leaders admit to media they coordinated and collaborated on using social media to decry the latest missile attacks from Russia.

According to their staff, who reported to Politico, the intent of the EU social media firestorm was to influence President Donald Trump.  Think about how pathetic that is in substance.

The Presidents, Prime Ministers and Commissars of the EU collective couldn’t pick up the phone to call President Trump and discuss their position.  No, instead their best approach, as organized by the group, was to take to social media and protest.

These are not serious people.

“A second European official confirmed that the morning messages were an effort to influence Trump’s thinking, although the person was not optimistic that the attacks would lead Trump to ratchet up the economic pressure on Putin.”  {link} The discussion of conflict that began as ‘World War Reddit’, has now devolved even further and becomes a messaging war on teh Twitter.  Yeah, these are not serious people.

I am reminded of how the White House initially responded to the beginning of the conflict in February 2022:

I said at the time, “Singh’s remarks outlining the view of the ‘West’ toward defeating Russia are eloquent yet batshit crazy in their ideological context. Daleep Singh sounds like the senior head of a Google Human Resources operation telling the department heads how they need to convey their feelings in order to hire the talent for continued growth in the industry.”

Deputy National Security Advisor Daleep Singh boils down geopolitical power to a cultural issue of social likeability. Pro Tip: Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t care if EU leaders like him.

The leadership of the Western NATO alliance and the European Union are reduced to shouting on Twitter, ‘Help us Trump, help us’.  Meanwhile, these same leaders wonder why Vladimir Putin doesn’t take them seriously. You just cannot make this stuff up.

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History rhyming is likely just a coincidence. Then again, if it were a coincidence, it wouldn’t be so predictable would it.

Simultaneous with the German economy contracting and Chancellor Fredrich Merz saying the expansive entitlement programs are no longer sustainable, as if on cue the German Bundestag is now promoting conscription to make their military much bigger.

The compulsory military service plan is being decided amid two options. Option #1 is compulsory service reinstated only if the Bundestag vote for it.  Option #2 is mandated military service becomes automatically law if voluntary conscription targets are missed.

This new military service requirement is coming on the heels of Germany pledging to lead the coalition of the willing on NATO spending.  Remember, CIA operations in Ukraine are based out of Germany.

GERMANY – […] Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Cabinet on Wednesday approved a sweeping reform of military service, requiring 18-year-old men to register in a new selection system while keeping actual service voluntary.

Those who choose to sign up — typically for a half-year stint, with the option to extend up to 23 months — will be offered more generous pay and training options.

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CTH noted several months ago, end the Marshall Plan for Europe and things will change quickly.

Germany is in a tight economic place as a result of: (1) former leftist Chancellor Olaf Scholz alignment with climate change policy, radically changing the German energy base and driving up costs; (2) the financial support for Ukraine; (3) the financial burden of mass African/ME migration, and (4) the new Trump-era EU tariffs that effectively end the Marshall Plan.

Put all four elements together and the German economic contraction is only forecast to worsen. This is the reality that current German Chanceller Fredrich Merz is facing. Thus, as a non-pretending former businessman, Merz recently told his party and the German electorate that current financial conditions no longer support the expansive entitlement state.

Pensions, benefits and even healthcare are potentially going to be impacted. Germans are not happy.

GERMANY – The German welfare state is no longer financially sustainable, Friedrich Merz said on Saturday. The chancellor argued for a fundamental reassessment of the benefits system as spending continues to soar past last year’s record of €47bn (£40bn).

In a state-level party conference meeting on Saturday, Mr Merz said: “The welfare state as we have it today can no longer be financed with what we can economically afford.”

Once the export champion of Europe, Germany’s economy has slowed dramatically since 2017, with GDP growing by only 1.6 per cent since then versus 9.5 per cent for the rest of the eurozone.

Germany’s economy shrank by 0.2 per cent last year following a 0.3 per cent dip in 2023 – the first time since the early 2000s the economy has retreated two years in a row.

Industrial production fell under the Left-leaning “traffic light” coalition of Olaf Scholz and continues to slide under the new government, with GDP declining by 0.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2025.

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