Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov appears on CBS Face the Nation to discuss the position of the Russian Federation toward the ‘ceasefire’ in Ukraine.  The interview took place on Thursday April 24th and was broadcast today.

This interview also takes place one day before President Trump Special Envoy Steve Witkoff flew to Moscow for his fourth meeting with Putin to discuss the settlement of the war in Ukraine. According to the Kremlin, the conversation between Witkoff and President Putin lasted about three hours.

Following the last meeting between President Putin and Ambassador Witkoff, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated President Putin is willing to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy without any preconditions. According to Peskov, the statement was made at a meeting with Trump’s special representative, Steve Witkoff. “Putin at the meeting with Witkoff confirmed Russia’s readiness for negotiations with Kyiv without any preconditions” according to the Kremlin.

In this interview, Sergey Lavrov dismisses the narrative building, maintains respect for the integrity of private negotiations, and outlines an optimistic view the terms of a ceasefire can be agreed between President Trump and President Putin.  It is the CIA and their operative Volodymyr Zelenskyy that represent the challenge that might cause President Trump and Marco Rubio to walk away.  WATCH: 

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov. Good morning, Minister Lavrov, I want to ask you about what happened in Kyiv. There was a large Russian attack on that capital city about one o’clock in the morning. President Trump has said publicly, the Russian strikes are not necessary and very bad timing. “Vladimir, STOP!” was his quote. What made it worth killing civilians when Ukraine says it’s ready for a ceasefire?

FOREIGN MINISTER SERGEY LAVROV: We only target military goals or civilian sites used by the military. President Putin expressed this for so many times, and this is not different this time as well. We never consciously target civilian sites unlike- unlike the Zelensky regime.

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“This is not our war.” ~ Secretary Rubio

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to reporters in Paris on April 18 about the prolonged peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. However, a frustrated Rubio warned that the U.S. could “move on” from its involvement in negotiations to end the war if no progress is made “within a matter of days and weeks.” That’s the mainstream media narrative.

The non-pretending summary is that Ukraine, France, Great Britain, the EU, NATO et al are all trying to retain their interests in the conflict. Russia has simple terms, but the war machinery controlled by the intel apparatus (CIA and EU) and the financial stakeholders in the EU region are unhappy. [Too many cooks] A frustrated Secretary Rubio says, make up your mind, if no deal – ¹we’re done.  WATCH:

¹Having followed this very closely, here’s what “we’re done” likely means.

President Trump ends the USA side of the proxy war. President Trump pulls back all support for Ukraine; stops sending money, weapons and to the extent he can, intelligence to Ukraine. This opens the door for Russia to go full combat as the ground thaws, without concern for USA to engage.

The EU will have to step up with funding, intelligence and war material to continue supporting Ukraine.  Rubio is calling the EU/UK bluff here because he knows without the USA the EU/UK will not commit to fight Russia.

Remember if no one does anything, Russia has already gained the ground they want and will just continue grinding western Ukraine to ever expanding rubble.  Factually, doing nothing is a big win for Russia, especially if Trump withdraws.

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The State Dept. Global Engagement Center was the epicenter of the Dept of State operation to control speech on social media platforms.  Following revelations from within the Twitter Files, and facing increasing scrutiny, the GEC operation was shut down – but the remnants of the operation remained active within the State Dept.

The terms “disinformation, misinformation and malinformation” were weaponized by the State Dept to define speech against their interests and block, deplatform and remove any voices, including in the U.S., they determined were against the interests of the U.S. government.  The COVID-19 and vaccine narrative were both examples of speech targeted by the GEC and later the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office (R-FIMI).

Today, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Acting Undersecretary of Public Diplomacy, Darren Beattie, delivered notice to congress the speech and platform control operation has been shut down.  Secretary Rubio sat down with Mike Benz to discuss [Transcript Here].

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Secretary Rubio continues to surprise many, me included.  It started when Rubio publicly said, the Ukraine conflict was a U.S. proxy war against Russia. “It’s been very clear from the beginning that President Trump views this as a protracted, stalemated conflict,” Rubio said. “And frankly, it’s a proxy war between nuclear powers, the United States helping Ukraine, and Russia.” [link]

Considering that Rubio previously called for NATO intervention in Ukraine, and considering that Rubio voted to limit the ability of the President to withdraw from NATO policy, the recent remarks by Secretary of State Rubio were shockingly the opposite of his prior stances.

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio is attending a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.  The timing puts Secretary Rubio in Europe just as NATO allies and European countries are reviewing the impact of the reciprocal tariffs levied against them by President Trump.

The press pool reacts to the concerns of several European and NATO member states through their questions.  Secretary Rubio eloquently cuts through the nonsense, through the narrative engineering, and deliberately – with clarity – outlines the position of the Trump administration.  Secretary Rubio is well within his element in these responses.

Rubio has really showcased a remarkable talent in support of President Trump and the diplomatic agenda of the Trump administration; remarkably so.  The era of pretending diplomacy is coming rapidly to a close and Rubio is doing very well in his position.  WATCH: 

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Despite our already outlining each of these details the New York Times is now confirming, do not overlook the geopolitical consequences that will surface as a result of their publication.

The New York Times published two articles {HERE and HERE} revealing: 1) that U.S. military boots are on the ground in Ukraine. (2) The U.S. military is actively involved in the ongoing targeting of strikes into Russia. (3) The CIA is operating in Ukraine and conducting targeted strikes into the Russian Federation mainland.

New York Times – […] [F]or nearly three years before Mr. Trump’s return to power, the United States and Ukraine were joined in an extraordinary partnership of intelligence, strategy, planning and technology whose evolution and inner workings have been known only to a small circle of American and allied officials.

[…] The idea behind the partnership was that America’s close cooperation with Ukraine would compensate for Russia’s vast advantages in manpower and weaponry. To guide the Ukrainians as they deployed their ever-more-sophisticated arsenal, the Americans created an operation called Task Force Dragon.

The secret center of the partnership was at the U.S. Army garrison in Wiesbaden, Germany. Each morning, U.S. and Ukrainian military officers set targeting priorities — Russian units, pieces of equipment or infrastructure. American and coalition intelligence officers searched satellite imagery, radio emissions and intercepted communications to find Russian positions. Task Force Dragon then gave the Ukrainians the coordinates so they could shoot at them.

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President Trump has given remarks supporting National Security Advisor Mike Waltz during an interview with NBC.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump stood by his national security adviser, Mike Waltz, after The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief was accidentally added to a private, high-level chat on the messaging app Signal where military plans were being discussed.

“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump said Tuesday in a phone interview with NBC News.

When asked what he was told about how Goldberg came to be added to the Signal chat, Trump said, “It was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his number on there.”

Trump said Goldberg’s presence in the chat had “no impact at all” on the military operation.

The president expressed confidence in his team, saying he was not frustrated by the events leading up to The Atlantic’s story. The situation, Trump said, was “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.” (more)

The rest of the DC setup is transparently clear.  (1) Goldberg held the story until the day before a long-scheduled Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. (2) The SSCI then used the hearing to blast the heads of the Trump administration intelligence silos on the issue of “classified” information in the text messages.

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The White House provides the following readout from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz following President Trump’s phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

WHITE HOUSE – “Today, President Donald J. Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a fantastic phone conversation. President Zelenskyy thanked President Trump for a productive start for the work of the Ukrainian and American teams in Jeddah on March 11th. The meeting of the senior officials from both nations significantly helped in moving toward ending the war.

President Zelenskyy thanked President Trump for the support of the United States, especially the Javelin missiles that President Trump was first to provide, and his efforts towards peace. The leaders agreed Ukraine and America will continue working together to bring about a real end to the war, and that lasting peace under President Trump’s leadership can be achieved.

President Trump fully briefed President Zelenskyy on his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the key issues discussed. They reviewed the situation in Kursk and agreed to share information closely between their defense staffs as the battlefield situation evolved. President Zelenskyy asked for additional air defense systems to protect his civilians, particularly Patriot missile systems, President Trump agreed to work with him to find what was available particularly in Europe.

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Together with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special Envoy/Ambassador Steve Witkoff, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz is one of the three key delegation members negotiating with Ukraine and Russian officials.

Steve Witkoff has spent more time in direct face-to-face meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin than any other official or diplomat in many years.  Marco Rubio is the diplomat in charge as point of contact for all foreign stakeholders, and Mike Waltz talks directly to his peers in the security services of both Russia and Ukraine.

Mike Waltz appears on Fox News to discuss current foreign policy matters including the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israeli-Hamas war and the current U.S. targeting of Houthi terrorists in Yemen.

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio appears on CBS’s Face the Nation to discuss current geopolitical events.  The first question and response surrounds President Trump’s decision to strike Houthi Rebels in Yemen.

Secretary Rubio, totally eviscerates the attempted narrative engineering. Video and Transcript Below:

[Transcript] MARGARET BRENNAN: Let’s get straight to it this morning with Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who joins us from Miami, Florida. Mr. Secretary for our audience, just to explain, this Red Sea area is a really important transit point for global shipping. The Houthis out of Yemen have been disrupting transit there for some time. President Trump cited these concerns when he announced the strikes. I’m wondering, how long will this campaign last, and will it involve ground forces?

U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE MARCO RUBIO: Well, first of all, the problem here is that this is a very important shipping lane and in the last year-and-a-half, the last 18 months, the Houthis have struck or attacked 174 naval vessels of the United States. Attacking the U.S. Navy directly 174 times, and 145 times they’ve attacked commercial shipping. So we basically have a band of pirates, you know, with guided precision anti-ship weaponry and exact- exacting a toll system in one of the most important shipping lanes in the world. That’s just not sustainable. We are not going to have these people controlling which ships can go through and which ones cannot and so your question is, how long will this go on? It will go on until they no longer have the capability to do that.

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We should keep in mind; a potential ceasefire carries with it a potential benefit for Russia in that a cessation of hostilities provides the opportunity for Ukraine to hold elections.  There is a strong sense that current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would not win if elections were held in the embattled country.

During his trip to Ireland, Secretary Rubio took multiple questions about the framework of the ‘ceasefire’ terms that Ukraine has outlined.  From the Trump/Rubio perspective, the goal is to stop the killing.  It is likely that Steve Witkoff will travel to Russia with a broad outline of the discussions so far.  From that point another conversation between President Trump and President Putin is likely.

Secretary Rubio stays focused on the primary objective, to get both sides to agree to come to the table, with an interim goal to talk about the conditions for a 30-day ceasefire.  WATCH:

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