Consider this an escalation once President Trump is briefed.  Overnight, someone, claimed by media to be Ukraine, launched a targeted series of drone attacks against the KINEF oil refinery in the Leningrad region of Russia.

The refinery is approximately 800 to 1,000 kilometers from where western intelligence operators are assembled to support Ukraine.  This distance means someone within NATO has violated President Trump’s order to withdraw ‘long-range’ targeting system operation, and/or someone within NATO has provided an alternative. [SEE MAP]

When President Trump stopped “intelligence sharing” with Ukraine, what he technically did was stop allowing Ukraine to use exclusive USA targeting systems controlled by U.S Intelligence, the CIA, the National Reconnaissance Office and the U.S. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.

These terrain mapping systems, the missile and drone targeting systems, are what military forces inside Ukraine need to carry out offensive drone and missile attacks against Russian forces.  However, two drones were launched on the night of Saturday March 8th and were shot down as they approached the KINEF refinery, damaging one external oil tank.

Who launched them, and what targeting system was used?

RBC Ukraine – […] At night, unidentified drones attacked an oil refinery in the Leningrad region of Russia. It is claimed that air defense systems shot down two drones, according to the Telegram account of the region’s governor, Alexander Drozdenko.

On the night of March 8, the KINEF oil refinery in Kirishi, Leningrad region of Russia, was attacked by drones.

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As much as we may want this to actually happen, the sourcing for the original claim is rather dubious. “A source close to the White House told The Telegraph: “Trump is angry that they [Europe] appear to be pushing for war.””

Obviously, President Trump is not happy with the EU or with Germany specifically.  Additionally, in President Trump’s first term, then U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Ric Grenell, delivered the message to Angela Merkel that President Trump was willing to move troops out of Germany.  However, there’s no direct sourcing that President Trump is reinitiating that approach.

When we think about the arrows in the quiver of Trump to bring the EU to the peace negotiation table, the movement of U.S. troops stationed in the EU is one of those very targeted arrows.  But the sourcing on the claim that it’s a current discussion point is not very affirming. So, proceed with caution.

GB News – US President Donald Trump is deliberating pulling troops out of Germany and relocating them to eastern Europe in another potential snag to Washington’s relationship with Europe.

The speculation comes after the President said that he was finding it more difficult to deal with Ukraine and that it may be easier to deal with Russia as his administration seeks to reach a peace agreement.

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Knowing that President Trump has essentially stopped the Ukraine/NATO/IC/EU offensive combat operations for Ukraine that use western supplied drones/missiles with complete reliance on U.S/NATO targeting, it does not come as a surprise to see Ukraine President Zelenskyy call for a “sky and sea truce.”

Zelenskyy’s proposal for Russia to stop the air and sea combat operations, while simultaneously supporting frontline combat operations, is essentially an EU effort to maintain the fight by counteracting the Trump pressure point.

EU spokesperson Volodymyr Zelenskyy doesn’t factually want a ceasefire; they want a situation that retains the status quo and neuters Russia’s strategic advantage.

EU News – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for an air and sea truce on Friday after Russia bombarded Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight.

Writing on Telegram, he reiterated that there must be “silence” in the seas and skies over Ukraine. The “first steps toward real peace must include forcing the sole source of this war, Russia, to stop such attacks against life,” the Ukrainian leader said.

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Using his Truth Social account, President Donald Trump said he is “strongly considering” issuing large-scale sanctions and tariffs on Russia to get a ceasefire and settlement deal on the table to end the war in Ukraine.

[SOURCE]

With Ukraine in a vulnerable position due to the USA ‘pause’ in Ukraine missiles and drones targeting systems, President Trump appears to be telling Vladimir Putin directly not to exploit the vulnerability or Russia will face enhanced economic pressure points.

President Trump is putting pressure on both sides to reach an interim ceasefire agreement.

President Trump is also well aware that there are no banking, tariff or sanction pressure points that could materially hurt Russia or will impact the decision making of President Putin.   Accept the public messaging for what it is.

Keep watching…

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President Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff holds a very interesting press availability outside the White House.

The primary topic was the Trump administration position on the release of hostages from Hamas.  However, Mr Witkoff confirms the USA delegation will be traveling to Riyad, Saudi Arabia, for a meeting with Ukraine officials.

Regarding the Russia-Ukraine war – Special envoy Steve Witkoff confirms that planning is underway for a meeting with President Zelenskyy’s team.  Witkoff, will be part of the U.S. delegation alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz.

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Previously French President Emmanuel Macron refused to commit to putting French troops together with U.K troops on the ground in Ukraine.  Politically in France, Macron is on the ropes.

Obviously, such a direct commitment of troops into Ukraine would put tenuously positioned Macron in an even worse position.  However, putting French technical support systems into place to replace the withdrawn U.S. targeting system just sounds better.

So, as the optics of French politics present, yeah, yeah, that’s the ticket – Macron goes that way.

Stepping into the spotlight Macron said in an address to the nation on Wednesday that Russia was “a threat for France and Europe”, that the Ukraine was already a “global conflict” and that he would open a debate about extending the French nuclear umbrella to allies in Europe.

Macron also said that he plans next week to hold a meeting of army chiefs from European countries willing to send troops to Ukraine after any eventual peace deal with Russia. Macron told the people of France that his nation needs to be ready if the United States is no longer by its side.

Russia Responds –MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian officials and lawmakers on Thursday poured scorn on French President Emmanuel Macron for saying that Russia threatened Europe and cautioned that such talk could lead the West towards the abyss of a new world war.

[…] the advance of Russian forces in Ukraine in 2024 and U.S. President Donald Trump’s upending of U.S. policy towards Ukraine and Russia and demand for a peace deal to end the war have triggered a crisis among European powers who fear the United States is turning its back on Europe.

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The media have not, and in most cases cannot, factually discuss what President Trump has just done without opening up a major can-of-worms about the motives behind the Ukraine war.

When President Trump stopped “intelligence sharing” with Ukraine, what he technically did was stop allowing Ukraine to use exclusive USA targeting systems controlled by U.S Intelligence, the CIA, the National Reconnaissance Office and the U.S. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.

These terrain mapping systems, the missile and drone targeting systems, are what military forces inside Ukraine need to carry out offensive drone and missile attacks against Russian forces.

Some elements in Western Intel are leaking to media that Trump only cut-off the targeting system that would permit Ukraine to hit deep into Russian territory, including in Russia proper.  However, the ‘Russian territory‘ as seemingly defined by the National Security Council includes most of Eastern Ukraine now.

In essence and material reality, the elements in Ukraine who are conducting war, and this includes U.K and U.S special forces, the CIA and various NATO allied military operators (not Ukraine military) can no longer effectively hit long-range Russian targets, without the U.S. targeting system that identifies it.

The real-time sharing of military grade GPS encryption keys has been stopped by the U.S. Commander in Chief, President Trump.  Effective immediately without targeting system access, ATACMS, HIMARS, Storm Shadow and Taurus missile systems are no longer functional to those Ukraine operators (remember, those operators are not necessarily Ukranian).

Additionally, the drones that Ukraine has been using also rely on the same accurate, real-time, terrain-mapping satellite data that transmits back to the guidance systems. Without the U.S. encryption keys, what the media is obtusely calling “intelligence sharing,” all of the aforementioned attack systems are rendered moot.  THIS IS HUGE.

The part that is really interesting to those who have followed the events of the past three years, is literally who has been in control of and deploying these missile and drone attack systems.

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We continue to look suspiciously at National Security Advisor Mike Waltz because the emphasis on a U.S-Ukraine “minerals deal” comes directly from his strategic planning.  Waltz appears to be trying to get Trump enmeshed in the Ukraine conflict through economic ties which can be used to manipulate the U.S position.

However, that said, President Trump has clearly told his Nat Sec Advisor that he will not be coerced into sending U.S. military troops into Ukraine to support a peacekeeping mission. Nor will President Trump look upon his demand that EU/NATO members put their boots-on-the ground in Ukraine as any extended NATO Article-5 responsibility.

Mike Waltz spoke directly to the issue of European NATO troops being deployed as peacekeepers into Ukraine, and the possibility of those troops being attacked, thereby triggering Article-5 deployment of U.S. military to defend them.

NSA Waltz correctly confirms that Ukraine is not a NATO member, therefore any attack (which could include an IC false flag) within Ukraine is not considered an attack against a NATO country by the Trump administration.  WATCH (prompted):

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This puts a little context to the strategic position of President Trump against the backdrop of all the geopolitical navigation that comes with the USA having conducted a proxy war against Russia using the geography of Ukraine.

Additionally, last night Secretary of State Marco Rubio is the first Trump administration official who specifically said that the past three years have been a proxy war between the USA and Russia, Video Below:

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Two sources informed the Financial Times that President Trump paused “intelligence sharing” with Ukraine.  In a follow-up another source told Sky News the “intelligence sharing” with Ukraine was paused, but the intel is still shared with the U.K.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe appeared on Fox Business with Maria Bartiromo and confirmed President Trump instructed a pause in “intelligence sharing.”  However, it’s a little funny because everyone is using the term “intelligence sharing” to avoid saying what is actually happening.

President Trump paused the drone and missile “targeting system” being used by CIA and Ukraine partners; that’s what the “intelligence sharing” factually consists of.  Why don’t they use the term “targeting system”?… Because if they did, they would be admitting the USA has been the military/IC operation firing missiles and drones against Russia.

Within the Sky News report, they go right up to the edge in describing what the “intelligence” being paused actually consists of. “Asked whether it is correct that the US has stopped sharing intelligence, the source said: “Unfortunately, yes, but not completely. It is selective. On the possibility of damage on the territory of the Russian Federation”.

Bottom Line – President Trump has paused “sharing” the U.S controlled targeting system that was being used (by Ukraine and the CIA) to target Russian military forces.  WATCH (prompted)

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Pausing the targeting system was exactly what CTH recommended.  Keep watching.  Now that we are seeing CIA Director Ratcliffe confirm it, there should be no doubt it has been the USA Intelligence Community all along operating the military systems in Ukraine.

Everyone has been pretending.  In fact, it is our proxy war that President Trump is stopping.  A frustrated Trump has been trying to navigate through this grand construct of pretending that he was left to deal with.

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No one should trust him, but Volodymr Zelenskyy just caved.

Posting to Twitter (X platform) the Ukraine President delivers the following message:

“I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to peace.

None of us wants an endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.

We are ready to work fast to end the war, and the first stages could be the release of prisoners and truce in the sky — ban on missiles, long-ranged drones, bombs on energy and other civilian infrastructure — and truce in the sea immediately, if Russia will do the same. Then we want to move very fast through all next stages and to work with the US to agree a strong final deal.

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