Morning Update: More War 2/18/25

Mar 18, 2025

Admin: This will be a busy day, with multiple appointments.

Today is supposed to be the day, according to Trump, that Trump and Putin divvy up Ukrainian assets. Land and power plants and so forth.

Trump said he will speak with Putin on Tuesday and that they will divide Ukraine
"We want to see if we can end this war. Maybe we can, maybe we can't, but I think we have a very good chance"
When he was asked if he will you seek concessions, or will Putin make them in order to make a deal, he answered:
"Well, I think we will talk about lands. Big lands. As you know, everything is not like it was before the war. We will talk about land. We will talk about power plants. It is a serious issue, but I think we have discussed a lot with both sides. Ask Ukraine and Russia."

It turns out that Putin is making demands, unsurprisingly. As party of the divvying process, Trump is “mulling” recognizing Crimea as part of Russia. Additionally, Trump is said to be considering dropping sanctions—no timeline for these possible moves is known.

Putin Demands Halt To All Western Arms For Ukraine Ahead Of Trump Call

Just ahead of the high-stakes phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, Bloomberg is reporting that the Russian leader will stipulate that all weapons deliveries to Ukraine, including US and European aid, be suspended.

Obviously Putin recognizes that the US, the true party at war with Russia, controls the actions of its vassals, so he’s demanding that the game playing come to a full stop.

Trump's prior mention of "dividing up certain assets" was cause for much speculation on Monday, with much of the commentary focused on the likely question of control over Ukraine's nuclear power plants.
…
Vladimir Putin is demanding a suspension of all weapons deliveries to Ukraine during any ceasefire, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Ahead of his call with Trump today, Putin has made this a prerequisite for Russia signing up to a truce, said a senior European official and three people in Moscow familiar with Russia’s position.
While Russia wants to halt all arms deliveries, its minimum aim is that US military aid should stop, two of the people said.
The senior European official said Europe was extremely reluctant to agree to the demand. It would risk a situation where Russia was able to rearm during a truce but Ukraine was prevented from doing so, they said.
It is the latest example of maximalist demands made by Putin which will be very difficult for Ukraine and Europe to accept.
The UK and EU are both working on efforts to deliver fresh military aid packages to Ukraine as soon as possible.
The suspension of arms supplies sought by Putin would be lifted after a final peace accord so long as Ukraine agreed to limits on its army, one person in Moscow said.

Regarding limits on the size of any Ukrainian military in the future, the Istanbul agreement between Russia and Ukraine that the US shot down, back in 2022, stipulated a total Ukrainian military of 80,000 personnel. For a country the size of Ukraine, that’s not much more than a capable paramilitary. Russians reps are saying that the terms of any settlement will start from the Istanbul agreement as a baseline, with added stipulations.

There are also reports saying that the US is mulling recognizing Crimea as part of Russia, and that it may urge the Untied Nations to do the same. This could be an 'easy' one for the US, which is likely to entice Putin.
…
And Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that the two leaders will discuss "a large number of issues from the normalization of our relations and the Ukrainian issue." He said, "The leaders will speak for as long as they deem necessary" - after their first phone call had lasted 90-minutes.
EU leaders are said to be "trembling"... "That is why there is a mood of alarm in Europe’s capitals," Bild wrote Tuesday. This also as Trump has floated the possibility of dropping anti-Russia sanctions for the sake of peace.

Regarding Peskov’s statement that a wide range of issues would be discussed, that would seem to fall in line with Russia’s repeated demands for a “global” settlement of issues between Russia and the Anglo-Zionist West, not some piecemeal process. That suggests that there will be no ceasefire until multiple fundamental issues are agreed upon. Depending on arms shipments, there could be some flexibility, but only if Russia’s dominant position is preserved.

The key to all this is that Trump is demanding an end to his war on Russia “NOW.” Obviously Putin knows that Trump could end the war on Russia with a snap of his fingers, so Trump’s rhetoric is understood as Trump’s desperation to start down the off ramp ASAP for reasons of the rest of his agenda.

That all looks like good news. Unfortunately, there is bad news coming from the Middle East. Trump confirmed his ownership of all war in the Middle East, and has greenlit more war crimes, a restart to genocide, against Palestinians. That follows, of course, the continuing Israeli war on what remains of Syria. Zionist Central terms the Israeli onslaught as attacks on “Hamas targets”. In Anglo-Zionist jargon that includes, well, everything and anything:

Israeli Strikes Kill Hundreds, Tipping Gaza Back Toward War
The attacks mark one of the deadliest days since the war began and come after talks to release the remaining hostages broke down
Israel launched a series of attacks against Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, killing more than 400 people, according to Palestinian authorities, and threatening a return to full-scale war after talks to release the remaining hostages held in the enclave stalled out.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the attacks after Hamas failed to release the hostages or accept U.S. proposals for extending a fragile cease-fire that had held for two months, his office said.

Anglo-Zionist negotiating strategy: Accept our demands or we’ll bomb the shit out of you.

Also:

Megatron @Megatron_ron
BREAKING:
Trump restarts the war in the Middle East
Trump gave Israel the green light to restart attacks on Gaza - The Wall Street Journal reports
This comes just after the start of the bombing of Yemen by the US.
Trump also yesterday basically announced that he would enter a direct war with Iran on behalf of Israel.
He stated that any missile fired by the Houthis will be treated as a missile fired by Iran.

What this means is that, according to Trump, if the Houthis attempt to attack targets in Israel in response to continued US led genocide, Trump will treat that as Iranian attacks. Similarly—but probably with far more truth—every bomb dropped on Palestinians, every Palestinian home bulldozed, comes from the Oval Office. Attacks by Israel are attacks by America. Don’t be fooled.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Let nobody be fooled! The hundreds of attacks being made by Houthi, the sinister mobsters and thugs based in Yemen, who are hated by the Yemeni people, all emanate from, and are created by, IRAN. Any further attack or retaliation by the “Houthis” will be met with great force, and there is no guarantee that that force will stop there. Iran has played “the innocent victim” of rogue terrorists from which they’ve lost control, but they haven’t lost control. They’re dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, “Intelligence.” Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!
DONALD J. TRUMP,
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Tucker Carlson weighed in:

Tucker Carlson @TuckerCarlson
15h
It’s worth pointing out that a strike on the Iranian nuclear sites will almost certainly result in thousands of American deaths at bases throughout the Middle East, and cost the United States tens of billions of dollars. The cost of future acts of terrorIsm on American soil may be even higher. Those aren’t guesses. Those are the Pentagon’s own estimates. A bombing campaign against Iran will set off a war, and it will be America’s war. Don’t let the propagandists lie to you.

Patarames @Pataramesh
Tucker might be a 'relief valve' of the CIA/'Deepstate'
But what he says here is based on classified briefings someone got

Trump has great confidence in his continual brinkmanship, but it comes with great risks.

Scott Ritter @RealScottRitter
And, in one night of narcissistic megalomania, Donald Trump gave up the title peacemaker, exchanging it for warmonger, and put himself on the path of becoming America’s greatest loser.
America can’t be “great again” when the price of oil shoots through the roof.
And starting a war with Iran will go down in history as one of the worst self-inflicted wounds an American President ever committed.

Meanwhile, Iran is reacting to the US attacks and threats:
IRGC Aerospace Forces: The Armed Forces are prepared for comprehensive defense against enemy attacks and will deal serious blows to their interests in the Middle East if they are subjected to any aggression.
We will shoot down any enemy aircraft entering our airspace, both manned and unmanned, and warn the enemy against any provocations.
There was a report earlier today that a US reconnaissance drone was flying along Iran’s western border. The Iranians believe that this is in preparation for a US attack:
Iran’s Noor News agency, which is affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, reported that a US military reconnaissance drone was forced to leave an area near Iranian airspace after fighter jets were scrambled towards it.