Russia has now won the war in Ukraine.

12 February 2025, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

On February 12th, Stephen Bryen, who has retired from a career at the tops of one of America’s ten largest armaments-makers and near the top of the U.S. Defense Department (he’s been through the revolving door and now has retired from it), headlined “Europe Gasping for Air as Trump Makes His Ukraine Move: No NATO Membership for Ukraine, No US Troops” and reported not only that Trump has basically fired Keith Kellogg who was his failed appointee to negotiate with Russia about the war in Ukraine, but that Trump has dropped the Kellogg-initiated U.S. starting position for entering into those negotiations with Russia (Russia refused to accept that even as a starting position); so, Trump had on February 12th a 90-minute phone conversation with Putin, and it was extremely productive, because Trump now recognizes not only why Russia refuses to accept Ukraine’s EVER being allowed into NATO, but also that Russians would have to be crazy to ever accept such a possibility (just like the United States would have been crazy to have accepted Soviet missiles into Cuba in 1962). It transformed Trump’s view. Here was Trump’s statement:

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https://x.com/TrumpDailyPosts/status/1889720462151917756

Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social

@TrumpDailyPosts

I just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. We discussed Ukraine, the Middle East, Energy, Artificial Intelligence, the power of the Dollar, and various other subjects. We both reflected on the Great History of our Nations, and the fact that we fought so successfully together in World War II, remembering, that Russia lost tens of millions of people, and we, likewise, lost so many! We each talked about the strengths of our respective Nations, and the great benefit that we will someday have in working together. But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine. President Putin even used my very strong Campaign motto of, “COMMON SENSE.” We both believe very strongly in it. We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations. We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now. I have asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and Ambassador and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the negotiations which, I feel strongly, will be successful. Millions of people have died in a War that would not have happened if I were President, but it did happen, so it must end. No more lives should be lost! I want to thank President Putin for his time and effort with respect to this call, and for the release, yesterday, of Marc Fogel, a wonderful man that I personally greeted last night at the White House. I believe this effort will lead to a successful conclusion, hopefully soon!

Donald Trump Truth Social Post 11:53 AM EST 02/12/25

11:57 AM · Feb 12, 2025

4.2M Views

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And here is what Dr. Bryen wrote about it this morning (go to the original at his “Europe Gasping for Air as Trump Makes His Ukraine Move: No NATO Membership for Ukraine, No US Troops” in order to see the version that includes the several videos):

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European leaders who have been strongly supporting keeping the Ukraine war going have been dealt a serious blow by President Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Most of them must be in shock, gasping for breath.

Let's start with Hegseth. He made the following declarations:

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1. Ukraine's membership in NATO is off the table. Ukraine won't be invited to join NATO.

2. The US will not send any troops to Ukraine for any reason, including peacekeeping.

3. The US will no longer supply or pay for weapons and support for Ukraine. It will be up to the European NATO members to provide support to Ukraine.

4. While the US supports NATO, American participation has to be fair and equitable, meaning that NATO members will have to significantly increase their contributions.

5. Ukraine will not be able to go back to the borders it had before 2014, meaning that the US expects important territorial concessions from Ukraine.

President Trump, meanwhile, held an hour and a half phone meeting with Russian President Putin. The key takeaway is that Putin said he is willing to start negotiations with the United States on Ukraine and other security issues.

The Trump-Putin conversation covered many topics, for example security issues, energy, artificial intelligence, "the power of the dollar" and "various other subjects."

Following the call, Trump apparently placed a call "to inform" Ukrainian President Zelensky of his conversation with Putin. He also immediately set up his negotiating team. He designated Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and Ambassador and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the negotiations.

Significantly, the list of participants did not include retired Lt. General Keith Kellogg. Kellogg had been openly flogging the idea of significantly increasing sanctions on Russia as a way to get concessions on Ukraine. As he put it, on a scale of 1 to 10, current sanctions on Russia are only a 3. He proposed raising them far higher (assuming this could be done). These comments directly undermined Trump's approach to Putin and Russia, and appear to have been Kellogg's idea (among others) to make sure the Ukraine war continued. Whether Kellogg will again appear as a player in Ukraine remains to be seen.

It will take time for Europe's pro-war leaders, along with the EU, to contemplate the future, now that the rug has pretty well been pulled out from under their feet.

The Europeans have neither the weapons, the troops nor the money to keep the war going in Ukraine. Nor will they get much support for continuing the war if the United States won't play in the game. In fact, should Europe want to continue on its own, without the United States, they risk the future of the NATO alliance.

Many of the leaders in Europe are in trouble domestically. Germany, France, Poland and even Romania where Presidential elections were cancelled to prevent the leading opposition candidate from being elected, are examples of the growing instability in the European leadership class. Revelations about US and EU interference in the electoral process in Georgia, Serbia and Slovakia, perhaps also Moldova, emphasize the squalid nature of current-day politics in Europe.

The Trump administration is liquidating USAID, which has been acting as a sort of CIA-front in many of the above countries, including Ukraine. With that source of money and support cut off, the EU is being handed a serious problem that goes well beyond finance: the phony argument that the EU (and with it, NATO) is upholding democracy is now exposed. The loss of legitimacy is a real threat to the ruling elites.

Trump has an important geopolitical perspective. It runs something like this: European security is important but is not really threatened by Russia. The US faces a resurgent China that has a (largely Western-supplied) very modern industrial base, a massive workforce, and an increasingly well-equipped and powerful military. From Trump's point of view, he needs a more friendly Russia that can help balance global power relationships. To get from there to here, he needs to find ways to redefine the US-Russia relationship which is in deep disarray and infused with mutual hostility. In his 90 minute conversation with Putin, Trump was poking at economic and technology capabilities that could, in future, provide a basis for improving relations.

No one can say right now whether a deal can be found for Ukraine, but there is reason to be more optimistic that the two sides can work something out.

We will need to see if the Europeans push back and try to sabotage a deal on Ukraine. The reality is Europe has little it can do if Putin and Trump agree on a deal.

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My reader-comment to that was:

Stephen, your news-report today is the biggest, most important, news about Trump that I have ever run into, because -- if it is true, which I think it probably is (given the contacts you probably have) -- you are reporting hugely important decisions by Trump, ALL of which indicate what a great U.S. President would do about the world's top national-security problem, which is for America finally to END the Cold War on its side as Russia ended it on its side in 1991. This is even bigger news than the Senate's confirmation today of Tulsi Gabbard as his DNI. WOW!! …

This is the most important breaking news I've seen in decades, and (for once, and at last), it is not like the others (all of which were bad news) but is instead TERRIFIC NEWS. If borne out by subsequent events, it is an immensely favorable turning-point in human history.

I have earlier stated and documented (in links) the conclusive evidences that and why the U.S. Government started the war in Ukraine in 2014, and that Russia was forced by the U.S. Government to respond to that ultimately on 24 February 2022 by invading Ukraine so as to block the U.S. regime’s plan from ever being able to be completed.

In the final analysis, America’s Republicans can either blame the Democrats (Obama and Biden) for the war in Ukraine and bring it to an end by repudiating America’s participation in it, or else they will have to push Russia all the way until the U.S. side in that war between the U.S. and Russia in the battlefields of Ukraine becomes totally lost by the U.S. side, and Russia will have been then forced by the U.S. to conquer Ukraine totally and absorb it into the Russian Federation (which Putin did not want ever to do). Because of today’s news, it now appears that Trump will ultimately go with blaming the war entirely on the Democratic Party, though, actually, until now, the Republican Party has likewise backed it. It was a war supported by all U.S. billionaires — not ONLY by the Democratic Party’s billionaires.

PS: If you like this article, please email it to all your friends or otherwise let others know about it. None of the U.S.-and-allied ‘news’-media will likely publish it (nor link to it, since doing that might also hurt them with Google or etc.). I am not asking for money, but I am asking my readers to spread my articles far and wide, because I specialize in documenting what the Deep State is constantly hiding — what the ‘news’-media ignore if they can, and deny if they must. This is, in fact, today’s samizdat.

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.