An American tourist in Russia
Ukraine seems to have lost confidence in NATO. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for talks in Donbass. In exchange, Putin agreed to meet… in Moscow. Then he declared his “training exercise” over and ordered the Russian units massed at the border to withdraw. This is a huge embarrassment for both the Biden administration and NATO. Here’s my explanation for what happened.
The plot thickens. Russian authorities claim to have foiled a planned assassination attempt against the Belorussian president, Alexander Lukashenko. Two men were allegedly in Moscow to meet with disloyal Belorussian generals to discuss murdering Lukashenko on May 9, Victory Day. Lukashenko also alleges a kidnapping conspiracy against his family.
While significant in itself, assassinating Lukashenko correlates with the standoff simmering in Ukraine. The Black Sea Fleet currently maintains total superiority and could effortlessly sink the entire Ukrainian navy within minutes of hostilities breaking out. Russia has combined arms units assembled in Crimea, along the Eastern border of Ukraine, and in Belarus, creating a three-sided “cauldron” that could potentially end a shooting war almost before it started.