This is another step downwards for our country. How many more spiral staircases to sub-basements can we descend before we reach a point of no return? What you’re about to see is a post that Donald Trump did on Truth Social. He claims that certain conditions exist in the Ukraine-Russian conflict. Except that they do not. This is Kremlin propaganda. And we have an American president, at least in title he is that, spouting Kremlin propaganda. Why this is not the main front page story of every media outlet in the nation I know not. Because if something this important is flying under the radar, then I don’t know what hope there is for us.
This is one of the very rare occasions where Russian and Ukrainian military bloggers agree: UKRAINIAN TROOPS ARE NOT SURROUNDED BY THE RUSSIAN MILITARY. pic.twitter.com/y395C5aHJD
— Julian Röpcke🇺🇦 (@JulianRoepcke) March 14, 2025
And here is Trump repeating the lie over and over like a broken record. He is obviously keen on selling this version that Moscow entrusted him to sell.
It doesn’t make it more true if you repeat that Russian lie again and again …pic.twitter.com/tVhbrsBqZp
— Julian Röpcke🇺🇦 (@JulianRoepcke) March 14, 2025
Yeah, it’s all Joe Biden’s fault. And Volodymyr Zelensky’s fault. Because they are psychic and they knew that Vladimir Putin was going to go bonkers and invade three years ago.
And I get it that this is vintage Trump. This is business as usual — to a degree. Yes, it’s his usual idiocy. But there still is nothing remotely normal about an American president selling out one of our allies and then spewing the propaganda of that ally’s attacker, that ally’s enemy.
To my mind, this should be screamed from the rooftops, but it’s not. It’s playing on RSBN and other right-wing outlets as Trump “telling it like it is” and with the exception of blogs that cater to following Trump and his excesses, this is largely flying under the radar.
This cannot continue. Politico has a report from Kyiv.
KYIV — U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on Friday that thousands of Ukrainian troops are surrounded by the Russian military in the Kursk region and said he has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to spare them.
However, both Ukrainian soldiers fighting in Kursk and the Ukrainian high command say Trump is wrong. Ukraine is pulling back from the Russian territory it captured in a surprise offensive last summer, but those forces have not been encircled.
The Ukrainian command has sent reinforcements to secure the retreat to new positions, a process that has been under way for several days.
But that’s not the view from the White House after Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin on Thursday night.
“We had excellent and productive discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia yesterday, and there is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end — BUT, AT THIS VERY MOMENT, THOUSANDS OF UKRAINIAN TROOPS ARE COMPLETELY SURROUNDED BY THE RUSSIAN MILITARY, AND IN A VERY BAD AND VULNERABLE POSITION,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Trump is parroting earlier comments by Putin, who made a similar claim during a Thursday press conference alongside Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
Putin said that the Ukrainian soldiers who invaded Russia’s Kursk region “have completely abandoned their equipment, as there will be a physical blockade of the region — they either die or surrender to leave the region.”
Trump is following that narrative.
“I have strongly requested to President Putin that their lives be spared. This would be a horrible massacre, one not seen since World War II. God bless them all!!!” Trump said. […]
“Reports of the alleged ‘encirclement’ of Ukrainian units in the Kursk region by the enemy are untrue and are being created by the Russians for political purposes and pressure on Ukraine and partners,” Ukrainian Army General Staff said in a statement. “The situation has not changed significantly over the past day. Combat operations in the operational zone of the ‘Kursk’ group of forces continue,” it said.
“Units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine have regrouped, withdrawn to more advantageous defense lines and are carrying out the tasks assigned to them on the territory of the Kursk region,” the General Staff added. “There is no threat of encirclement of our units.”
Trump is literally parroting what Putin tells him to parrot. That is the situation that this country is in. But it’s the new abnormal. Nobody seems to find much moral outrage in it. Forbes has the same story. Other outlets do as well. This is why Trump calls the media the “enemy of the people” because they call him out on his toadying to Putin.
It is a sad, sad day in America when this is going on and there isn’t total furor over it. This a dark passage that we’re in. Not just for Americans but Ukrainians and people all over the globe who live in democratic countries. It is a very dark day for the world.
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Donnie Dimwit, still angling for that elusive Nobel prize.
Not that he ever had a chance but his Oval Office mugging of Ukraine’s President and cutting off aid to a country that’s been our (and Europe’s) ally pretty much ensures that even if Trumpty helps broker a peace agreement someday he’ll never get that much coveted honor. And then there’s the matter of his actions r.e. Israel and dealing (or more accurately making things worse) the Palastinian issue.
At some point I expect he’ll declare himself the winner, have a (fake of course) gold medal presented and a faux Time cover with him wearing it and holding up the award citation on his wall. Maybe even through a party Marmalado in his own honor. I’d bet on this happening as ‘counter-programming’ the night the next time the actual award is presented to a deserving recipient.
Those of us who actually follow closely Putin’s War know what’s happening in the Kursk salient, and it sure as hell is not the encirclement and imminent destruction of Ukrainian forces there. Much as Putin denies it, his army’s losing his war and is slowly being bled to death by heroic Ukrainians, fighting against enormous odds. The North Koreans have almost all been obliterated by now and their remnants withdrawn for some proper training. Ukraine never planned to hold Russian territory near Kursk; the invasion there was meant to draw Russian forces away from the eastern front, which it did admirably. If and when Kyiv decides to withdraw from its salient, it won’t be because they’re threatened with annhilation. It will be because their task has been completed.