After at least a week of publicly threatening to abandon Ukraine, the Trump White House is pushing Kyiv to accept an apparently lopsided, U.S.-brokered peace deal that includes recognition of Russia’s illegal 2014 annexation of Crimea, among other sacrifices—but little to no concessions for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Defense One’s Patrick Tucker reports.
“If [Ukraine] wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?” Trump wrote incorrectly on social media Wednesday. Indeed, “At least one Ukrainian serviceman was killed, and dozens were detained or assaulted. [Putin’s invasion], widely condemned by the international community, violated international law,” the Kyiv Independent reminded readers Wednesday.
“There is nothing to talk about” regarding the latest White House plan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday. Putin’s invasion “violated our Constitution. This is our territory, the territory of Ukraine,” he said.
Zelenskyy “can have peace, or he can fight for another three years before losing the whole country,” Trump said on social media Wednesday using what sounded an awful lot like the “false choice” or “false dilemma” logical fallacy. “We are very close to a Deal, but the man with ‘no cards to play’ should now, finally, GET IT DONE,” Trump wrote.
The European Union’s view: “Crimea is Ukraine,” foreign-policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters Tuesday. “It means a lot for the ones who are occupied that others don’t recognise this as Russian,” she warned as talks with Trump’s aides appeared to be faltering.
For some recent history, the New York Times pointed out Wednesday, “Just three years ago, Marco Rubio, then a senator and now Mr. Trump’s secretary of state, cosponsored an amendment to prohibit the United States from ever recognizing any Russian claim of sovereignty over parts of Ukraine that it has seized.”
And in 2018, the Trump administration issued a formal statement rejecting recognition of Crimea as Russian territory. You can still find it on the State Department’s website. Zelenskyy also shared an image of the declaration on social media Wednesday as a reminder.
Meanwhile, Russian air attacks on Ukraine continue, including a barrage that killed nine people in Kyiv after Russia launched 70 missiles and nearly 150 attack drones, Zelenskyy said on social media. “I am grateful to everyone around the world who stands with Ukraine and supports our people,” he said.
Hours later, Trump wrote on social media, “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”
Also: Today and tomorrow, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is visiting the U.S. for meetings with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, SecDef Pete Hegseth, and White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. “Thanks for the warm welcome and the good discussion on how to ensure a stronger, fairer, more lethal NATO,” Rutte said on social media after arriving at the Pentagon. “Europe and Canada are ramping up defence spending and we’re all working to increase production capacity,” he added.
Welcome to this Thursday edition of The D Brief, a newsletter dedicated to developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1898, Spain declared war on the United States.
SecDef latest
Hegseth had the Signal messaging app installed on an office computer, the latest drip-drip of detail about the defense secretary’s flouting of information-security rules that would get any U.S. servicemember censured or prosecuted. “The move was intended to circumvent a lack of cellphone service in much of the Pentagon and enable easier communication with other Trump officials, said people familiar with the matter,” the Washington Post reports.
Latest: “Trump unlikely to dismiss Hegseth, but officials are troubled by disarray in Pentagon chief’s inner circle,” is CNN’s headline of the day.
New: Hegseth ordered a makeup studio installed near the Pentagon briefing room, CBS News reported Wednesday. “The renovation that was initially planned was estimated to cost more than $40,000, but the ideas were scaled back, sources said.” A DOD spokesperson denied that the plans were ever that costly, and said, “Changes and upgrades to the Pentagon Briefing Room are nothing new and routinely happen during changes in an administration.” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell responded to the report on social media Wednesday evening, writing, “This story is 100% Fake News.” CBS has more, here.
“How a Lloyd Austin aide became Pete Hegseth’s “only guy standing’” is the headline on a revealing story about one of the SecDef’s few senior advisors to survive the wave of recent firings. Read that, from Defense News’ Noah Robertson, here.
Additional reading:
Trump 2.0
China’s rare-earth mineral squeeze will hit the Pentagon hard. From tungsten in armor-piercing rounds to gallium in radars, the U.S. Defense Department has built a warfighting enterprise with a supply chain that runs straight through China. But recent developments threaten the Pentagon’s ability to maintain that enterprise,” Defense One’s Patrick Tucker reported Wednesday.
China has long dominated rare-earth mining and processing. But this latest decision tightens the faucet on materials needed for technologies ranging from hypersonic-missile guidance systems to cancer treatments. The measures follow similar export bans issued in December 2024 on gallium, germanium, and antimony—metals used in semiconductors, infrared optics, and armor-piercing munitions.
But the chokepoint isn’t mining; it’s refinement, Tucker writes. The U.S. often ships raw mineral precursors to China for processing and re-imports them as components. With Beijing’s 2024 export bans now expanded to include tungsten and tellurium, that loop is closing. Even antimony mined in Australia becomes unusable for U.S. systems if refined in China. The result: 88% of DoD’s critical mineral supply chains are exposed to Chinese influence. Read more, here.
And lastly: Boeing’s defense unit reported no losses last quarter, returning to profitability after nearly a year, Defense One’s Audrey Decker reported Wednesday. Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg credited progress on several of its thorny programs, but cautioned that the Defense, Space & Security unit still has some ground to make up.
“I’m not claiming victory here yet,” Ortberg said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call on Wednesday. “But I do think our discipline, cost risk management and active management with our customers to get to a win-win on these programs is helping. Obviously, our goal here is to get our defense business back up to a high-single-digit [margins] kind of performing business. And there’s no reason, I see, we can’t do that,” he said.
Notable: Boeing is still working through problems with its troubled KC-46 tankers, deliveries of which have been halted since February after cracks were found in the “outboard fixed-trailing-edge support structure.” The Air Force and Boeing have not said when they expect deliveries to resume. Despite ongoing challenges, Boeing executives highlighted their win of the Next Generation Air Dominance sixth-gen fighter jet as a “transformational accomplishment” for the company, one that will ensure the company’s fighter franchise for decades. Continue reading, here.
Related reading:
- “China sends Boeing planes back to US over tariffs,” the BBC reported Wednesday;
- ‘“Boeing ready to resell jets as tariffs hit China trade,” Reuters reported Thursday;
- “WA can now restrict outside National Guard from entering state,” the Seattle Times reported Tuesday; read over Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson’s message shortly after signing the new law, here;
- “Trump’s Approval Rating Has Been Falling Steadily, Polling Average Shows,” the New York Times reported Wednesday;
- And “Majorities disapprove of some key Trump administration actions,” including reducing federal agencies, raising tariffs, and eliminating diversity programs across government, the Pew Research Center reported Tuesday.
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