Ukraine
Trump backs out of peace talks with Putin. The much-anticipated Budapest meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin was put on hold, the New York Times reported Tuesday, after Russian officials said they don’t intend to make a deal to end their war in Ukraine. Trump had been touting the Budapest summit, but canceled it after learning Putin had no interest in his proposal to end the fighting along the current front lines.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s lie: “A ceasefire now would mean only one thing: A large part of Ukraine would remain under Nazi rule,” Lavrov said after a preliminary phone call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, repeating Russia’s false assertion that they invaded Ukraine to free it from fascism.
Still a chance? Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is still making plans to hold the summit in Budapest eventually, Reuters reported Tuesday.
“Weasel out”: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to X to call out Russia for dipping out of negotiations as soon as Trump made clear he wouldn’t be sending long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. “This signals that deep-strike capabilities may hold the key to peace,” Zelenskyy said.
Though Tomahawks may not be in Ukraine’s near future, Bell Textron on Monday announced that the company had signed letters of intent to explore sales of its helicopters to the country. That could include the AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter.
Welcome to this Wednesday edition of The D Brief, a newsletter dedicated to developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Meghann Myers and Bradley Peniston. It’s more important than ever to stay informed, so thank you for reading. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1962, President John F. Kennedy ordered a naval quarantine of Cuba after American reconnaissance planes discovered Soviet weapons on the island.
Around the Defense Department
Trump pushes out Army’s No. 2 general in favor of Hegseth aide. The White House on Monday sent in a nomination to make Lt. Gen. Christopher LaNeve the next Army vice chief of staff, though the current one has been in the four-year role for under two years, Breaking Defense reported. Gen. James Mingus assumed he would retire after this job ended, an Army official told Breaking Defense, adding that “it is a little early but not significant.”
Why now? LaNeve, a former commander of 8th Army in Korea and the 82nd Airborne Division, has all the bona fides you’d expect from a vice chief of staff. What’s not clear is why he’s being pushed into that role just six months into his job as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s senior military aide, while the vice chief of staff position is usually held for three or so years. Trump could be teeing LaNeve up to be the next chief, as the vice chief is usually a top contender for the role. Current Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George just passed two years in the job.
The move came just days after Hegseth announced the admiral overseeing military strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats off Venezuela would retire early. Adm. Alvin Holsey has been leading U.S. Southern Command for less than a year.
Speaking of the boat strikes, a group of independent U.N. experts say they amount to “extrajudicial executions.” In a Tuesday statement, experts appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council said that even if the Trump administration’s allegations against the boaters “were substantiated, the use of lethal force in international waters without proper legal basis violates the international law of the sea and amounts to extrajudicial executions.” Reuters reports.
The Pentagon is clamping down on communication with Congress, according to another Breaking Defense exclusive. An Oct. 15 memo signed by Hegseth and his deputy, Steve Feinberg, requires all correspondence with Capitol Hill to be coordinated through the office of the assistant defense secretary for legislative affairs.
While there is an exception for the independent inspector general’s office, the memo requires “coordination and alignment of Department messaging when engaging with Congress to ensure consistency and support for the Department’s priorities.”
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, in a statement to CNN, said the move is intended to “improve accuracy and responsiveness in communicating with the Congress to facilitate increased transparency.”
More transparency would be a welcome change to lawmakers who have chided the Defense Department for its lack of response to official requests for information.
“‘He lost us’: Generals, senior officers say trust in Hegseth has evaporated,” reports the Washington Times’ Ben Wolfgang, citing “current senior military officers and current and former Defense Department officials.” Leaders he spoke to pointed to Hegseth’s “public ‘grandstanding’ widely seen as unprofessional and the personnel moves made by the former cable TV host leading to an unprecedented and dangerous exodus of talent from the Pentagon…”
Turning point? “Numerous high-ranking officers painted Mr. Hegseth’s Sept. 30 speech to hundreds of generals and admirals gathered at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia as a turning point in how his leadership style, attitude and overall competency are viewed in the upper echelons of the U.S. armed forces,” the Times writes. Read on, here.
The Army wants drones that understand “commander’s intent.” That’s part of a draft UAS strategy that calls for a new career field, new advanced training, and soldier-built drones, reports Defense One’s Meghann Myers. The forthcoming strategy will focus on “universal interoperability and autonomy,” Maj. Gen. Clair Gill said at last week’s AUSA annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
Right now, the service is looking for software that will enable drones to take orders rather than be flown. “You know, gone are the days where a drone operator is actually being a pilot, where they have to be hands on the sticks all the time,” Gill said. Read on, here.
Shutdown pauses talks on accelerating B-21 production. Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy Warden, whose company sank half a billion dollars into speeding up production of its new strategic bomber, said Tuesday that talks with the Air Force are on hold during the federal shutdown, which is about to enter its fourth week. Warden spoke during the company’s third-quarter earnings call; Defense One’s Thomas Novelly has more, here.
Middle East
A civil-military coordination center in Israel will become the main hub for Gaza assistance, U.S. Central Command announced Tuesday. About 200 U.S. military personnel will help coordinate “humanitarian, logistical, and security assistance,” into Gaza, but will remain in Israel. The center will also “monitor” the implementation of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, according to CENTCOM.
Analysis: Turkey’s help in securing the ceasefire is already paying off, Reuters reports, in “diplomatic leverage in Washington, with officials expected to use the goodwill to push for progress on F-35 fighter jet sales, relief from U.S. sanctions, and support for its security goals in Syria. The effort also reestablished Turkey’s influence in Middle East diplomacy—unsettling Israel and Arab rivals such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE—and capped a reset in U.S.-Turkey relations following Erdoğan’s September visit to the White House.” More, here.
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