PUTIN: ‘RUSSIAN TROOPS ARE ADVANCING IN ALMOST ALL AREAS’: Russian President Vladimir Putin clearly believes he’s sitting in the catbird seat, as he smugly listed his many objections to accepting a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the Americans. His chief argument? I’m winning. Why would I stop now?
At a news conference in Moscow, Putin said that while the U.S. may have pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to accept the proposal, the Ukrainian President should have “asked most emphatically” for the ceasefire “in view of the situation evolving on the ground.”
“Russian troops are advancing in almost all areas of combat contact,” Putin said of his forces along the 1,200-mile line. “Conditions are also very favorable there for us.” Putin said the Ukrainian troops that seized the Kursk area of Russia last August are now surrounded and on the verge of being routed. “Just a week or two ago, Ukrainian servicemen tried to get out of there in small groups. Now it is impossible,” he said. “The control of Ukrainian troops inside this incursion zone has been lost … The situation there is completely under our control.”
While Putin paid lip service to the U.S. diplomatic initiative — thanking President Donald Trump for his “attention to the Ukraine settlement” and saying the “idea itself is right” — Putin wants negotiations first over his long list of demands and then a ceasefire on his terms. “The idea to put an end to this conflict by peaceful means gets our full support,” he said. “However, there are issues that must be discussed. I think we must talk them over with our American colleagues and partners, perhaps have a telephone conversation with President Trump and discuss them with him.”
DID THE US INTEL AND MILITARY SUPPORT PAUSE LEAD TO RUSSIA’S KURSK ADVANCE?
‘PUTIN IS TRYING TO SET A TRAP’: In an extended Oval Office photo op with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Trump said he saw Putin’s desire to negotiate directly with him “a very promising statement,” but that “it wasn’t complete.”
“Yeah, I’d love to meet with him or talk to him. But we have to get it over with fast. You know, every day people are being killed,” Trump said, revealing he already has some ideas about how Ukraine should be carved up, including who gets the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, which is now under Russian control.
“There’s a power plant involved — you know, very big power plant involved. Who’s going to get the power plant, and who’s going to get this and that?” Trump said. “We have, you know, not been working in the dark. We’ve been discussing with Ukraine land — pieces of land that would be kept and lost and all of the other elements of a final agreement.”
“We’ve been discussing concepts of land because you don’t want to waste time with a ceasefire if it’s not going to mean anything,” Trump said. “So we say, look, this is what you can get. This is what you can’t get.”
“From my perspective, Putin is trying to set a trap, and the trap is that he wants to negotiate a lot of other issues that should be left to negotiations once you get a ceasefire,” former Defense Secretary and CIA director Leon Panetta said on CNN. “But if he’s going to start negotiating on those issues now, then I think this ceasefire approach is going to collapse.”
“[Putin] wants to talk about the NATO issue. He wants to talk about territory. He wants to talk about, you know, the power plant. There are a lot of issues, obviously, that have to be discussed, but you have to get a ceasefire first,” Panetta argues. “This is a moment where the president has to really be strong, that what we need is a clean ceasefire. He’s being tested right now by Putin.”
“If you try to start negotiating those issues now, then you’re going to run into a lot of trouble with the parties; you’re going to run into trouble with Ukraine; you’re going to run into trouble with NATO,” he said.
WILL TRUMP LET PUTIN PLAY HIM WITH CEASEFIRE ‘NUANCES’ GAME?
TRUMP’S DESPERATION IS SHOWING: By telegraphing the concessions he’s willing to make — including taking NATO membership off the table for Ukraine and allowing Russia to keep most if not all of the territory it currently occupies — Trump has left himself little leverage.
As author Tony Schwartz wrote, channeling Trump in the 1987 bestseller The Art of the Deal, “The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. That makes the other guy smell blood, and then you’re dead. The best thing you can do is deal from strength, and leverage is the biggest strength you can have. Leverage is having something the other guy wants. Or better yet, needs. Or best of all, simply can’t do without.”
Right now, Trump is giving off all the vibes that indicate a ceasefire in Ukraine is something he desperately wants, needs, and “simply can’t do without.”
“I do have leverage, but I don’t want to talk about leverage now because right now, we’re talking to him, and based on the statements he made today, they were pretty positive,” Trump insisted. While Trump has made vague threats about adding new sanctions against Russia, his own Secretary of State conceded this week, “They’re pretty sanctioned up. I mean, there’s a lot of sanctions on already.”
The one major leverage that Trump has is the one he is least interested in using. “Until Russia lays down its weapons, Ukraine must continue to receive intelligence and military tools from not only the United States but also our NATO allies,” Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) Armed Services Committee chairman wrote in a joint statement. “We must make clear that the costs of continuing the bloodshed will far exceed anything Putin has experienced to date. Toward that end, we applaud the Trump administration’s decision today to end the Biden banking sanctions loophole that allowed for the continued purchase of Russian energy and funded Putin’s war machine.”
“I think [Trump] has the instincts to see when he’s being jerked around, when Russia is diverting rather than actually doing what he’s asking them to do,” Trump’s former ambassador to Ukraine Kurt Volker, said on CNN. “He is fundamentally transactional. He wants to end the war so that he can get on with other things, not because he really cares about the end state, he just wants people to stop dying so you can get on with other things.”
EDITORIAL: TRUMP MUST NOW GET TOUGH WITH PUTIN
Good Friday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Christopher Tremoglie. Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow me on Threads and/or on X @jamiejmcintyre.
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HAPPENING TODAY: SHUTDOWN THREAT EASES: The deadline is midnight tonight. Unless at least eight Democrats join Senate Republicans in approving a continuing resolution that would extend federal funding through September, the government will shut down adding more chaos to the convulsions roiling the federal workforce.
Yesterday, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who the day before said Democrats had the votes to block the measure, caved, saying he’ll vote for the measure, even if he sees it as a vehicle for Trump and his DOGE deputies to continue to wreak havoc by dismantling the government.
“This week, Democrats offered a sensible way out: fund the government for another month to give appropriators more time to do their jobs. Republicans rejected this proposal outright. Why did they reject it? Because Donald Trump doesn’t want the appropriators to do their job. He wants full control over government spending,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “He isn’t the first president to want this, but he’s the first president to cower his party into submission.”
“It’s a Hobson’s Choice: either proceed with the bill before us or risk Donald Trump throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown. This, in my view, is no choice at all,” Schumer said. “While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse.”
“Under a shutdown, the Trump administration would have full authority to deem whole agencies, programs, and personnel “non-essential,” furloughing staff with no promise they would ever be rehired. The decision on what is essential would be solely left to the executive branch, with nobody left at agencies to check them,” Schumer argued. “In short, a shutdown would give Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and DOGE, and Russell Vought the keys to the city, state and country.”
So far only one other Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has publicly said he’ll vote for the funding measure, but Schumer is said to have met privately with his members and believes the votes are there for passage.
SCHUMER CAVES ON SHUTDOWN BATTLE WITH GOP, CLEARING WAY FOR FUNDING BILL PASSAGE
IT’S OK TO BE GAY, ENOLA GAY THAT IS: When stories first surfaced that Pentagon purgers — following instructions to remove contents from DOD websites that referenced “immutable characteristics” of service members such as race, gender, ethnicity — had flagged images of the World War II bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, because it was named after the pilot’s mother Enola Gay, the Pentagon’s “rapid response” X account pushed back.
“We are NOT removing images of the Enola Gay or any other pictures that honor the legacy of our warfighters,” the Pentagon said, throwing in a dig at “Anderson Cooper, CNN, and all 5 viewers they are speaking to.” But the dogged team at the Associated Press kept checking the web pages and discovered that, yes, in fact, at least three images related to the B-29 Superfortress have been removed.
“The images that have disappeared include a historical black-and-white photo of the Enola Gay ‘undergoing modification at Oklahoma City Air Depot to be able to drop atomic weapons, according to a thumbnail of the photograph, which remains,” writes AP Pentagon reporter Tara Copp. “Two others that mention a grandson of a member of the original Enola Gay crew flying a refurbished B-29 to honor his family have also been deleted, although their thumbnails are also still visible.”
A story earlier this week from Air & Space Forces Magazine, revealed how a pioneering female Air Force pilot saw her story erased from a DOD website. “This morning, I discovered that USCENTCOM’s story about my journey reaching 1,000 combat hours in the F-15E was removed during a recent purge of DEI history,” said retired Lt. Col. Jennifer Cannon, a former F-15E Strike Eagle weapons systems officer, in a LinkedIn post on March 8. “Interestingly, my story didn’t focus on DEI — it was about dedication, teamwork, and supporting our ground troops[.]”
“Efforts to divide the force – to put one group ahead of another – erode camaraderie and threaten mission execution,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in guidance to the force on Jan. 31. “We are proud of our warriors and their history, but we will focus on the character of their service instead of their immutable characteristics.”
TRUMP’S ‘GOLDEN DOME FOR AMERICA’ REKINDLES DECADESLONG DEBATE OVER MISSILE DEFENSES
FOX’S GRIFFIN STRIKES AGAIN: One of the most respected members of the Pentagon press corps, known for her dogged commitment to holding public servants accountable, is once again pointing out how the Trump administration can say one thing while doing another.
“DOGE cuts at TSA hit Canine (K-9) bomb sniffing units as the White House celebrates K9 Veterans Day,” Fox Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin posted on X, along with a screen grab of guidance from TSA/Security Operations National Explosives Detection Canine Team Program that said “all requests for everything to include vet visits, kenneling and dog food, etc.,” have been put on hold until further guidance has been received.
That was juxtaposed with an X post from the White House showing a smiling President Trump posing with Conan the military working dog “who fearlessly participated in the military operation that ended ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019.”
“Happy K9 Veterans Day to all of our heroic working dogs,” the post said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
THE RUNDOWN:
Washington Examiner: Putin praises Trump over Ukraine but outlines several problems he has with possible ceasefire
Washington Examiner: Russian negotiator rejects US-Ukraine ceasefire agreement
Washington Examiner: Did the US intel and military support pause lead to Russia’s Kursk advance?
Washington Examiner: Opinion: Will Trump let Putin play him with ceasefire ‘nuances’ game?
Washington Examiner: Editorial: Trump must now get tough with Putin
Washington Examiner: Schumer caves on shutdown battle with GOP, clearing way for funding bill passage
Washington Examiner: Canada warns it’s ‘canary in the coal mine’ for Trump aggression as G7 gathers in Quebec
Washington Examiner: Trump indicates change of heart for plans to relocate Palestinians out of Gaza
Washington Examiner: Trump floats Canada and Greenland takeovers in meeting with NATO chief
Washington Examiner: What is the Alien Enemies Act? Trump expected to invoke 1798 law to speed up deportations
Washington Examiner: House Oversight Committee launches investigation into Potomac plane crash
Washington Examiner: Judge reinstates thousands of federal workers and slams Trump’s ‘sham’ layoffs
Washington Examiner: Biden’s aliases draw renewed scrutiny after archives show foreign policy emails
Washington Examiner: Putin praises Trump over Ukraine but outlines several problems he has with possible ceasefire
Washington Examiner: Trump’s ‘Golden Dome for America’ rekindles decadeslong debate over missile defenses
Washington Examiner: Opinion: Putin’s spies set for American return
Washington Examiner:
Washington Post: Putin still intends Ukraine domination, U.S. intelligence reports say
AP: Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira pleads guilty to obstructing justice
AP: Pentagon continues purge of photographs it considers promote DEI, including 3 related to the Enola Gay
Roll Call: Pentagon to Unveil Cuts Alongside Fiscal 2026 Budget Request
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Space Force Asks for ‘Flexibility’ to Manage Effects of Yearlong CR
Breaking Defense: Hegseth ‘Disestablishing’ Office of Net Assessment, Pentagon’s Strategic Analysis Specialists
CBS News: Pentagon Orders Review into Military Standards, Including Fitness and Grooming
SpaceNews: L3Harris Taps Commercial AI Partners for Pentagon’s Golden Dome Program
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Air Force and Space Force Look to Expand JSE, Pair It with Other Training Tools
Air & Space Forces Magazine: ‘Peace Through Strength’ Starts with Rebuilding the US Air Force
The War Zone: B-52 Re-Engining Plan Comes into Sharper Focus
Aviation Week: USAF Eyes Executive Fleet Updates, First Military MAX Stalls
DefenseScoop: How the Air Force Is Experimenting with AI-Enabled Tech for Battle Management
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Robot Tug Could Save MQ-9 Reaper Maintainers Time, Money, and Risk
THE CALENDAR:
FRIDAY | MARCH 14
10 a.m. — National Institute for Deterrence Studies virtual discussion: “The Chinese Nuclear Threat and Implications for U.S. Security,” with Gordon Chang, author of China is Going to War; and Rick Fisher, senior fellow, Center for Security Policy https://thinkdeterrence.com/events/the-chinese-nuclear-threat
THURSDAY | MARCH 20
10 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW — Brookings Institution virtual discussion “What’s next for US defense strategy and spending?’ with Mackenzie Eaglen, senior fellow, American Enterprise Institute; Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow, and director, Brookings Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology; Stephen Tankel, associate professor, American University; and moderator: Melanie Sisson, senior fellow, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology https://connect.brookings.edu/register-to-watch
2 p.m. — Defense One virtual discussion: “State of Defense 2025: Navy and Marines,” with Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin; Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George; Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman; and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith https://events.defenseone.com/state-of-defense
THURSDAY | MARCH 27
10 a.m. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Aviation Safety, Operations, and Innovation Subcommittee hearing on “NTSB Preliminary Report: DCA Midair Collision,” with testimony from NTSB Chairman Jennifer Homendy http://commerce.senate.gov
THURSDAY | APRIL 3
9 a.m. Brussels, Belgium — Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers, with press conferences scheduled by both Rubio and NATO Secretary-General Mark Ruttehttps://www.nato.int