Michael Weiss

intelligence is

is, as one active intelligence officer told me, balls deep in Ukraine to the point that how did we know within minutes that Putin was telling a lie when he said the Ukrainians tried to drone my house in Valdai?

The CIA provides targeting packages to the Ukrainians, not just to target Russian positions in occupied Ukraine, but also to target Russian positions inside Russian territory, including and especially Ukraine.

the energy infrastructure.

So one thing Donald Trump is okay with, and this goes also to his psychology, he wants to make a deal with Putin.

He wants rapprochement, if not strategic realignment, but not at the expense, not at the expense of America being top dog.

He likes to see the Russians bleed financially.

So that's why we're going after the shadow fleet, right?

Seizing these ships that are transporting oil in violation of international sanctions.

That's okay.

Zelensky doesn't matter in Putin and Trump's eyes.

He's this disposable entity.

Ukraine itself is just – it's part of a chessboard that is going to be decided between the great powers, the US and Russia.

But this puts the Ukrainians in a very difficult position, which is –

They are reliant on the United States for the intelligence and for certain bits of hardware such as Patriot long-range air defense systems, rocket artillery such as Atacoms and Gimlers that are shot by the HIMARS.

We don't give that stuff to them anymore, as Donald Trump is very keen to point out.

We sell it.

to third parties, particularly NATO countries, but also now Australia and New Zealand and others.

Japan, I think, is buying it too through this mechanism known as Pearl.

So for Trump, he's okay with – even though he says he wants to wrap this thing up and the war has to come to an end, people are dying –