May 21st, 2026: China’s Secret Ukraine Role Just Got Exposed & U.S. Pulls NATO Troops
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It's Thursday, the 21st of May. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. And apparently I'm off the road for at least a few days. So how about that? Huzzah. All right, let's get briefed. First up, European intelligence agencies now claim the Chinese military secretly trained Russian soldiers who later returned to combat operations in Ukraine. I'm shocked that Xi Jinping didn't talk about this to President Trump during their recent summit. Later in the show, new reports suggest that the Trump administration is preparing to reduce the U.S. military forces available to NATO as alliance leaders quietly brace for a smaller American footprint on the continent.
Plus, Israel intercepts another one of those Gaza-bound performative art activist flotillas and detains more than 400 people aboard the ships, bringing the high-profile effort to challenge the naval blockade to an abrupt end. And in today's Back of the Brief, Senate Democrats score a major breakthrough in their push to force an end to the war in Iran after Republican Senator Bill Cassidy joins their effort. But first, today's PDB Spotlight. China has spent years publicly insisting that it is neutral in the war in Ukraine. Beijing has repeatedly portrayed itself as a potential peace broker, calling for negotiations while accusing the West of fueling the conflict. But now, a major Reuters investigation is raising new questions about just how neutral China really is.
Well, hint, they're not neutral. According to Reuters, European intelligence agencies say that China secretly trained roughly 200 Russian military personnel inside China late last year, and some of those troops have since returned to fight in Ukraine. And if true, well, that would mark a major escalation in China's involvement in the war. We're not talking about Chinese companies quietly selling drone components or dual-use technology to Russia, which they do. We're talking about Russian troops allegedly receiving operational military training at Chinese military facilities before heading back to the battlefield to train their personnel. According to the report, the covert training program was outlined in a dual language Russian-Chinese military agreement that was signed in Beijing in July of 2025 by senior military officers from both countries.
Reuters says the agreement involved around 200 Russian servicemen traveling to Chinese military facilities in locations including Beijing and the eastern city of Nanjing. And this wasn't ceremonial training or some public military exchange program. The agreement reportedly prohibited media coverage and specifically stated that third parties were not to be informed.
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