The President's Daily Brief
PDB Afternoon Bulletin | March 13th, 2025: Putin Pours Cold Water On Ceasefire Hopes & Houthis Threaten To Resume Attacks On Israeli Vessels
Thu, 13 Mar 2025
In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin: First, U.S. officials have arrived in Moscow to try and sell the Kremlin on a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine, but Russian President Vladimir Putin is already pushing back on the proposal, saying it does not go far enough. Later in the show, as the Iranian-backed Houthi militants of Yemen once again threaten to resume attacks on Israeli vessels operating in Mideast waters, the group is taking heightened measures to safeguard their leader from suffering the same fate as the chiefs of Hezbollah and Hamas. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the current situation regarding the ceasefire in Ukraine?
It's Thursday, the 13th of March. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. Leading off, U.S. officials have arrived in Moscow to try and sell the Kremlin on a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine. But Russian President Putin, well, he's already pushing back on the proposal, saying that it does not go far enough.
Chapter 2: Why is Putin resistant to a quick ceasefire agreement?
I know, it's shocking that Putin wouldn't just quickly agree to a ceasefire when he believes he has the upper hand and Kyiv isn't holding any cards. Later in the show, as the Iranian-backed Houthi militants of Yemen once again threaten to resume attacks on Israeli ships,
Chapter 3: What measures are the Houthis taking regarding Israeli vessels?
The group is taking heightened measures to safeguard their leader from suffering the same fate as the leadership of Hezbollah and Hamas. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. U.S. officials are in Moscow today to make a direct appeal to Russian leaders to agree to a temporary ceasefire with Ukraine, but the talks may be doomed before they even get underway.
Chapter 4: What are the Kremlin's responses to U.S. ceasefire proposals?
As we noted on this morning's PDB, Kremlin officials appeared less than enthused about the recent U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine endorsed by leaders in Kyiv, though they had yet to issue a formal response, saying they wanted to hear more details from the Trump administration.
Chapter 5: What did Putin say about lasting peace and root causes of the war?
Well, on Thursday, Russian President Putin gave a press conference where he said Moscow would not agree to an immediate end to the fighting in Ukraine, instead advocating for a deal that leads to a, quote, lasting peace and the elimination of the root causes of the war, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. But wait, I thought Russia was the root cause of the war.
Putin said that while Russia agrees with the proposal for a ceasefire in principle, well, there are nuances and also serious issues that still need to be resolved before the process can move forward. Everything from nuances to serious issues, that pretty much covers the whole spectrum.
He listed a number of these issues, including resolving the Ukrainian incursion in Russia's Kursk region and a clear plan for the West on how they plan to enforce the ceasefire and monitor potential violations. Putin said, quote, the idea itself is good and we, of course, support it, but there are questions we have to discuss, end quote.
He suggested there would need to be additional negotiations to resolve these outstanding issues with the U.S. and U.S. allies and hinted at holding a phone call with President Trump.
Chapter 6: What are the implications of Trump's remarks on the ceasefire?
Putin's response came as Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, arrived in Moscow to meet with the Russian leader and other Kremlin officials to try to move the needle on the ceasefire, though by all accounts, he does have his work cut out for him.
Meanwhile, President Trump quickly responded to Putin's press conference, telling reporters at the White House that Putin's remarks were, quote, promising, but, quote, incomplete. and that he was willing to speak with the Russian strongman to secure a ceasefire deal. Trump added, quote, Hopefully Russia will do the right thing.
Now, Putin's remarks echoed those made earlier in the day by his chief foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, who essentially dismissed the U.S. brokered proposal, saying it would give nothing to Russia while allowing Ukraine to regroup at a time when Kyiv's military is on the back foot. It's according to a report from Reuters.
He told Russian state television, quote, This is nothing other than a temporary respite for the Ukrainian military, nothing more. It only gives the Ukrainians an opportunity to gain strength and to continue the same thing, end quote.
Ushkov added, quote, our goal is a long-term peaceful settlement that takes into account the legitimate interests of our country and our well-known concerns, end quote. Yes, they're all about peace. As we've been tracking on the show, Moscow's forces have been engaged in a renewed counteroffensive in recent days aimed at recapturing the Russian Kursk region from Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces are losing ground fast, now controlling less than 60 square miles in Kursk, down from the roughly 500 square miles of territory that they held last year. Putin even visited the region on Wednesday, calling for the total expulsion of Ukrainian troops from the territory.
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Chapter 7: How has the military situation in the Kursk region changed?
On Thursday, Russia claimed to have recaptured Sudzha, that's a key town in Kursk, and one of Ukraine's last strongholds in the region. given the momentum of his military.
It appears that Putin feels he has the stronger negotiating hand when it comes to these potential peace talks and will likely not agree to any deal that doesn't address his long-term security objectives and reflect Moscow's battlefield gains. These include demands for Ukraine to renounce their pursuit of NATO membership and withdraw from four Russian-occupied regions in eastern Ukraine.
Those are demands that leaders in Kyiv strongly oppose. While President Trump appears eager to continue engaging with the Kremlin, he indicated on Wednesday that he is prepared to exert financial pressure to force Moscow to the table if need be. Trump said, quote, I could do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don't want to do that because I want to get peace.
But in a financial sense, yes, we could do things that are very bad for Russia. It would be devastating for Russia, end quote. Now, it's unclear at this stage what sanctions the White House may be referring to and how they would be enforced.
Over the past three years, Moscow has managed to avoid the worst effects of existing sanctions through the support and input from primarily China, Iran, and North Korea. Okay, coming up next, the Iranian-backed Houthi militants of Yemen are once again threatening to resume attacks on Israeli ships operating in regional waters. I'll have those details when we come back.
Welcome back to the Afternoon Bulletin. A source with Yemen's Houthi rebels say the terror group is taking extreme measures to safeguard its leader as he and his Iran-backed organization renewed threats this week to target Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea via missile and drone strikes.
Last week, Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi had set a four-day ultimatum warning that naval operations against Israel would resume unless Jerusalem lifted its blockade on aid shipments into Gaza. Well, that deadline has now expired. On Wednesday, al-Houthi made good on his threat, announcing in a speech that the terror group would escalate attacks.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has been clear. Assistance to Gaza will remain restricted unless Hamas agrees to extend the current ceasefire terms under conditions favorable to a lasting peace. But for the Houthis, the blockade is a provocation, one that they view as a violation of previous agreements.
In a statement to Newsweek, a Houthi source doubled down on the group's stance, stating, quote, a siege for a siege until the siege on Gaza is lifted, end quote. However, the Houthis in the past held a loose definition of what constitutes an Israeli ship, suggesting that other vessels could be targeted as well. The threat of Israeli retaliation does loom large.
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