The President's Daily Brief
PDB Afternoon Bulletin | March 21st, 2025: Russia-Ukraine Ceasefire In Jeopardy & American Hostage Freed From Taliban's Clutches
Fri, 21 Mar 2025
In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin: First, Kyiv and the Kremlin traded accusations on Friday of terrorism and deceit over the destruction of a Russian gas transit station near Ukraine’s border, in the latest sign that even a limited ceasefire between the two warring parties will be difficult to maintain despite the Trump administration’s optimism about peace. Later in the show, following negotiations with the Trump administration and Qatari officials, the Taliban has released an American hostage after holding him for more than two years in Afghanistan. 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 recent events are threatening the Russia-Ukraine ceasefire?
First up, the Trump administration's hopes for a limited ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine appear to be at risk as Moscow and Kyiv accuse each other of sabotaging a Russian gas facility and the Kremlin continues its attacks on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure.
Later in the show, following negotiations with the Trump administration and Qatari officials, the Taliban has released an American hostage after holding him for more than two years in Afghanistan. But first, today's afternoon spotlight.
Chapter 2: What led to the release of the American hostage by the Taliban?
Kiev and the Kremlin traded accusations on Friday of terrorism and deceit over the destruction of a Russian gas pumping station near Ukraine's border in the latest sign that even a limited ceasefire between the two will be difficult to maintain. regardless of the Trump administration's stated optimism about peace.
Chapter 3: How are Russia and Ukraine accusing each other of sabotage?
As we've been tracking here on the PDB, both Russia and Ukraine tentatively agreed this week to adhere to a 30-day partial ceasefire halting attacks on energy infrastructure. But the details of the proposal still need to be ironed out next week in Saudi Arabia, where the U.S. will hold separate peace talks with Russian and Ukrainian officials.
Chapter 4: What is the significance of the gas station incident?
While questions remain about how it could be formally implemented and enforced, both Russian President Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky said earlier this week that they had instructed their militaries to cease attacks on energy sites. But both countries have already accused each other of failing to uphold their word.
The latest incident came Friday when the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that Kyiv's forces blew up a critical Russian gas transit station during their retreat from the Kursk region. That's according to a report from Reuters. Video emerged Friday of a massive blaze at the Sudza facility that's located inside Russia, just several hundred meters from the Ukrainian border.
Russia's investigative committee said that they had opened a criminal investigation calling the gas transit facility's destruction a, quote, active terrorism. Well, now, that, of course, is a rather incredible statement since it's coming from the country that invaded and occupied another country.
Chapter 5: What are the reactions from Kyiv and the Kremlin regarding the ceasefire?
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, apparently in an attempt to show even less self-awareness than the Russian investigative committee, later accused Ukraine of violating the moratorium on energy infrastructure attacks, claiming it was proof that Kyiv couldn't be trusted to operate in good faith when it comes to peace talks.
But leaders in Kyiv quickly head back, accusing Russian forces of deliberately shelling the energy station in what they described as a false flag provocation. A statement from the Ukrainian Army General Staff said, quote, The Russians continue to produce numerous fakes and seek to mislead the international community.
President Zelensky's chief of staff later added, quote, Russian attempts to deceive everyone and pretend that they are adhering to the ceasefire will not work, as the fake news about the strike on the gas station will not work, end quote.
While details of the incident at the Sudza facility are still hard to verify, it comes after Russia launched a massive drone and missile bombardment early Wednesday morning that struck two Ukrainian hospitals and an energy substation in the eastern Donetsk region, and that was less than 24 hours after Putin claimed he'd given the orders to his military to cease attacks on Ukrainian energy sites.
Chapter 6: What are the implications of President Trump's optimism for peace?
Ukrainian officials say the Russian strongman is talking out of both sides of his mouth and is trying to manipulate current diplomatic talks with the U.S. to gain an advantage on the battlefield. At an EU summit in Oslo on Thursday, Zelensky said that, quote, "...nothing has changed since President Trump's phone call with Putin on Tuesday."
He told the conference, quote, Yesterday evening, another Russian strike hit our energy infrastructure. We in Ukraine face this every day and night, despite Putin's words about allegedly being ready to stop the attacks, end quote. Still, President Trump has maintained optimism regarding next week's peace talks in Riyadh, telling reporters Thursday, quote, I believe we'll get it done.
We'll see what happens. But soon after his remarks, Russia launched a large-scale drone attack on the Ukrainian port city of Odessa, hitting multiple civilian targets, injuring three people and triggering multiple fires.
Following the attack, Zelensky reiterated his skepticism regarding Putin's motivations for engaging in diplomacy with the U.S., saying, quote, the relentless aerial attacks exposed to the world Russia's true attitude towards peace. Coming up next, the Trump administration secures the release of an American hostage held for more than two years in Afghanistan by the Taliban. I'll be right back.
Welcome back to the Afternoon Bulletin. In a bit of good news, and we could all use some good news, right? An American citizen who spent more than two years being held hostage in Afghanistan by the Taliban was released on Thursday and returned to the U.S. to be reunited with his family.
65-year-old George Glesman, who worked as a Delta Airlines mechanic, was abducted while visiting Kabul as a tourist. yeah, tourism, on December 5th, 2022. That's roughly 16 months after the Taliban seized power in the country, and he languished in a Taliban detention facility for more than 800 days.
Officials said he was held in a nine-foot-by-nine-foot cell and would often be placed in solitary confinement underground for months at a time. That's according to a report from Fox News. His release followed several weeks of negotiations led by Qatari mediators and U.S. hostage envoy Adam Bowler. Now, the U.S. does not have any diplomatic presence in Afghanistan, having closed the U.S.
embassy in Kabul in August of 2021 after the Taliban's takeover. Instead, the U.S. relies on Qatar to serve as an intermediary. As mentioned, Qatari mediators have been holding discussions with Taliban officials for weeks to secure Glezman's release
But the breakthrough in negotiations reportedly only came after Austin's envoy, Bowler, met in person with the Taliban earlier on Thursday at Kabul International Airport. He traveled to the country alongside Qatari mediators and former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad. It was the first known time that the U.S.
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