The President's Daily Brief
PDB Afternoon Bulletin | March 21st, 2025: Russia-Ukraine Ceasefire In Jeopardy & American Hostage Freed From Taliban's Clutches
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
Full Episode
It's Friday, the 21st of March. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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