ZELENSKY: ‘MAYBE TOMORROW, WE WILL HAVE TOMAHAWKS’: In a press conference following a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was feeling as upbeat as possible, considering there are no signs of a peace deal with Russia anytime soon.
Zelensky was speaking after the European Union approved its 19th sanctions package against Russia, banning future natural gas imports to the EU beginning next year, and targeting Russia’s so-called shadow fleet. That action comes on the heels of President Donald Trump’s sanctions against Russia’s two biggest oil companies and the cancellation of his planned summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Hungary.
“We waited quite a while for the 19th sanctions package, but it is finally approved. Thank you for that. This is a great success, thank you so much,” Zelensky said. “The world should respect EU sanctions the same way it respects U.S. sanctions,” he said, adding his thanks to President Trump. “When Putin avoids diplomacy, when he bluffs or escalates terror, strong pressure must bring him back to reality.”
Just a week ago, it looked like Trump was anxious to cut a deal with Putin without Ukraine’s input, Zelensky assessed. All in all, things were looking up after his latest face-to-face meeting with Trump.
“So the result of this meeting — we have sanctions on Russian energy. We don’t have a meeting in Hungary without Ukraine. And we have not yet Tomahawks. That’s it. This is the result,” Zelensky said. “I think, not bad.”
And given the American president’s mercurial nature, Zelensky hasn’t given up on the chances of Trump having a change of heart about supplying Ukraine with the long-range missiles it wants to strike deeper into Ukraine. “We will see. I don’t know, really. Each day brings something,” Zelensky said. “Maybe tomorrow, I don’t know, we will have Tomahawks.”
PUTIN: U.S. SANCTIONS ‘SERIOUS’ BUT NOT ‘SIGNIFICANT’: In a brief session with reporters at the Kremlin, Putin brushed off the U.S. sanctions, which affect nearly half of Russian oil exports, as “an unfriendly step,” which “it does not help strengthen Russia-U.S. relations.”
“Regarding the new sanctions,” Putin said. “Clearly, they will have serious implications for us, but they will not significantly affect our economic well-being.”
“It implies an attempt to put pressure on Russia,” Putin said. “But no self-respecting country and no self-respecting people ever make decisions under pressure. Without a doubt, Russia has the privilege of considering itself among those self-respecting countries and peoples.”
Putin argued the sanctions would primarily affect consumers by reducing the supply of Russian oil to the world market. “It would result in a sharp increase in the cost of oil and petroleum products, including at petrol stations, and the United States is no exception.”
“Our contribution to the global energy balance is very significant, exceedingly so. Currently, this balance serves both consumers’ and producers’ interests” he said. “Disrupting this balance is a highly thankless task.”
World oil prices jumped 5% after the announcement of the new U.S. sanctions on Russian oil, according to Reuters. Oil prices are still down more than 10% for the year so far.
TRUMP: ‘LET’S SEE HOW IT ALL WORKS OUT’: Informed by a reporter at the White House yesterday that Putin was dismissive of his sanctions, insisting they would have little effect on the war. “I’m glad he feels that way. That’s good. I’ll let you know about it in six months from now, OK?” Trump said. “Let’s see how it all works out.”
In London today, European leaders of the “Coalition of the Willing” will meet to consider strategies to ratchet up pressure on Russia heading into winter. Ahead of the meeting, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged the leaders to do more to take Russian oil and gas off the global market, unlock Russian sovereign assets to send billions to Ukraine, and increase Ukraine’s arsenal of long-range weapons.
“Time and again we offer Putin the chance to end his needless invasion, to stop the killing and recall his troops, but he repeatedly rejects those proposals and any chance of peace,” Starmer said in a statement released by his office. “The only person involved in this conflict who does not want to stop the war is President Putin, and his depraved strikes on young children in a nursery this week make that crystal clear.”
RUSSIA CALLS NEW US SANCTIONS ‘ENTIRELY COUNTERPRODUCTIVE’ AS UKRAINE CELEBRATES DECISION
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HAPPENING TODAY: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte are scheduled to hold a joint news conference at 12 p.m. Washington time, following today’s Coalition of the Willing meeting in London. The news conference will be streamed live on the NATO website.
ALSO TODAY: President Trump departs tonight for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the first stop on a weeklong trip that will take him to Japan, where he will meet Sanae Takaichi, the country’s new, conservative prime minister, and South Korea, where he will address Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and notably meet on Thursday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, amid rising trade tensions between the two countries.
“They lose $100 billion with the 20 % tariff. So, it’s not a good business proposition. It’s $100 billion, approximately, that they have to pay. It’s a big penalty to make $100 million,” Trump said yesterday. “So, I think they want to do something.”
“We have some big issues, like with the farmers and various other things. But the first question I’m going to be asking him about is fentanyl,” Trump said. “It’s one of the things we’re talking about, and I’m putting it right at the front of the list. So, they pay a very big penalty for doing that, and I don’t think they want to be doing it. And we’ll see what happens at the end of next week.”
“I think we’re going to come out very well and everyone is going to be very happy,” Trump added.
HEGSETH: WE WILL TREAT DRUG RUNNERS LIKE AL-QAEDA: Sitting next to President Trump at yesterday’s Cabinet roundtable, War Secretary Pete Hegseth was literally Trump’s righthand man, giving a full throated defense of the Pentagon’s role in target and destroying of boats suspected of carrying drugs bound for the U.S.
“Our message to these foreign terrorist organizations is we will treat you like we have treated al-Qaeda. We will find you, we will map your networks, we will hunt you down, and we will kill you,” Hegseth said. “We know exactly who these people are, we know networks they work with, what (inaudible) they’re a part of. We know where they’re going, where they originated from, what they’re carrying. And they know we know, and that will soon start to change the calculus of these boats.”
There have been at least nine lethal attacks on speedboats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, killing at least 37 people, labeled as narco-terrorists by President Trump.
“It should now be clear to the entire world that the cartels are the ISIS of the Western Hemisphere,” Trump said. “In addition to their monstrous violence, such as cutting off heads, burning their enemies alive, and burning innocent people alive too, by the way, the cartels control large swathes of territory, they maintain vast arsenals of weapons and soldiers, and they use extortion, murder, kidnapping to exercise political and economic control.”
As Trump is vowing to move his war against the cartels from the sea to “land,” he insisted he needs no authorization from Congress to use military force to protect the United States. “The drugs coming in by sea are like 5% of what they were a year ago, less than 5%. So, now they’re coming in by land,” Trump said. “The land is going to be next. And we may go to the Senate. We may go to the, you know, Congress and tell them about it. But I can’t imagine they’ll have any problem with it.”
“I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. OK? We’re going to kill them. They’re going to be, like, dead.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
THE RUNDOWN:
Washington Examiner: Russia calls new US sanctions ‘entirely counterproductive’ as Ukraine celebrates decision
Washington Examiner: Rubio notes ‘significant obstacles’ in cold press conference with Netanyahu following Knesset debacle
Washington Examiner: Trump leveraged Israel and Hamas’s fear of him to clinch ceasefire deal
Washington Examiner: Illegal fishing robs US economy of millions of dollars. Here’s what the Coast Guard is doing about it
Washington Examiner: Trump administration argues no time-limit on power to deploy National Guard
Washington Examiner: Man arrested after playing Darth Vader theme behind Guard troops, ACLU sues on his behalf
Washington Examiner: A veteran Pentagon correspondent explains why the Department of Defense was unique among military headquarters
Washington Examiner: Opinion: State Department uses ‘classified’ excuse to justify extravagant New Zealand trip
AP: US military flew supersonic B-1 bombers up to the coast of Venezuela
AP: Kim Jong Un reaffirms ties with Moscow at groundbreaking ceremony in Pyongyang
Reuters: North Korea’s Kim says military ties with Russia will ‘advance non-stop’
AP: Japan’s new leader vows to further bolster defense buildup and spending as regional tensions rise
Task & Purpose: Senate Fails to Pass Bill That Would Have Paid Troops During Shutdown
Defense One: Hegseth Fired the Air Force’s Top Lawyer. The JAG Who Took on the Job Is Stepping Away.
Defense News: Greenland Radars Vulnerable to Hypersonic Missiles, Critics Warn
Air & Space Forces Magazine: How New Religious Accommodation Rules for Beards Could Impact Airmen’s Careers
Air & Space Forces Magazine: A New Kind of CCA? Meet the Supersonic, Vertical Takeoff and Landing X-BAT
Air & Space Forces Magazine: New Report: Air Force Can’t Afford ‘Runaway’ R&D, Needs More Aircraft
THE CALENDAR:
FRIDAY | OCTOBER 24
9 a.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual media briefing: “Previewing President Trump’s Asia Visit,” with Victor Cha, CSIS Korea chair; Kristi Govella, CSIS Japan chair; Philip Luck, CSIS chair in international business; Erin Murphy, CSIS India chair; and Henrietta Levin, CSIS chair in China studies https://www.csis.org/events/press-briefing-previewing-president-trumps-asia-visit
10 a.m. — National Institute for Deterrence Studies virtual seminar: “Russia’s Evolving Tactical and Theater Nuclear Posture,” with Phillip Karber, professor of strategy and praxis at the National Defense University https://thinkdeterrence.com/events/russias-evolving-tactical-theater-nuclear-posture
TUESDAY | OCTOBER 28
9:30 a.m. G-50 Dirksen — Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the nominations of Marc Berkowitz to be an assistant secretary of defense; Joseph Jewell to be an assistant secretary of defense; James Caggy to be an assistant secretary of defense; and Brendan Rogers to be an assistant secretary of the Navy. http://www.armed-services.senate.gov
2:30 p.m. 226 Dirksen — Senate Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee hearing on “Politically Violent Attacks: A Threat to Our Constitutional Order.” http://judiciary.senate.gov
WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 29
11 a.m. Charlottesville, Virginia — University of Virginia Miller Center in-person and virtual discussion: “AI, national security, and democratic accountability,” with Ashley Deeks, Miller Center faculty senior fellow, and vice dean of the University of Virginia School of Law; Brian Lessenberry, senior national security practitioner; and Philip Potter, Miller Center faculty senior fellow https://millercenter.org/news-events/events/ai-national-security-and-democratic-accountability
THURSDAY | OCTOBER 30
9:30 a.m. G-50 Dirksen — Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the nomination of Vice Adm. Richard Correll to be commander of the U.S. Strategic Command. http://www.armed-services.senate.gov
