MORE MEETINGS, AS PEACE EFFORTS REACH A FEVER PITCH: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has another round of meetings today with Europe’s “Coalition of the Willing” as he tries to shape the current 20-point peace proposal into something Ukraine can live with. Both French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are participating virtually in the discussions, which ostensibly focus on post-war reconstruction.
“Ukraine is working swiftly. Every visit and every negotiation we conduct always yields practical results,” Zelensky said in a video message last night. “The key principle we share is that, to ensure reconstruction is of high quality and economic growth is tangible after this war, real security must form the foundation.” And Zelensky said the most important security guarantees must come from the United States.
President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House yesterday that he had spoken by phone with the leaders of the U.K., France, and Germany. “We discussed Ukraine in pretty strong words. And we’ll see what happens. I mean, we’re waiting to hear answers before we progress,” Trump said. When questioned about what the “strong words’ were about, he replied, “I think we had some little disputes about people, and we’re going to see how it turns out.”
“They would like us to go to a meeting over the weekend in Europe and we’ll make a determination depending on what they come back with,” Trump said. “Before we go to a meeting, we want to know some things … We don’t want to be wasting time.”
“Sometimes you have to let people fight it out, and sometimes you don’t,” Trump said, once again expressing his frustration with the slow progress. “But the problem with letting people fight it out is you’re losing thousands of people a week. It’s ridiculous. The whole thing is ridiculous.”
COULD THIS WORK? In a column published Tuesday in the Washington Post, David Ignatius, a veteran foreign affairs writer, laid out the possible framework for a workable peace deal, as described to him by U.S. and Ukrainian officials:
“The negotiating package involves three documents, a Ukrainian official told me: the peace plan, security guarantees, and an economic recovery plan,” Ignatius wrote. Here are the key “ideas being explored,” according to his sources:
- A Korea-style demilitarized zone would be established along the entire ceasefire line, all the way from the Donetsk province in the northeast to the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in the south.” A reminder that the Korean War never formally ended. There has been an armistice in place since 1953.
- Ukraine would be permitted to have an 800,000-soldier army, which it would likely have post-war, with additional forces in reserve. This is a big sticking point because Ukraine, which currently has the best, battle-hardened military in Europe, is resisting any caps on its troop levels.
- Ukraine would be given “Article 5-like” security guarantees from the U.S., which Ukraine wants to be locked in and ratified by the U.S. Congress.
- Ukraine would become a European country, joining the European Union as early as 2027. $100 billion from frozen Russian assets would be transferred to Ukraine for reconstruction and recovery.
- The U.S. would take over and operate the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.
ZELENSKY’S UKRAINIAN ELECTION PROPOSAL REQUIRES GUARANTEES OF SECURITY AND LEGITIMACY
Good Thursday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Christopher Tremoglie. Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow me on Threads and/or on X @jamiejmcintyre.
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HAPPENING TODAY: With yesterday’s House passage of the annual defense policy bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act, the Senate is expected to quickly approve the bipartisan measure and send it to the White House for President Trump’s signature.
The $900 billion NDAA authorizes a 3.8% raise for troops, while civilian employees of the Department of Defense will have to wait for a final appropriations bill to pass, which is expected to include a more modest 1% raise for federal workers.
The bill, which passed the House on a 312-112 vote, includes a provision that would cut War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget by 75%, unless and until he releases the full, unedited video of the Sept. 2 strike that killed two survivors.
President Trump has said it’s up to Hegseth whether to release the video, which Democrats in Congress argue shows a clear violation of the law of war.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) touted 30 key legislative proposals he said Republicans were able to include in the annual must-pass measure, including ending “wokeness” at the Pentagon by eliminating programs, offices, and training related to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across the board.
NDAA PASSES HOUSE AFTER JOHNSON HAS TO ENDURE HOURS OF GOP DRAMA YET AGAIN
GHOST FLEET TANKER SEIZED: “We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually,” President Trump announced at the top of his roundtable event at the White House. “And other things are happening. So you’ll be seeing that later.”
That was followed by a video posted on X by Attorney General Pam Bondi, showing what appeared to be Coast Guard and U.S. troops boarding the tanker via a U.S. Navy Seahawk helicopter.
“Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and the United States Coast Guard, with support from the Department of War, executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran,” Bondi said in the post. “For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations.”
The Venezuelan government immediately protested, calling the seizure “a blatant theft and an act of international piracy.”
Asked what would happen to the oil aboard the tanker, Trump told reporters, “Well, we keep it, I guess.”
“I think that this particular tanker was probably on a sanctions list because most of these ghost ships are,” Beth Sanner, a former deputy director of national intelligence, said on CNN, where she is a national security analyst. “We’ve kept Iranian oil in the past. So I actually think that this is less controversial in terms of law and sanctions.”
The tanker seized may have been trying to conceal its whereabouts by broadcasting falsified location data, according to a New York Times analysis of satellite imagery and photographs of the ship, which it identified as the Skipper.
BONDI SAYS US-SEIZED TANKER WAS TRANSPORTING SANCTIONED OIL FROM VENEZUELA AND IRAN
WILL CAPT. KELLY LEARN HIS FATE? According to a memo posted by War Secretary Pete Hegseth, today is the deadline for Navy Secretary John Phelan to report whether Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), a retired Navy captain and NASA astronaut, should face a court-martial for the alleged unlawful comments made in a video with five fellow lawmakers last month.
The lawmakers, all of whom had served in the military or U.S. intelligence, reminded U.S. troops that they could refuse illegal orders, but did not specify what they meant by “illegal orders.”
Ahead of the decision, Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee — except Kelly — wrote Phelan, calling the review “purely political exercise.”
“We believe this ‘review’ along with the Department of Defense’s social media post announcing a ‘thorough review’ of Senator Kelly’s actions, ‘which may include recall to active duty for court-martial proceedings’ is inappropriate, threaten the separation of powers established by our Founding Fathers, amount to a purely political exercise seeking to threaten legitimate and lawful actions by a duly elected Senator, and politicize our military justice system,” the senators wrote.
READ MORE: DEADLINE DAY ARRIVES FOR NAVY REVIEW OF MARK KELLY FOR ‘ILLEGAL ORDERS’ VIDEO
THE RUNDOWN:
Washington Examiner: US seized oil tanker off Venezuelan coast: Trump
Washington Examiner: Bondi says US-seized tanker was transporting sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran
Washington Examiner: Deadline day arrives for Navy review of Mark Kelly for ‘illegal orders’ video
Washington Examiner: Zelensky’s Ukrainian election proposal requires guarantees of security and legitimacy
Washington Examiner: US to begin screening social media of foreign tourists from 42 visa waiver countries
Washington Examiner: Bowser and NTSB chairwoman rip ‘shameful’ DC airspace provision in NDAA following Potomac crash
Washington Examiner: NDAA passes House after Johnson has to endure hours of GOP drama yet again
AP: Congress would target China with new restrictions in massive defense bill
New York Times: Oil Tanker U.S. Seized Has Faked Its Location Before, Data Shows
AP: Trump administration adds militarized zone in California along southern US border
Wall Street Journal: U.S. Blueprint to Rewire Economies of Russia, Ukraine Sets Off Clash With Europe
Kyiv Post: Poland Weighs Donating MiG-29 Jets to Ukraine in Exchange for Drone, Missile Tech
Wall Street Journal: U.S. Flies Bombers in Show of Support for Japan
Wall Street Journal: Disguised and in Danger: How a Nobel Peace Prize Winner Escaped Venezuela
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Air Force Leaders, Lawmakers Move to Increase Training in the Pacific
Breaking Defense: Space Force Ramps Up Counter-Drone Defense at Cape Canaveral, Eastern Range
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Pentagon Orders Thousands of Laser-Guided Rockets for $322 Million
The War Zone: American-Made Shahed-136 Kamikaze Drone Clones Being Tested by Marines
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Lawmakers Push Funding Boost for Space Force Data Transport and Polar Missile Warning
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Strategy & Policy: A New Bomber Era Arrives
DefenseScoop: Congress Wants to Know More About the Military’s UAP Intercepts Around North America
AP: New York Times, after Trump post, says it won’t be deterred from writing about his health
THE CALENDAR:
THURSDAY | DECEMBER 11
9:30 a.m. G50 Dirksen — Senate Armed Services Committee hearing: “The administration’s deployment of the National Guard across the United States,” with testimony from Joseph Humire, acting assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and America security affairs, Charles Young, principal deputy general counsel, Department of Defense; and Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander, U.S. Northern Command. https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings
11 a.m — Peterson Institute for International Economics virtual discussion: “Rebuilding and Realignment: Economic Future for Ukraine and Russia,” with Yuriy Gorodnichenko, professor at the University of California at Berkeley; Maurice Obstfeld, PIIE senior fellow; Elina Ribakova, PIIE nonresident senior fellow; and Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, PIIE nonresident senior fellow https://www.piie.com/events/2025/rebuilding-and-realignment-economic-future-ukraine
12 p.m. — Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft virtual discussion: “Trump’s Gaza Plan and What It Means for Palestinians,” with Carol Daniel-Kasbari, non-resident fellow, Quincy Institute; Mouin Rabbani, co-editor, Jadaliyya; Muhammad Shehada, chief of communications and program, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor and visiting fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations Middle East and North Africa Program; and Khaled Elgindy, senior research fellow, Quincy Institute https://quincyinst.org/events/trumps-gaza-plan-and-what-it-means-for-palestinians/
2 p.m. 1201 Pennsylvania Ave. NW — Hudson Institute discussion: “Building U.S.-Taiwan Defense Supply Chain Collaboration: Opportunities for Co-development and Co-production,” with former Taiwan General Staff Chief Adm. Lee Hsi-Min; Betsy Shieh, consultant at Barbet Insights; Brandon Tseng, co-founder and president of Shield AI; and Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council https://www.hudson.org/events/building-us-taiwan-defense
FRIDAY | DECEMBER 12
9 a.m. 1201 Pennsylvania Ave. NW — Hudson Institute event: “Antisemitism as a National Security Threat,” with Michael Doran, senior fellow and director, Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East; Bernard Haykel, non-resident senior fellow, Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East; Rebeccah Heinrichs, senior fellow and director, Keystone Defense Initiative; Can Kasapoglu, non-resident senior fellow, Hudson Institute; Liel Leibovitz, senior fellow, Hudson Institute; and Michael Sobolik, senior fellow, Hudson Institute Invite only: [email protected]
10 a.m. — National Institute for Deterrence Studies virtual seminar, “Peace Through Strength: Renewing America’s Nuclear Deterrent, A Proposed Nuclear Posture Review for 2026,” with James Petrosky, NIDS president; Curtis McGiffin, NIDS co-founder; and Kirk Fansher, NDSs senior fellow https://thinkdeterrence.com/events/peace-through-strength
10:30 a.m. Doral, Florida — Navy Adm. Alvin Holsey relinquishes his duties as commander of U.S. Southern Command to Air Force Lt. Gen. Evan L. Pettus at the command’s headquarters. Holsey will retire after more than 37 years of service in the U.S. Navy.
10:30 a.m. 2401 M St., NW — George Washington University Project for Media and National Security a Defense Writers Group coffee and discussion with Sen. Mark Warner, vice chairman, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence RSVP: [email protected] a.m. — Atlantic Council virtual event to launch a report titled “Russian economy in 2025: Between stagnation and militarization,” with Alexandra Prokopenko, fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center; Elina Ribakova, nonresident senior fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics; Charles Lichfield, director of economic foresight and analysis and senior fellow, Atlantic Council GeoEconomics Center; Mikhail Zygar, nonresident senior fellow, Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center; and former United States Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst, senior director, Atlantic Council Eurasia Center https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/report-launch
