Either President Donald Trump (lead image, bottom) cannot comprehend the sequence of cause and effect. Or he cannot control his own military and intelligence operations in the war against Russia. Or Trump thinks he can deceive President Vladimir Putin (lead image, top), authorize an attack on him personally, and later, when the attack failed, and Putin retaliated with a counter-attack on Kiev, Trump is pretending “I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin…he’s sending rockets into Kiev and other cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all.”
Trump then threatened Putin directly. “We’ll see what we’re going to do.”
Follow the sequence and decide what’s cause, what’s effect.
On the morning of May 20, President Putin arrived in Kursk by helicopter; the Kremlin announced the visit the next day. Five days later, on May 25, it was revealed by the state news agency RIA-Novosti, that a drone attack had been launched from the Ukraine at targets in Kursk, including Putin’s helicopter.
Source: https://ria.ru/20250525/vertolet-2018957379.html
The targeting of the Ukrainian attack was aided by US satellite, drone, and fixed wing aircraft “aimed at gathering electronic intelligence and high-definition imagery”, transmitting Russian target and attack guidance data to Ukrainian operators. In the five days, May 20-25, they fired the largest barrage of drones and missiles recorded so far.
Russian reports indicate that “in total, our air defence units shot down more than 1104 UAVs. The most effective in the downing of enemy drones was the Oryol region, where 221 UAVs were destroyed on the flight route to the Moscow region. According to tradition, many drones were shot down in the border over the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions.”
The attack on Putin’s helicopter while he was at meetings in Kursk has not yet been reported by the military bloggers.
In the evening of May 23, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement that “from May 20 to 8 am on May 23, the number of aerial attacks amounted to multiples of what it used to be with 788 strikes by fixed-wing UAVs and Western-made missiles targeting Russian territory outside the area of the special military operation. Our air defence forces destroyed 776 drones and missiles, though unfortunately, 12 UAVs made it through our defences and hit their targets.”
The Ministry said the reason for the exceptional number of drones and missiles fired was “to thwart direct Russia-Ukraine talks facilitated by the US Administration, which are designed to settle the conflict definitively.
They also appear intended to derail the implementation of initial agreements reached in Istanbul on May 16, including a massive prisoner exchange.” The Ministry did not reveal the May 20 attack on Putin’s helicopter. The Ministry statement ended with advance notice of military retaliation:
“Without a doubt, Russia will deliver a matching response to barrages of terrorist attacks carried out by the Kiev regime. Unlike the Ukrainian side, our targets will be strictly limited to military facilities and defence industry plants. To reiterate, our fundamental commitment to a constructive search for a peaceful settlement through dialogue remains unchanged.”
Later the same day, May 23, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, answering press questions in Moscow, excused President Donald Trump from blame.
“We believe these attacks are a direct result of the support provided to Ukrainian Nazis, primarily by a number of European countries, led by the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the EU leadership. We are convinced that they bear a portion of responsibility for these crimes. We will push to bring an end to this policy. We are witnessing a clear attempt to derail peace talks and disrupt the process that began in Istanbul following an agreement between President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump which included a 1,000 for 1,000 prisoner exchange and further work on documents setting out specific conditions and requirements that are necessary to reach an agreement. We will continue working on that despite provocations…Another possible motive behind their actions is that they still hope to use some people from the US establishment to bring President Trump and his administration back into an anti-Russia camp and share responsibility or even shift the blame. But I believe they won’t succeed this time.”
In a second session with reporters, Lavrov added:
“US President Donald Trump has demonstrated a different interpretation of the situation. He has repeatedly underscored that this is not his war but Joe Biden’s. Precisely so. His stance – that the US acts in its national interest – extends to the Ukrainian context. What national interest does the USA have in Ukraine, beyond the objective pursued by Democratic administrations: to ‘contain,’ ‘encircle,’ and ‘keep Russia in perpetual tension?’
None. Economic interests, by all means – no one forbids that… Observing developments in real time, I sense that, at this stage, the Trump administration is acting precisely in this manner. We have always conducted ourselves this way: never lecturing others, never presuming to teach anyone how to live.
This marks a substantial shift in Washington’s policy compared to previous Democratic administrations. Nonetheless, we do see that this White House approach has stirred significant unease among the elites, including within Republican circles. Many are unaccustomed to living in a world where they do not dictate everything or do not seek to control all things…”
According to Lavrov, a second round of direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations will take place – but not at the Vatican – and the Russian term sheet promised at the first round will be tabled. “That, at least, is a positive development,” he added. This term sheet will include a demilitarized zone (DMZ) extending westwards from the Russian state border, including Novorossiya.
The day before, May 22, Putin had told a meeting of government ministers that his time in Kursk and the barrage which had accompanied it “only confirm what I just said: drone attacks as well as sabotage and reconnaissance actions target civilian transport, including ambulances and agricultural machinery. Most of the casualties are women and children.
As I said, a decision has been made to create a buffer security zone along the Russian border. Our Armed Forces are working on this now. They are also effectively suppressing enemy firing points.”
On May 24 and 25, the Russian retaliation took place. The drone and missile strikes reported and mapped by Boris Rozhin lasted for more than six hours.
Source: https://t.me/boris_rozhin/166020
The next day in US time, May 26, Trump escalated, blaming Putin for the retaliatory strikes but not the Ukrainians and US forces for provoking them. “I’m not happy with what Putin is doing…something happened to this guy”, he declared, repeating three times in forty seconds, “I don’t like it all”, “I don’t like it all”, “I don’t like it”.
Then came the threat: “Q: Mr President, what do you want to do about it? A: We’ll see what we’re going to do.”
By John Helmer
Published by JohnHelmer.net
Republished by The 21st Century
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of 21cir.com