President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened “Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions” on Russia and its allies unless Moscow strikes a deal to end the war with Ukraine.
Trump posted the threat on his social media platform, Truth Social, calling for an end to the “ridiculous War.” The president made the statement on his third day in office, calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin by name.
“I’m not looking to hurt Russia. I love the Russian people, and always had a very good relationship with President Putin &#8211; and this despite the Radical Left’s Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX. We must never forget that Russia helped us win the Second World War, losing almost 60,000,000 lives in the process,” Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113872782548137314" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>.
“All of that being said, I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE,” he continued. “If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.”
The “various other participating countries” likely include China, as well. Beijing and Moscow have grown closer in recent years, with China becoming a significant buyer of Russian energy and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/united-states-china-russia-ukraine-war-265df843be030b7183c95b6f3afca8ec" target="_blank" rel="noopener">supplier</a> of technology and equipment to support Russia’s war effort. Chinese President Xi Jinping <a href="https://apnews.com/article/putin-xi-trump-russia-china-ukraine-6947659b99fb84e204132ca5aca354a8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spoke</a> with Putin on Tuesday in a show of solidarity after Trump was sworn into office the day prior.
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Russia has also received help in the war from North Korea, which recently dispatched thousands of its own soldiers to join the fight against Ukraine.
“Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way &#8211; and the easy way is always better. It’s time to ‘MAKE A DEAL.’ NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!” Trump wrote.
Trump’s threats are the latest example of the president’s willingness to wield the United States’ economic might to pressure other countries. Trump has also threatened Canada and Mexico with tariffs unless they take action on issues such as securing their borders against illegal immigration and drug smuggling. 
The war between Russia and Ukraine has lasted nearly three years since its beginning in February 2022 with a failed Russian blitz to take Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.

Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin

Trump Threatens Tariffs, Sanctions Unless Russia Strikes Deal To End War

Donald Trump

Global Politics

Politics

Russia

Ukraine

Ukraine-Russia War

Vladimir Putin

Marco Rubio was sworn in as the 72nd U.S. Secretary of State Tuesday morning after a 99-0 vote from the Senate to confirm him on Inauguration Day.
In an interview on CBS Mornings shortly after being sworn in, Rubio emphasized the importance of ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, saying, &#8220;It&#8217;s going to be the official policy of the United States that the war in Ukraine needs to come to an end.&#8221; President Donald Trump vowed on the campaign trail to end the nearly three-year-long stalemate within the first 24 hours of being in office.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a war and a conflict that was started by Russia, but it is now a stalemate, a protracted and bloody conflict,&#8221; Rubio said. &#8220;It&#8217;s been incredibly destructive, I would argue for both Russia and Ukraine, but Ukraine is paying the biggest price of all to its energy infrastructure. To the people whose lives that are lost, to the millions of Ukrainians that have had to leave their countries and are living overseas, the conflict needs to end.&#8221;
&#8220;And it&#8217;s a policy of the United States that we want it to end, we want to do everything we can to help it end,&#8221; Rubio added.
Rubio said the Trump administration must secure peace between Russia and Ukraine and ensure that it is &#8220;sustainable.&#8221;
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&#8220;We don&#8217;t just want the conflict to end and then restart in two, three, four years down the road. We want to bring stability,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We have a lot of important and pressing issues around the world, and I think everyone should wake up this morning and be very happy that we have elected as our 47th president a man in Donald J. Trump that wants to promote peace in the world and bring an end to these conflicts.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Secretary of State Rubio: It is going to be the official policy of the United States that the war in Ukraine needs to come to an END. <a href="https://t.co/QoahJwgBUV">pic.twitter.com/QoahJwgBUV</a>
&mdash; Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1881702137690050871?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In an interview on the &#8220;Today&#8221; show, Rubio said that Trump&#8217;s foreign policy will be &#8220;as straightforward as any in modern times.&#8221;
&#8220;The priority of the Department of State of the United States is going to be the United States,&#8221; Rubio said.
<a href="https://store.dailywire.com/?srsltid=AfmBOop3MOeEHXGGtDls4eN32gVHv1qMv2_o013YPOFyTZvOlqX2hOjG" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-862379 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-1024x391.png" alt="" width="1024" height="391" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-1024x391.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-300x115.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-768x293.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-1536x587.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-2048x782.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Secretary of State <a href="https://twitter.com/marcorubio?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@marcorubio</a>: &quot;The priority of the Department of State of the United States is going to be the United States.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/o58BjWVU6r">pic.twitter.com/o58BjWVU6r</a>
&mdash; Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1881687842885407175?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Rubio was sworn in by Vice President JD Vance after the Senate&#8217;s unanimous vote to confirm him. On his first day as secretary of state, Rubio will meet with the foreign ministers of QUAD member countries Australia, India, and Japan.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Vice President Vance swears in Marco Rubio as Secretary of State.
Full video here: <a href="https://t.co/hzNSC919DE">https://t.co/hzNSC919DE</a> <a href="https://t.co/Cdh76lakDa">pic.twitter.com/Cdh76lakDa</a>
&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1881717644291653784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio Sworn In, Says War In Ukraine Must End

Marco Rubio Sworn In, Says War In Ukraine Needs To End

State Department

Trump Administration

Incoming national security adviser Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) said during an interview over the weekend the reason that Ukraine has been unable to beat Russia is because their conscription age is significantly higher than it should be, meaning that there are hundreds of thousands of soldiers that it could have access to that are not on the battlefield.
Waltz made the remarks during an interview on ABC News&#8217; &#8220;This Week&#8221; with Jonathan Karl when asked about President-elect Donald Trump&#8217;s plans to end the war in Ukraine.
Waltz said: &#8220;It&#8217;s been striking to me just since President Trump&#8217;s election, how many people have gone from just unqualified blank checks — as long as it takes, whether that&#8217;s months, years, decades in terms of perpetuating this war, which really has bogged down to a World War I style meat grinder of people and resources with World War III consequences — to now even President Zelensky walking in the room in Paris and saying, &#8216;Ready to work with you to end this war. Let&#8217;s end it justly, responsibly, in a way that protects Ukraine&#8217;s future, but ends this thing and so, the entire world can move on from it.'&#8221;
He said that Trump is working hard to get a deal done between the two sides to bring the war to a quick close.
&#8220;The other thing that we&#8217;re going to need to see is really stabilizing things on the battlefield,&#8221; Waltz said. &#8220;And one of the things that we&#8217;ll be asking of the Ukrainians is they have real manpower issues. Their draft age right now is 26 years old, not 18, I don&#8217;t think a lot of people realize that.&#8221;
&#8220;They could generate hundreds of thousands of new soldiers,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;So when we hear about morale problems, when we hear about issues on the frontline, look, if the Ukrainians have asked the entire world to be all in for democracy, we need them to be all in for democracy.&#8221;
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&#8220;And they certainly have fought bravely. They certainly have taken a very noble and tough stand,&#8221; he added. &#8220;But we need to see those manpower shortages addressed. This isn&#8217;t just about munitions, ammunition, or writing more checks. It&#8217;s about seeing the frontlines stabilized, so that we can enter into some type of deal.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Rep. Mike Waltz: &#8220;There are going to be consequences to those who think they can take an American. There is going to no longer be any upside for anyone who harms Americans abroad.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/GNWOQzOXGc">pic.twitter.com/GNWOQzOXGc</a>
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) <a href="https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/1878568332741259523?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 12, 2025</a></blockquote>

Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump

Mike Waltz Reveals Ukraine Holding Back Key Resources That Could Help It Win

Congress

Mike Waltz

President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden</a> refused to answer on Friday why he waited until the final days of his administration — after he and Vice President Kamala Harris both failed to defeat President-elect Donald Trump during last year&#8217;s election — to enact new sanctions against Russia that he himself acknowledged will raise the price of gasoline.
CNN reported that the new sanctions targeting Russia&#8217;s oil industry were some of the &#8220;harshest sanctions to date meant to cut off funding for Moscow’s war against Ukraine.&#8221;
A reporter asked Biden at a press conference if he was concerned about prices going up and why he waited until today to impose the sanctions and not years ago.
&#8220;The sanctions are imposed today because they will have profound effect on the growth of the Russian economy and make it more difficult for Putin to conduct his wars,&#8221; Biden said in avoiding answering why he waited to issue the sanctions until just a few days before Trump takes office.
Biden claimed that the sanctions would only cause gas prices to go up by three to four cents per gallon.
The sanctions targeted Russia&#8217;s largest oil companies and hundreds of oil-carrying vessels, including those that are covertly carrying oil to avoid sanctions.
The administration said that the sanctions will cost Russia “upwards of billions of dollars per month.”
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The report said that oil prices &#8220;climbed sharply&#8221; once rumors surfaced that the sanctions were coming.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Reuters’s <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffmason1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JeffMason1</a>: “Mr. President, you talked about gas prices coming down. You made today’s decision about sanctions against Russia. Are you concerned that that decision will perhaps lead to gas prices going up? And can you explain why those sanctions were imposed today and… <a href="https://t.co/cN1vGTseyE">pic.twitter.com/cN1vGTseyE</a>
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) <a href="https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1877857178263879736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2025</a></blockquote>

US-POLITICS-FIRE-BIDEN

Biden Refuses To Answer Why He Waited To Issue New Russian Sanctions That Will Increase Gas Prices

Executive

Gas Prices

Joe Biden

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2766">sanctioned</a> entities in Iran and Russia that attempted to interfere with the 2024 election.
The two entities sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) include the Cognitive Design Production Center (CDPC) a subsidiary organization of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, and the Center for Geopolitical Expertise (CGE), which directed and subsidized “the creation and publication of deepfakes and circulated disinformation about candidates in the U.S. 2024 general election.” CGE is a Moscow-based affiliate organization of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). The GRU is Russia&#8217;s largest foreign-intelligence agency.
“The Governments of Iran and Russia have targeted our election processes and institutions and sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns,” said Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith. “The United States will remain vigilant against adversaries who would undermine our democracy.”
Last September 27, OFAC <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2621">designated</a> seven individuals working with Iran who had attempted to interfere with the 2024 election.
“The Kremlin has increasingly adapted its efforts to hide its involvement by developing a vast ecosystem of Russian proxy websites, fake online personas, and front organizations that give the false appearance of being independent news sources unconnected to the Russian state,” the Treasury Department noted.
“CGE built a server that hosts the generative AI tools and associated AI-created content, in order to avoid foreign web-hosting services that would block their activity,” the Treasury Department stated. “The GRU provided CGE and a network of U.S.-based facilitators with financial support to: build and maintain its AI-support server; maintain a network of at least 100 websites used in its disinformation operations.”
“As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked,” the Treasury Department concluded.
The week of the 2024 election, federal law enforcement officials foiled a second alleged Iranian plot to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump.
The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against multiple individuals who were involved in plots to murder an Iranian dissident, two Jewish Americans, and Trump on U.S. soil.
“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-murder-hire-and-related-charges-against-irgc-asset-and-two">said</a> Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The Justice Department has charged an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump.”
Ryan Saavedra contributed to this article.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/feds-disrupt-iranian-assassination-plot-on-trump">Feds Disrupt Iranian Assassination Plot On Trump</a>

US Treasury Says It Was Breached By Chinese-Backed Hacker

Treasury Department Sanctions Iranian, Russian Entities For Interference In 2024 Election

2024 Election

Elections

Iran

Treasury Department

World

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) claimed over the weekend that President-elect Donald Trump pursuing an aggressive America First agenda on the global stage would only strengthen Russia and China.
The 81-year-old senator made the remarks during a Sunday interview on ABC News&#8217; &#8220;This Week&#8221; when asked about Trump talking about taking the Panama Canal back or trying to take over Greenland.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a serious statement because it affects America&#8217;s credibility globally,&#8221; Cardin claimed. &#8220;Our allies don&#8217;t know whether we are reliable partners or not. The Panama Canal obligations were established by a treaty ratified by Congress, by this U.S. Senate.&#8221;
&#8220;So I don&#8217;t know what the president-elect is saying in regards to how sincere he is, but I can tell you, it does raise questions globally as to whether we&#8217;re a reliable partner,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And it really feeds in to Russia and China appeal to other countries as to whether they need to make alliances with Russia and China whether America will be there for them globally.&#8221;
He claimed that Trump threatened to pull out of NATO during his first term in office without acknowledging that Trump actually got NATO members to dramatically increase their spending — thus strengthening the alliance.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Sen. Ben Cardin, outgoing chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, tells <a href="https://twitter.com/jonkarl?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JonKarl</a> that President-elect Trump&#8217;s threats to seize the Panama Canal could drive allies toward Russia and China.
“These are treaty obligations which our allies rely upon.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/YDN8aunfYb">https://t.co/YDN8aunfYb</a> <a href="https://t.co/4MbyoBBEeJ">pic.twitter.com/4MbyoBBEeJ</a>
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1873394886352707809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 29, 2024</a></blockquote>

Secretary Of State Blinken Testifies In Senate Foreign Relations Hearing

Democrat Senator Cardin: Trump Being Aggressive On Foreign Policy Helps Russia, China

Ben Cardin

China

Foreign Policy

Russian President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/vladimir-putin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vladimir Putin</a> &#8220;apologized&#8221; on Saturday to Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev after an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed in Russian airspace this week, the Kremlin said in a statement.
The Kremlin acknowledged what officials had alleged shortly after the flight crashed, that Russia &#8220;repeatedly&#8221; denied the plane permission to land at Grozny Airport.
&#8220;At that time, Ukrainian unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) attacked Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz, and Russian air defence systems were repelling these attacks,&#8221; Russia claimed.
The Kremlin said that the Russian Investigative Committee initiated a criminal investigation over the incident in which they are questioning civilian and military personnel.
Putin stopped short of taking responsibility for the airline being shot down.
Azerbaijan Airlines <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/azerbaijan-airlines-says-external-interference-caused-plane-crash" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement that the Embraer 190 aircraft crashed on Christmas because of “physical and technical external interference.”
The company suspended flights to several Russian cities following the crash due to safety risks.
“The bodies of passengers and crew members who lost their lives in the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft near Aktau, Kazakhstan, will be delivered to Azerbaijan in the near future,” the country said in a joint statement with the airline.
Of the 62 passengers and 5 crew members on board, 38 were killed and the rest were injured, many of whom are listed in critical condition.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said that there were “some early indications that would certainly point to the possibility that this jet was brought down by Russian air defense systems.”
“That said, there’s an ongoing investigation right now,” he added. “Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are conducting this jointly. We have offered our assistance to that investigation.”
Rasim Musabayov, a member of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan, said on Friday that the evidence pointing to Russia shooting down the plane was overwhelming.
“If someone thinks that we are allies with Russia and therefore we would close our eyes on everything, then they are mistaken,” he told The New York Times. “There aren’t that many countries that are on good terms with Russia now,” he added. “If Moscow doesn’t make the right steps in this situation the list might get shorter.”
He also demanded that Russia explain why the plane diverted out of Russian air space and was not allowed to land.
Sources familiar with the investigation told The Wall Street Journal that Russia not only refused to allow the plane to land on its soil, it intentionally jammed the plane’s GPS.
A local Azerbaijani publication said that the plane was redirected to land in the Kazakh city of Aktau.
“It can be assumed that this recommendation was given with one goal: to have the aircraft crash into the Caspian Sea, where all witnesses would perish and the aircraft would sink,” the publication said.
Because the plane had been targeted with GPS jammers, it stopped sending radar information about its location, which would have made it difficult to find had it crashed in the Caspian Sea.

RUSSIA-POLITICS-PUTIN

Putin Apologizes After Airliner Shot Down, Stops Short Of Taking Responsibility

Plane Crash

Azerbaijan Airlines said in its first statement since <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/plane-crash" target="_blank" rel="noopener">flight J2-8243 crashed</a> on Christmas that the incident was caused by &#8220;external interference.&#8221;
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dozens-killed-after-russia-shoots-down-passenger-jet-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">crash</a> of the Embraer 190 aircraft operating the Baku-Grozny flight was caused by &#8220;physical and technical external interference,&#8221; the airline said.
The company suspended flights to several Russian cities following the crash due to safety risks.
&#8220;The bodies of passengers and crew members who lost their lives in the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft near Aktau, Kazakhstan, will be delivered to Azerbaijan in the near future,&#8221; the country said in a joint statement with the airline.
Of the 62 passengers and 5 crew members on board, 38 were killed and the rest were injured, many of whom are listed in critical condition.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said that there were “some early indications that would certainly point to the possibility that this jet was brought down by Russian air defense systems.”
“That said, there’s an ongoing investigation right now,” he added. “Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are conducting this jointly. We have offered our assistance to that investigation.”
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Rasim Musabayov, a member of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan, said on Friday that the evidence pointing to Russia shooting down the plane was overwhelming.
“If someone thinks that we are allies with Russia and therefore we would close our eyes on everything, then they are mistaken,” he told The New York Times. “There aren’t that many countries that are on good terms with Russia now,” he added. “If Moscow doesn’t make the right steps in this situation the list might get shorter.”
He also demanded that Russia explain why the plane diverted out of Russian air space and was not allowed to land.
Sources familiar with the investigation told The Wall Street Journal that Russia not only refused to allow the plane to land on its soil, it intentionally jammed the plane&#8217;s GPS.
A local Azerbaijani publication said that the plane was redirected to land in the Kazakh city of Aktau.
&#8220;It can be assumed that this recommendation was given with one goal: to have the aircraft crash into the Caspian Sea, where all witnesses would perish and the aircraft would sink,&#8221; the publication said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Kill and hide. Azerbaijani officials tell local media that Russia hit flight J2-8243 with an anti-aircraft missile and then jammed electronics and denied permission to land in three airports, steering the damaged plane into the Caspian Sea so that it would crash there and… <a href="https://t.co/BuXePAteTJ">pic.twitter.com/BuXePAteTJ</a>
— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) <a href="https://twitter.com/yarotrof/status/1872277323254268292?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 26, 2024</a></blockquote>
Because the plane had been targeted with GPS jammers, it stopped sending radar information about its location, which would have made it difficult to find had it crashed in the Caspian Sea.
Officials do not believe that Russia intentionally shot down the aircraft as it was flying in an area where Russia has been shooting down Ukrainian drones.

PhotoFlash | Azerbaijan Airlines plane from Baku crashes near Kazakhstan’s Aktau

Azerbaijan Airlines Says ‘External Interference’ Caused Plane Crash

Airplane

General

An Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed on Christmas, killing dozens of people, was shot down by Russian antiaircraft fire, according to an investigation.
An investigation by Azerbaijan indicated that the plane was &#8220;hit by a Russian antiaircraft missile, or shrapnel from it,&#8221; The Wall Street Journal reported. Separate aviation experts said that there was visible evidence that the plane had been hit by a munition.
The flight from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, was headed for Grozny, Russia when it &#8220;suddenly diverted course when flying over a part of Russia where the military had been shooting down Ukrainian drones,&#8221; the report said. &#8220;The plane went down in western Kazakhstan near the Caspian Sea city of Aktau.&#8221;
Sources familiar with the investigation told The Journal that Russia refused to allow the plane to land on its soil and that Russia intentionally jammed the plane&#8217;s GPS.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
This is a full length video of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in Kazakhstan. What the hell happened? <a href="https://t.co/7CL6SwMne8">pic.twitter.com/7CL6SwMne8</a>
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) <a href="https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1871938369086959783?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 25, 2024</a></blockquote>
Of the 62 passengers and five crew members who were on board, 38 were killed and 29 survived — many of whom are in critical condition.
Those who survived said they heard a loud explosion that happened before the flight started having problems.
“Everyone heard the explosion,” said Subkhonkul Rakhimov, who survived the crash, in an interview with RT.
Russia’s Federal Air Traffic Agency claimed that the plane hit a flock of birds.
WSJ Chief Foreign-Affairs Correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov highlighted a report from an Azerbaijani publication that highlighted how Russia turned the aircraft out of its airspace and what Azerbaijani officials believe the reason was:
<blockquote>As is known, the Grozny airport refused to allow the aircraft to land. Moreover, the Azerbaijani aircraft was also denied landing permissions at the airports in Makhachkala and Mineralnye Vody. The disoriented crew, subjected to air defence fire and electronic warfare (EW) systems, was redirected to the Kazakh city of Aktau. It can be assumed that this recommendation was given with one goal: to have the aircraft crash into the Caspian Sea, where all witnesses would perish and the aircraft would sink.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Kill and hide. Azerbaijani officials tell local media that Russia hit flight J2-8243 with an anti-aircraft missile and then jammed electronics and denied permission to land in three airports, steering the damaged plane into the Caspian Sea so that it would crash there and… <a href="https://t.co/BuXePAteTJ">pic.twitter.com/BuXePAteTJ</a>
— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) <a href="https://twitter.com/yarotrof/status/1872277323254268292?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 26, 2024</a></blockquote>
Zaur Shiriyev, a Baku-based nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said that Azerbaijan expects &#8220;not only an apology but also an explanation as to why the pilots’ request to land was denied and why their GPS was jammed over the Caspian Sea—both of which could have saved the plane and its passengers.&#8221;
An Azerbaijan official <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/azerbaijan-airlines-flight-was-downed-by-russian-air-defence-system-four-sources-2024-12-26/">told</a> Reuters that no one believes that the aircraft was intentionally shot down but they do expect Russia to confess to what happened.
Sources told the publication that they believe a Russian Pantsir-S air defense system is what shot the plane down.
A U.S. official said that preliminary findings from the investigation showed that there were signs that the plane was hit by a Russian anti-aircraft system.
The incident was similar to a 2014 incident when Russia-backed separatists shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine, killing 298 people.

CORRECTION / KAZAKHSTAN-PLANE-CRASH

Dozens Killed After Russia Shoots Down Passenger Jet: Report

Drones

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/russia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Russian</a> authorities arrested an Uzbekistan national on Wednesday who they say admitted to killing Russian general Igor Kirillov in a bombing on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old suspect, who was not named, was captured in a village on the outskirts of Moscow following the assassination.
Russian authorities claimed that the suspect confessed to being hired by Ukraine’s military intelligence service, known as the HUR, to carry out the attack.
The assassination came just a day after Ukraine accused Kirillov — who was the head of Russia’s nuclear, biological, and chemical protection forces — of war crimes involving the use of banned chemical weapons on the battlefield.
The suspect allegedly traveled to Moscow and placed a bomb under a scooter that was near Kirillov&#8217;s home. When Kirillov and one of his aides walked outside of the building where the scooter was located, the bomb detonated, killing both men.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
VIDEO: 🇷🇺 Russian army&#8217;s chemical weapons chief killed in Moscow blast
Igor Kirillov was killed in a brazen attack which has been claimed by Kyiv, becoming the most senior military figure assassinated in Russia yet as the Kremlin&#8217;s campaign in Ukraine drags on<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AFPVertical?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AFPVertical</a> <a href="https://t.co/vw0yHF30vz">pic.twitter.com/vw0yHF30vz</a>
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) <a href="https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1869056017972986185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2024</a></blockquote>
The suspect drove a rental car to the scene and used a live video camera to give Ukraine&#8217;s intelligence services a live feed monitoring the general&#8217;s movements.
He was promised $100,000 and help getting to Europe, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/world/europe/russia-general-killing-suspect-uzbekistan.html?smid=tw-nytimes&amp;smtyp=cur">reported</a>.
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Kirillov was accused by Ukraine of using the banned chemical weapon chloropicrin nearly 5,000 times against troops in Ukraine. He was sanctioned by the U.S. and the U.K. for using the weapon.
“Kirillov was a war criminal and an absolutely legitimate target, as he gave orders to use banned chemical substances against the Ukrainian military,” a Ukrainian official told CNN. “Such an inglorious end awaits all those who kill Ukrainians. Retribution for war crimes is inevitable.”
Ukraine has killed other top Russian military officials in targeted assassinations, including two in just the last month.
Ukraine&#8217;s security services took credit for the assassination of a senior commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Russian-occupied Crimea and the assassination of a senior Russian naval officer who ordered missile strikes on civilian targets.

RUSSIA-BLAST-MILITARY

Russia Arrests Suspect In Assassination Of Top General In Moscow

Ukraine assassinated a top Russian general inside Moscow on Tuesday morning, just a day after the country accused him of war crimes involving the use of chemical weapons on the battlefield.
General Igor Kirillov, 54, became the highest-ranking Russian official killed inside Russia since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly three years ago.
Kirillov and an aide were killed after they walked out of a residential building, and a scooter packed with explosives was detonated when the two men walked by.
The blast was so powerful that it damaged windows as high as the third floor of the building and shattered windows in buildings across the street, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/17/world/europe/russian-general-bombing-moscow.html">reported</a>. Investigators said that the bomb had the same explosive yield as two pounds of TNT.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
VIDEO: 🇷🇺 Russian army&#8217;s chemical weapons chief killed in Moscow blast
Igor Kirillov was killed in a brazen attack which has been claimed by Kyiv, becoming the most senior military figure assassinated in Russia yet as the Kremlin&#8217;s campaign in Ukraine drags on<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AFPVertical?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AFPVertical</a> <a href="https://t.co/vw0yHF30vz">pic.twitter.com/vw0yHF30vz</a>
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) <a href="https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1869056017972986185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2024</a></blockquote>
Kirillov was the head of Russia’s nuclear, biological, and chemical protection forces and was wanted by Ukraine for his use of the banned chemical weapon chloropicrin against troops in Ukraine. He was sanctioned by the U.S. and the U.K. for using the weapon.
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“Kirillov was a war criminal and an absolutely legitimate target, as he gave orders to use banned chemical substances against the Ukrainian military,” a Ukrainian official told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/russian-general-kirillov-moscow-explosion-ukraine-12-17-24-intl/index.html">CNN</a>. “Such an inglorious end awaits all those who kill Ukrainians. Retribution for war crimes is inevitable.”
The report said that there had been nearly 5,000 recorded instances of Russian troops using the illegal chemical weapon under Kirillov’s orders. 
. 
Ukraine has killed other top Russian military officials in targeted assassinations, including two in just the last month.
Ukraine&#8217;s security services took credit for the assassination of a senior commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Russian-occupied Crimea and the assassination of a senior Russian naval officer who ordered missile strikes on civilian targets.

Head of Russian nuclear protection forces killed in Moscow explosion

Ukraine Kills Top Russian General In Moscow

assassination

The Assad regime in Syria is gone. 
A tectonic shift in the Middle East just happened over the weekend. On Sunday morning, Syrian rebels finally took Damascus. They took Bashar al-Assad&#8217;s palace. The Assad regime is no more. Assad has fled to Moscow where he is being granted some sort of asylum because the Russians backed the Assad regime.
It’s important to remember that Syria is an artificial creation, post-World War I by the West, French, and British. Because of that, like many other states in the Middle East, it is unworkable and has been unworkable for a very long time.
There are a large number of groups of various religious belief systems — many of them unbelievably radical, many of them terrorists — all fighting one another.
The Syrian civil war is likely to continue for a long time to come because this is an unworkable patchwork of various groups in various areas of the country.
There are numerous interests involved. The Russians are exceptionally interested in Syria because they wanted to secure ports on the Mediterranean Sea in Syria, which they actually did with the acquiescence of the Assad regime.
Iran used Syria as a thoroughfare and helped prop up the Assad regime.
Turkey, on the other hand, did not like the Assad regime and was also attempting to make its own incursions into Syria. That is because many people in Syria are Kurds and the Turks don&#8217;t like the Kurds in the same way they don&#8217;t like the Armenians.
Israel wants to defend itself and make sure that it is not the victim of yet another land incursion from Syria.
So Syria, as is geopolitically evident, is just a mess. That’s without even getting into the internal politics.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2100-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
Syria is split into many different territories. Certain opposition groups in the south of Syria border the Golan Heights and Jordan. Some of those are radical Sunni Islamists. Some of those are Druze. 
The main terrorist-rebel coalition is located in the northwest of Syria. That coalition is run by a person named Abu Mohammed al-Golani, an Al-Qaeda and ISIS-affiliated terrorist. He’s in the north and backed by the Turks.
The Kurds are in control of a large swath of the northeast area that was, at one time, not under the control of the Kurds but under the control of ISIS, where ISIS still has a presence. ISIS prisons held tens of thousands of prisoners in those Kurdish areas.
After the Assad regime fell, the United States started launching airstrikes in these ISIS-type hotbeds in the Kurdish area of Syria in order to prevent ISIS from reconstituting. Turkey also has taken over huge swaths of the north of Syria.
All the pretense from the media asserting that the people who just took over Syria might be moderate is flat wrong.
By 2024, the Assad regime basically had no money. Their currency was effectively worthless; there were massive inflation rates. The Assad regime had to be propped up by outside forces, Iran and Russia. Russia gave them weaponry and other resources; in return, they got access to some coastal bases in Syria.
Then, October 7 happened. Iran activated Hamas. Hamas murdered 1,200 Jews and pulled 250 more into Gaza, many of whom are still being held in the terror tunnels. Hezbollah started firing thousands of missiles over the course of a year into northern Israel, clearing out Israel&#8217;s north.
Over the course of the subsequent year, Israel proceeded to take out Hamas and virtually all of their military resources, then turned to devastating Hezbollah. They also conducted operations in Syria to prevent Syria from being used as a thoroughfare for Hezbollah resources. So Iran’s sphere of influence got absolutely shellacked.
Meanwhile, Russia was bogged down in their war with Ukraine. They simply didn&#8217;t have the money or the capacity to uphold the Assad regime.
As a byproduct of the Ukraine war and Israel’s efforts, Assad had no allies upon whom to call. The legs of the stool on which his regime was standing got kicked out from underneath him and, as a result, the stool fell.
What happened in Syria was not that the Sunni Muslim terrorist groups suddenly became good at war again. They were really low ebb at the beginning of 2024. What happened is that Assad was basically an eggshell skull. They tapped him. He fell. There was no one to come to his support.
Thus, the terrorist-rebels took advantage and toppled the regime. That&#8217;s effectively the story here. Turkey backed many of these Sunni Muslim terrorist groups that hated the Assad regime. Wishing to expand their own sphere of influence into Syria, they took advantage of the chaos caused by Iran and Russia&#8217;s withdrawal.
The two biggest losers in this situation are Russia, because they had backed the Assad regime, and Iran, which has lost their entire crescent of Islamic Shia terror. Hamas is gone. Hezbollah is gone. Assad is gone. These are all massive blows to the Iranian regime, all caused by what Iran started. It is one of the ultimate “f*** around and find out” moments in human history.
The Iranian regime is in serious trouble right now. They have failed on every possible front. And with the Trump administration coming in and presumably increasing sanctions on the Iranian regime, the Iranian regime is going to have one of two choices: Either they&#8217;re going to have to cut some sort of deal with the West in which they abandon their nuclear efforts and presumably move toward some form of non-tyranny or they&#8217;re going to be forced to collapse. The state of Israel is not going to sit around waiting to see what Iran does next with its nuclear weapons — not after Israel already took out Iran’s air defenses.
The big winner in Syria is Turkey. Turkey took an enormous amount of territory. The Kurds had basically cleared an enormous amount of territory. But now they&#8217;re going to be at war directly with the Turks, who are going to be pouring forces and resources into that region.
As for Israel, they can be happy that the Iranian regime has lost power to use Syria as its tool. But the people replacing that regime are Al-Qaeda and ISIS jihadists.
The fate of many people in Syria remains very much in doubt.
Welcome to the Middle East, where there are no good solutions.
* * *
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