If our allies need to do more, they are also a benefit to our national security.

The countries that have been most discomfited by Trump 2.0 so far are probably Canada, Denmark, and Ukraine.

This is not exactly the axis of evil, or the axis of anything except countries that are either dependent on the United States or otherwise easily pushed around.

The tone of the first couple of months of the Trump administration has been overwhelmingly one of disregard at best, or contempt and hostility at worst, for our longtime allies.

US President Donald Trump accused the Ukrainian president of “trying to back out” of the minerals deal expected to be agreed between the two countries as early as this week, adding that Volodymyr Zelensky would face “big problems” if he didn’t sign an agreement. But Ukraine has highlighted that the conditions of the deal changed significantly in recent days.

On a spring morning two months after Vladimir Putin’s invading armies marched into Ukraine, a convoy of unmarked cars slid up to a Kyiv street corner and collected two middle-aged men in civilian clothes.

Leaving the city, the convoy — manned by British commandos, out of uniform but heavily armed — traveled 400 miles west to the Polish border. The crossing was seamless, on diplomatic passports. Farther on, they came to the Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport, where an idling C-130 cargo plane waited.

There was "anger," "surprise," and "panic" among the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden after Ukraine sunk the Mosvka, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, a report published by the New York Times on March 29 suggests.

The Moskva sank on April 14, 2022, after being struck by two Ukrainian R-360 Neptune anti-ship missiles. The attack marked one of Kyiv’s most significant early victories in the full-scale war and dealt a major blow to Russia’s Black Sea fleet.

It is years too late and alternative and independent media had already done so much work on exposing the reality, including 600+ page books which have been published, but the New York Times on Sunday is out with a lengthy report on The Partnership: The Secret History of America’s Role in the Ukraine War.

The war in Ukraine is at an inflection point, with President Trump seeking rapprochement with the Russian leader, Vladimir V. Putin, and pressing for an end to the fighting.

But for nearly three years before Mr. Trump’s return to power, the United States and Ukraine were joined in an extraordinary partnership of intelligence, strategy, planning and technology whose evolution and inner workings have been known only to a small circle of American and allied officials.

Russian forces have continued rolling up villages in the east and south of Ukraine on Saturday and Sunday. A full battlefield press has continued even amid President Trump's efforts to get all sides at the negotiating table.

First, on Saturday Russia's defense ministry announced the capture of the two villages of Shchebraki in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and Panteleimonivka in the eastern Donetsk region.

Donald Trump has said he is "very angry" and "pissed off" with Russian President Vladimir Putin after weeks of attempting to negotiate a ceasefire in Ukraine.

In an NBC News interview, the US president criticised Putin for attacking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's credibility, and threatened to impose a 50% tariff on countries buying Russian oil if he did not agree to a ceasefire.

Last week, Putin suggested the possibility of a UN-run government in Ukraine to organise new elections and then begin peace talks.