TOP STORY: Russia is refusing to offer any concessions as talks over a U.S.-proposed 30-day ceasefire drag into a second month. Russian President Vladimir Putin is acting as though he’s already won, despite his forces failing to make significant gains on the ground. And President Donald Trump continues to act as though Ukraine has already lost, even as European allies have pledged 20 billion euros and Ukraine is waging an effective drone campaign against Russian targets.
Yesterday, Ukraine claimed to have destroyed the Russian missile base in the Kursk region that was the source of the Palm Sunday missile attack that killed more than 30 civilians and wounded more than 100 others in Sumy. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte visited Ukraine to deliver the message that NATO, even without the United States, “stands with Ukraine.”
“I also know that some have called NATO’s support into question in the last couple of months,” said Rutte, standing alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the port city of Odesa. “But let there be no doubt, our support is unwavering.”
THE ‘FIVE TERRITORIES’: While the White House and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff say that Russia wants a peace deal, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War points out that Putin’s “maximalist” demands have not changed since he outlined conditions in a speech last year.
“Putin demanded on June 14, 2024 that Ukrainian forces must ‘completely withdraw’ from Ukrainian-controlled territory in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson oblasts and that Ukraine must officially abandon its goal of joining NATO,” the ISW said, noting that “Kremlin officials continue to demand that Ukraine surrender territory that Russia does not currently occupy and to justify Russia’s ambitions of asserting control over independent countries, including NATO member states.”
In his Monday night interview on Fox News, Witkoff called his latest talks with Putin “compelling” and told host Sean Hannity that “it took a while for us to get to what Putin’s request is to have a permanent peace,” but “we got an answer to that.”
“This peace deal is about these so-called five territories,” Witkoff said. “But there’s so much more to it. I think we might be on the verge of something that would be very important for the world at large.”
Zelensky quickly rejected the idea that Ukraine would cede territory it now controls or recognize occupied regions as permanently part of Russia.
“Ukraine is a sovereign state, and all territories belong to the unitary state of Ukraine. Therefore, once again, only the people of Ukraine can speak about the territories of our state,” Zelensky said. “And you know that for us, it is a red line to recognize any temporarily occupied territories as anything other than Ukrainian, and particularly as Russian.”
LEAVITT: ‘WE NEED TO SEE A CEASEFIRE FIRST’: Trump continues to insist that Putin is seeking peace, even as Russia continues to insist on onerous concessions from Ukraine, including the “full demilitarization” of its armed forces, currently the world’s sixth largest military, with 980,000 troops, more than France, Germany, Italy and the U.K. combined.
“Witkoff believes that Russia wants to end this war, and the President believes that as well,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at the White House Tuesday. “There is incentive for Russia to end this war and perhaps that could be economic partnerships with the United States. But we need to see a ceasefire first. And the President and the presidential envoy, Witkoff, made that very clear to the Russians.”
Meanwhile, according to Bloomberg, the U.S. has told G7 allies it won’t endorse a statement condemning Russia’s deadliest attack on Ukraine this year because it is “working to preserve the space to negotiate peace.”
“I think it’s very clear his sympathies are with Vladimir Putin and the Russians,” Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton said in an appearance on NewsNation. “I think it shows why even though he said he could bring the war to a halt in 24 hours — he said that during the campaign — tried to get a ceasefire over the past weeks between Ukraine and Russia, and Putin has ignored that.”
“Putin continuing his attacks as recently as this Sunday against civilian targets and Trump still isn’t prepared to blame him,” Bolton said “I think Putin reads Trump is an easy mark and he’s getting what he wants.”
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Good Wednesday 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: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth meets with visiting Salvadoran Defense Minister René Francis Merino Monroy at 10 a.m. at the Pentagon.
TRUMP: ‘I WOULD LOVE TO DO THAT’: One day after President Trump was caught on a video discussing with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office how he’d like to send “homegrown” violent criminals to El Salvador’s CECOT maximum security prison, Trump doubled down on the idea in a Tuesday interview on Fox New’s Spanish language channel.
“Could we use it for violent criminals, our own violent criminals?” asked Rachel Campos-Duffy, host of Fox and Friends Weekend.
“I call them homegrown criminals. I mean the homegrowns,” Trump said. “The ones that grew up and something went wrong, and they hit people over the head with a baseball bat … and pushed people into subways just before the train gets there, like you see happening sometimes. We are looking into it, and we want to do it. I would love to do that.”
On Monday, Trump was heard telling Bukele that “Homegrowns are next. The homegrowns. You gotta build about five more places.”
El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT, has a capacity of 40,000 inmates, but is reportedly nearing capacity.
WHO LEAKED THE ELON MUSK CHINA BRIEFING? Last month, following reports by both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, Elon Musk was scheduled to receive a Pentagon briefing on the “U.S. military’s top-secret war plans for China.” President Trump labeled the reports “fake news” and lamented how “disgraceful it is that the discredited media can make up such lies.”
However, the denial was undercut when Joe Kasper, chief of staff to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, ordered an immediate investigation, including the use of polygraph tests, to identify the leaker.
“Recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information involving sensitive communications with principals within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) demand immediate and thorough investigation,” Kasper wrote in a March 21 memo, which seemed to indicate there might have been some truth to the accounts, that both newspapers attributed “two U.S. officials.”
Yesterday, in the wake of the investigation, Dan Caldwell, a top adviser to Hegseth, was unceremoniously escorted out of the Pentagon and placed on administrative leave. The Pentagon did not announce the action. Then Fox News reported that Darin Selnick, deputy chief of staff for Hegseth, was also placed on leave. “Both Selnick and Caldwell worked for Concerned Veterans for America in the past, a group formerly led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,” Fox reported.
At the time of the alleged classified China briefing, which appears not to have occurred, an angry Musk denounced the leak on his X platform. “The New York Times is pure propaganda,” Musk posted. “I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT. They will be found.”
TOP HEGSETH ADVISER ESCORTED FROM PENTAGON AND UNDER INVESTIGATION OVER DOD LEAKS
THE RUNDOWN:
Washington Examiner: Top Hegseth adviser escorted from Pentagon and under investigation over DOD leaks
Washington Examiner: Vance says US doesn’t ‘morally support’ Russia after Trump blames Zelensky for ‘millions of people dead’
Washington Examiner: White House eyes 1 million deportations — but hitting that number won’t be easy
Washington Examiner: South Korea seeks to insulate key industries from tariff wars
Washington Examiner: Two service members killed near Mexican border in vehicle crash
Washington Examiner: Russia jails four journalists linked to Alexei Navalny
AP: Israeli defense minister says troops will remain in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria indefinitely
Politico: Pentagon’s ‘SWAT Team of Nerds’ Resigns en Masse
Stars and Stripes: Space Command headquarters report reveals fears civilians would not leave Colorado for Alabama
Militarycom: Key Details Still Missing on Why Biden Made Final Call on Space Command’s HQ, New Report Details
Task & Purpose: Top Enlisted Leader of Air Force Special Operations Command Fired amid Investigation
Air & Space Forces Magazine: B-1 Bombers Jet to South Korea for Training, Flyover
Defense News: F-35 Nations Prize Spare Parts, as US Dismisses Kill-Switch Angst
Air & Space Forces Magazine: F-35 Cues Ground Artillery in ‘Minutes’ with New Data Gateway at Major NATO Exercise
The War Zone: MQ-28 Ghost Bat Is of ‘Strong Interest’ to the US Navy
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Pentagon Looks to Ground Radars to ‘Fill Gaps’ in Space Domain Awareness
SpaceNews: Startups to Demonstrate New Spacecraft Docking Technique
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Air Force Piloting Hydrogen Energy Tech for Agile Combat Logistics
Breaking Defense: Air Force Research Lab Awards PsiQuantum $10.8M for Experimental Quantum Chips
Defense One: Pentagon Seeks Feedback on How to Structure $48B Tech Research Recompete
Defense News: Opinion: It’s Time to Fully Fund the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft
DefenseScoop: Joint Staff Pursues ‘Major Step Forward’ to Enhance ORION Force Management Platform with AI
Task & Purpose: Air Force Pilots Get a New Way to Pee at 30,000 Feet
THE CALENDAR:
WEDNESDAY | APRIL 16
8:45 a.m. 1201 15th St. NW — Defense Strategies Institute Unmanned Autonomous Systems Summit, April 16-17 with Amy Smith-Carroll, acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for platform and weapon portfolio management delivering remarks on “DoD Efforts to Supply the Joint Force with Critical Unmanned and Autonomous Capabilities” https://unmanned.dsigroup.org/
9:30 a.m. — Atlantic Council virtual discussion: “The U.S. Role in Ukraine’s Energy Sector,” with Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/german-galushchenko
THURSDAY | APRIL 17
8:10 a.m. — Association of the U.S. Army “Transforming Army Installations Conference,” with Army Deputy Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. David Wilson; and Lt. Gen. Omar Jones, commander, Installations Management Command, delivers keynote remarks https://www.ausa.org/events/hot-topic/transforming-army-installations
8:45 a.m.1201 15th St. NW — Defense Strategies Institute Unmanned Autonomous Systems Summit with Vice Adm. James Pitts, deputy chief of naval operations for warfighting requirements and capabilities in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, delivering remarks on “Prioritizing Innovation to Enhance Current Naval Capabilities for Future Warfighting Needs” https://unmanned.dsigroup.org/
FRIDAY | APRIL 18
9 a.m. 1957 E St. NW — George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies Russia Program Annual Conference, with discussions on: “Russia as a Semi-Closed Society” and “War Transformations in Russia” https://therussiaprogram.org/conference_2025
TUESDAY | APRIL 22
6:15 a.m. 2425 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Virginia — Association of the U.S. Army “Coffee Series” discussion with Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Mingus https://www.ausa.org/events/coffee-series/gen-mingus
10 a.m. — George Washington University Project for Media and National Security and Special Competitive Studies Project Defense Writers Group Zoom report discussion: “Applying AI to Strategic Warning,” with Nandita Balakrishnan, a co-author, and Special Competitive Studies Project Director for Intelligence [email protected]
