Glory to Ukraine!
Glory to the defenders of Ukraine and the entire modern civilization!
Today in the issue:
- Killing in Minneapolis: What’s next?
- Is the 47th president forcing Ukraine to give up Donetsk region to Russia, and what are security guarantees
- Thomas Friedman in the New York Times: “Trump is the most anti-American president in our history”
▶ In the USA, the main event being discussed in the media, occupying more than 90% of the time in news programs, remains the brutal murder of Alex Pretty, committed in Minneapolis last Saturday morning by two federal agents. To clarify: these were not ICE agents – immigration police agents (as in the case of the no less brutal murder of Rene Good on January 7 in the same Minneapolis), but agents of the federal border patrol service, sent to Minneapolis by the 47th president along with ICE agents, allegedly for a “law enforcement operation,” but actually as a punitive expedition in a state and city that voted against the president in the elections.
In Minneapolis, before the arrival of the federal “landing party,” life was usual and everyday. The population of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolis is almost a million people. Together with all the suburbs of both twin cities – almost 4 million people. In 2025, not a single murder involving firearms was committed in Minneapolis. In January 2026, two such murders were committed. And both were committed with cynical brutality by those whom the 47th president sent to conduct the so-called “law enforcement operation.” The murdered Rene Good was a mother of three minor children who are now orphans. The murdered Alex Pretty was a nurse at the army veterans’ hospital, worked in the intensive care unit, saving people’s lives. He was attacked by his murderers because he tried to help a woman whom the same murderers sprayed pepper spray on.
The second murder in three weeks, committed in Minneapolis by people sent there by the 47th president, dressed in camouflage and masks, whom it is hard to call people.
The presidential “guard” allegedly caught illegal immigrants. And killed two US citizens.
Protests were held across the country last Sunday. In Minneapolis, people continue to demonstrate every day, bringing many flowers to the place of Alex Pretty’s murder.
The height of cynicism lies in the fact that the federal prosecutor’s office is not conducting, and there is no indication that it intends to conduct, an investigation into both murders. The Minneapolis District Attorney’s Office, which falls under the jurisdiction of the state of Minnesota, has initiated criminal cases and is conducting an investigation. However, to charge the murderers, they need evidence—such as the weapon used, the results of forensic examinations to determine which shots, by whom, were fatal. They need the identities of the shooters, which, like all other evidence, are being concealed by federal authorities. The district attorney’s office, the city of Minneapolis, and the state of Minnesota have appealed to the federal court to prohibit federal agencies from destroying physical evidence related to the murders.
Murders do not have a statute of limitations. Sooner or later, the murderers will be punished.
In the House of Representatives, Democrats are collecting signatures to initiate impeachment proceedings against the Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who oversees both immigration police and border patrol and who immediately after the murders labeled the victims as “domestic terrorists,” much like the deputy head of the presidential administration, the “grey cardinal” of internal politics of the 47th president, Stephen Miller. Noem’s impeachment will not be considered in the current House of Representatives, as Speaker Johnson will never put it on the agenda.
At the same time, at least two Republican senators, independent of Trump, have called for Noem’s resignation—either she should resign herself, or the president should dismiss her. These are Senator Tillis from North Carolina, who has declined to run for reelection to the Senate in November and is no longer dependent on the 47th president, and Senator Murkowski from Alaska—the most liberal representative of the Republican Party in the Senate, very popular in her state and therefore not dependent on Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to field his candidate against her during his first presidential term.
According to unconfirmed reports, the head of the border patrol service Bovino has been removed from office. At any rate, he has been recalled from Minneapolis, where he was leading the so-called “order maintenance operation.” On Monday, the president sent Tom Homan to Minneapolis—a person holding an unusual position in his administration, invented by Trump—“border czar.” Homan met with Minnesota Governor Walz, after which Walz cautiously expressed hope that the situation might start to deescalate and that some federal agents would leave Minneapolis.
The Department of Homeland Security, which is conducting an “internal investigation,” reported that Alex Pretty was shot by two border patrol agents who fired 10 shots. Imagine the brutality these two must possess, the cowardice required to shoot a person ten times who posed no threat to them and was in a helpless state. Yes, Pretty had a gun in his holster, for which he had a legal permit. The Second Amendment allows everyone to carry a weapon. Not just the right-wing and ultra-right. But by the time Pretty was shot, the gun had been taken from him by the feds who had attacked and knocked him to the ground. And when the gun was with him, it was in the holster. In Pretty’s hand was not a gun but a phone with which he was filming the rampage of Trump’s “law enforcement officers.”
▶ On “peace talks” and U.S. demands on Ukraine. The evil empire’s position is clear and has never changed. It is evident from the latest barbaric terrorist strikes on Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Brody, on the passenger train following the longest route in Ukraine from Barvinkove to Chop, connecting the station closest to the front line, from which passenger trains can run, to the country’s southwesternmost city on the border with Hungary and Slovakia. Putin’s goal remains unchanged – the destruction of Ukraine.
The British newspaper Financial Times, citing 8 (eight!) independent sources familiar with the situation, reported that the 47th President is pressuring Ukraine to surrender the non-occupied territory of the Donetsk region to Russia without a fight in exchange for security guarantees from the U.S.
The Deputy White House Press Secretary stated that this information is not accurate and is spread by those who want to hinder negotiations. However, the current White House press service’s reputation is such that the number of false statements made by it is hard to count. Meanwhile, the reputation of the Financial Times is indisputable, and it seems that this very respectable newspaper values its reputation too much to publish anything unchecked or uncertain.
What kind of security guarantees from the USA are being discussed is anyone’s guess. Since the topic of Ukraine joining NATO under the current administration cannot even be considered theoretically, real security guarantees could only be akin to those given by the USA to South Korea and Japan, signing mutual defense treaties with them, deploying their troops in both countries, and committing to repel any aggression against them together.
Something suggests that the 47th president is not asking for the surrender of the Donetsk region to provide Ukraine with such security guarantees.
▶ Last Tuesday marked a year since the “second coming” of Trump as president. And last Wednesday, January 21, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman wrote an article dedicated to this anniversary. This article is as relevant today as it was six days ago when it was published. It reflects the view of an American journalist, one of the most renowned active journalists.
I offer you its complete translation:
“Thomas Friedman. Trump’s Politics Is Not ‘America First.’ It’s ‘Me First.’
New York Times, January 21, 2026.
I have never subscribed to conspiracy theories about Donald Trump and Russia. I never thought he was a Russian agent or that Vladimir Putin had any financial leverage over him or compromising tapes to blackmail him. I have always believed it was much worse: that Trump, deep down, simply does not share the values of all other American presidents since World War II when it comes to America’s role in the world.
I have always thought that Trump’s value system is completely distorted, not based on any of our foundational documents, but simply favors any strong leader, regardless of what he does with his power; any wealthy leader who can enrich Trump, regardless of what this leader does with that money or how he got it; and any leader who will flatter him, no matter how obviously fake this flattery is.
Since dictator Putin matched all these criteria more than the democratic leader of Ukraine, Trump treats him as a friend — ignoring American interests and values. Putin didn’t even have to make much effort to make Trump his puppet.
For all these reasons, Trump is the most anti-American president in our history. This became obvious from the day Trump disparaged Senator John McCain, a true American war hero and patriot, for being shot down in battle and captured. What American would condemn McCain, who spent over five years in a North Vietnamese POW camp, refusing early release, knowing it would be used for propaganda purposes? No American I know would do that.
During Trump’s first term in the White House, his worst anti-American impulses and intellectual laziness were restrained by a group of serious advisors. This time, there’s no one to hold him back. He’s surrounded himself with sycophants. Therefore, Trump is now essentially running our country as he ran his companies—as a sole ruler, free to make terrible deals.
This management style led to six bankruptcies of his companies. Unfortunately, today we are all his shareholders, and I fear he will bankrupt us as a country—morally for sure, and possibly one day financially and politically as well.
Trump’s behavior has become so reckless, so self-centered, so clearly against American interests—as defined even by Republicans, not to mention Democrats—that it raises the question: Is America now ruled by a mad king?
What American president would have ever written text like the one Trump sent to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre last Sunday, claiming that one of the reasons he’s eager to grab Greenland is because he wasn’t awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? He wrote: “Considering that your country chose not to award me the Nobel Peace Prize for ending eight wars and much more, I no longer feel obligated to think solely about peace, although it will always prevail, but now I can think about what is good and right for the United States of America.”
Read these words slowly. They don’t shout “America first.” They shout: “Me first.” They shout: “I, Donald Trump, am ready to seize Greenland at the cost of unraveling a nearly 77-year-old NATO alliance because the Nobel Committee didn’t award ME their Peace Prize last year”—ignoring the fact that the Norwegian government doesn’t control the prize’s award.
It would be one thing if Trump declared he was ready to sever ties with NATO on principled geopolitical grounds affecting the security of the American people. I can’t imagine what that might be, but I can at least entertain the possibility. But it is utterly unthinkable to me that an American president would be so obsessed with receiving the Nobel Peace Prize to soothe his ego and outdo his predecessor—and match Barack Obama, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009—that he would be willing to destroy the entire NATO alliance and trade with Europe just because he didn’t receive this prize.
I try to imagine a situation where Trump dictated this note to his assistant, without any shame, and this person sent it to the Norwegians—presumably, without anyone in the White House hierarchy stopping him, without anyone saying, “Mr. President, are you crazy? You can’t place your personal ambitions to obtain the Nobel Peace Prize above the interests of the entire Atlantic alliance.”
But Trump can do this because he apparently places little or no value on the blood, resources, and energy that generations of American soldiers, diplomats, and presidents before him sacrificed to build this lasting partnership with our European allies.
Let me explain it in terms Trump should understand: if America were a company, one could say that a generation of American workers, executives, and investors built the most successful, profitable, and influential corporation in world history—the Atlantic/NATO alliance, created from the ashes of World War II. Thanks to relatively small investments in postwar Europe, known as the Marshall Plan, we created a healthy trading partner that helped make both America and Europe richer than ever; we helped turn Europe from a continent known for nationalist, ethnic, and religious wars into the largest center of free markets, free people, and the rule of law in the world, gaining a powerful democratic ally that helped stabilize the world and contain Russia for the past three-quarters of a century.
Indeed, Europe faces serious challenges, from uncontrolled migration to over-regulation and the rise of far-right parties. And yes, it often reacts indecisively. And yes, there are legitimate security concerns in the Arctic. But generations of American statesmen and presidents understood the paramount importance of the American-European union and would never even consider sacrificing it over a question of sovereignty concerning Greenland.
It is entirely clear that only a pathological narcissist, who insists on having his name on everything—from someone else’s Kennedy Center to someone else’s Nobel Peace Prize—would risk all the aforementioned for the sake of grabbing Greenland, especially considering that we already have the right to station bases in Greenland and deploy troops and missiles there. We also have the right to invest in the extraction of its minerals.
If America really were a company, the board of directors would respond to Trump’s behavior by announcing an “intervention” in the CEO’s affairs.
Unfortunately, America’s board of directors, led by the Republicans in Congress, has completely discredited itself. And now we, the people, we, the shareholders, are about to get the bill.
Meanwhile, American corporate competitors simply cannot believe their luck. Since the end of World War II, both Russia and China have understood one important thing that Trump does not: America’s competitive advantage. While Russia and China had only vassals they could coerce and compel to join them in any geopolitical or geoeconomic competition with the United States, America had a secret weapon, hidden in plain sight: allies who shared our values and were willing to take tough steps, such as sending their soldiers to fight and die in our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of those countries was Denmark, which has sovereignty over Greenland.
Russia and China dreamed that one day something would happen that would lead to America losing its allies and splitting NATO. Without economic allies, America could never be as influential in trade negotiations with China, and without America’s military power, it would be difficult for NATO to prevent Russia from reclaiming parts of Central and Eastern Europe, which it lost control over after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
And then one day their dreams came true. The American people elected a person who, whatever he says, leads us into a future where there is no place for the principle “America First,” but only “America Alone” and “Me First.”
There are 1088 days left until the end of the story titled “Fear: Trump in the White House” © (the title of Bob Woodward’s book published in 2018).
Thank you to everyone who read. Take care of yourself and your loved ones. Take care of each other, help each other. Wishing everyone good health.
Ultimately, what happens in the world depends on us. Whether we fight evil, do Good, remain mere observers, wait passively and believe that someone somewhere will decide for us, or fight evil and do everything possible for Good to prevail.
We must not allow evil to prevail. The victory of evil would mean the end of the world we live in. We cannot allow this. Especially now.
Ukrainian Friends, I embrace and love you all. Please take care of each other, I urge you.
Ukraine is and always will be.
And evil will be defeated and punished. And this is inevitable.
