Drone Blitz: President Trump Warns Putin He Is ‘Playing With Fire’ (From FOX News Rundown)

From May 24-26, Ukraine endured the largest airstrikes of the war so far.  On the Fox News Rundown, host John Saucier and I talked over the strikes, the importance of U.S. Patriot air defenses, Putin’s strategy and why China’s support is keeping Russia in the war.

Highlights below, and full podcast here.

Putin has gone crazy with a barrage of almost 1,000 missiles and drones launched at cities in Ukraine over the past three days.  Putin has a taste for war, and he still has an agenda he’s pursuing in Ukraine. 

The talks in Turkiye were one big fat zero.  The phone call between Trump and Putin on May 19 seemed to be more optimistic, and they talked about starting direct talks.  That didn’t happen.  What we saw was Russia launching hundreds of its Shaheed drones it buys from Iran, and also cruise missiles. 

Putin is trying to hurt Ukraine, but he’s also trying to pressure President Donald J. Trump, to get the U.S. and the West to back off.  It is not working.  Notice President Trump also said that Putin is “playing with fire.”  The most relevant option here comes out of Germany, where Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said there are no restrictions on Ukraine using weapons supplied by Britain, France and others to attack Russian military targets inside Russia.  That could enable Ukraine to get after some of the drone launch locations.

Trump does have several moves.  The number one objective is to keep up Ukraine’s air defenses, with all our systems from the Patriot to the NASAMs down to Ukraine’s own Sting counter-drone systems. We’ve got to keep strong support for Ukraine’s air defense while Putin plays this barbaric game. 

John Saucier asked if the drone attacks were achieving military results.

The military impact of the drone attacks is slight, in part because Ukraine has done really well at shooting them down, with a lot of help from the U.S. and NATO in building up those systems. 

Putin also knows that in the minerals deal with the U.S. and Ukraine, the security guarantee that Trump agreed to was air defense.  Air defense and airpower are the one thing that will lock out the Russian military, and make sure that Putin never, never gets the victory he wants in Ukraine. 

The Ukraine war has been globalized, with North Korean troops fighting for Russia and Iran producing drones in Russia under a co-production deal.  China is supporting every last piece of this diplomatically, by buying Russian oil, with supplies of micro-electronics going into Russia.

It is China’s backing that continues to make this illegal and horrible war go forward. Without China’s backing, it would never have happened in the first place.

Saucier asked about prospects for more sanctions. My answer: while I’d love to see some sanctions, my personal view is it will take some direct hits on Russian military targets, either just over the border, or in Crimea.  Putin has to see he’s taking losses on the battlefield, and could risk even what he holds now.  Maybe some economic incentives in the background.  But it looks to me like this is heading for some attacks on Russian military targets.