Notes and Essays -- John Brown

The increasingly personal dispute complicates President Donald Trump’s efforts to broker an end to the war. Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky at the European Union headquarters in Brussels on Friday. (Nicolas Tucat/AFP/Getty Images) By Cleve R. Wootson Jr . and Sammy Westfall The Washington Post October 18, 2026 at 7:34 p.m.  President Donald Trump defended his decision to ease pressure on Russia and accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of prolonging the war Sunday, hurling blame across the Atlantic even as members of his own party criticized Trump’s approach to Moscow. In a lengthy social media post, Trump praised Russia for supplying diesel to global markets while claiming that Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries were harming American farmers and businesses. He also claimed that Zelensky “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did.” The increasingly personal attacks threaten to further strain the U.S.-Ukraine alliance and complicate Trump’s efforts to broker a...

A Message from  Misha Firer  ·  Follow Lives in Moscow Few in the West understand the depth and scope of familial, cultural, religious interconnection between Ukrainians and Russians. My wife’s grandmother is Ukrainian, and my daughter is a bit Ukrainian too. My maternal uncle’s wife is Ukrainian, three of my cousins are half Ukrainians. My cousin’s wife is from Dnipro. Many of my classmates were Ukrainians. My boss’s nephew’s wife is from Kyiv. And it is very similar to many millions of Russians. Population of Ukraine is around 40 million. Russia has 144 million. Thus the network of interrelationships is huge, enormous. Putin suggests severing them and declaring family members, friends and colleagues brain dead zombies controlled by neo-Nazis. Ruled by a Jewish president. World War Z. Russian army marks tanks and hardware with Z letters that does not exist in the Cyrillic alphabet advancing to liberate Ukrainian zombies from neo-Nazis. Putin’s propagandists have watched ...

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine pressed Sunday for more information on possible restrictions to Starshield, a U.S.-provided satellite internet service used by the Ukrainian military. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in Brussels on Friday. Credit... Nicolas Tucat/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images By Constant Méheut Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine The New York Times Oct. 18, 2026 a. m. ET Updated 10:30 a.m. ET President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed concerns on Sunday that the United States might abandon Ukraine and side with Russia, following a series of moves by the Trump administration, including what he described as ongoing restrictions on a U.S.-provided military-grade satellite internet service used by the Ukrainian army. “If the United States will officially take the side of Russia, of course if these two countries will be together, of course we will not prevail and we will not be able to stand,” Mr. Zelensky told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” in an interview conducted in...