The Russian SMO is coming to an end on the battlefield, in months now
We start with a very exciting war and general update by Marat Khairullin. It is on his substack and cannot be embedded. Kindly do not miss it but listen on his substack here:
https://maratkhairullin.substack.com?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web
After listening, we can now go to what Kiev and the sloppy Europoodle noodles are up to. They seem to be working hard to attempt to draw Belarus into the war. Zelenski started threatening Belarus on the pretext that Belarus has some kind of drone or missile directional equipment within its borders. So Zelenski threatened that should Belarus not remove the equipment, he will quickly do it himself. That is but a dream. Yet, there may be a twist in this tail.
Kiev wants to be seen to be doing something. Kiev wants to present to its backers that it is still worth something although we all know the war is coming to an end and Russia holds the cards as to the disposition of 404 with no input from Europe. Currently all indications are that Russia will pay short shrift to any input from the US. This is why we see interest again from the US to talk about ‘a constructive role’ and the tired word from their mouths ‘peace’, as the conditions have changed, even with the US who is talking about sanctioning Russia’s oil industry again. The US empirical spirit cannot help itself. It has to threaten. It is its nature. It is young and immature. The EU is still sanctioning though one cannot even imagine what they can still find to sanction. There are comments that the US wants to buy the one functioning Nordstream pipeline from Russia and sell gas to Europe at a nicely higher price. This time though it is a day late and a dollar short.
The mood in Russia has changed materially. They want to see the war finished off and not a peace agreement before they have not pummeled Ukraine right properly into the mud. They do not want to fall again for a repeat of a Minsk, other negotiations or intoxicating spirits in Alaska. I wonder what President Putin sees when he looks into the eyes of his security council members? I’m convinced those eyes tell a different story today. I know those eyes signal: “Git it on President Putin!”! Putin depended on what is called Leader to Leader diplomacy. He still has (or had) a momentary faith that Trump could be reliable on the basis of Leader to Leader diplomacy. And then came Rubio’s comment that there was no agreement in Alaska, followed by FM Lavrov’s patient comments. Let’s take a look again at this slice of deliciously perfumed perfidy:
Question: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently said (https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/06/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-remarks-to-press-12/) that during the meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Alaska, where the situation around Ukraine was discussed, only a proposal on an approach to a settlement was put forward, and that no agreement had ever been reached there. Could you comment on this situation?
Sergey Lavrov: We are indeed receiving many questions on this subject. It is important to clarify the situation as we see it. I hope this will be clear to the audience.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said (https://www.c-span.org/program/news-conference/secretary-of-state-rubio-speaks-with-reporters-in-bahrain/681714) that in Alaska (https://t.me/MFARussia/26019) there were only proposals, not agreements on the settlement in Ukraine. Therefore, allegedly, it is unclear why Moscow is so concerned. The point is that, if we look at the full picture, several days before the meeting in Alaska (https://t.me/MFARussia/26019), US President’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff visited Moscow (https://t.me/MFARussia/25912) and brought those very proposals from President Donald Trump. We took them into consideration. President Vladimir Putin promised to give his response at the meeting in Alaska.
Already in Anchorage, when the two Presidents “sat down for talks” – Marco Rubio and I were also present – President Vladimir Putin, looking at Steve Witkoff, who was also in the room, began listing the US proposals point by point. After each point, in the presence of President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vladimir Putin asked Steve Witkoff whether he had accurately captured the ideas that the latter had brought to Moscow (https://t.me/MFARussia/25912) ahead of Anchorage.
👉 Steve Witkoff answered each time in the affirmative. Therefore, when my colleague Marco Rubio says that there were only proposals in Alaska and no agreement, this raises a question for me as to what we mean by an agreement. If one Side – in this case, the US – puts forward its settlement proposals, its ideas on how to approach this crisis, and the other Side expresses consent to these proposals, then saying that there was no agreement does not sound particularly elegant.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said (https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/06/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-remarks-to-press-12/), while speaking at another event somewhere in the Middle East, that they are ready to step forward and play a constructive role, should they have such an opportunity. He said, in effect, that bringing the parties together and ending this war is what US President Donald Trump has been trying to do for a year and a half.
All of this can probably be taken as confirmation that in Alaska (https://t.me/MFARussia/26019) there were American proposals, and that we accepted them. But the quote I have just cited raises a question from another angle. I am referring to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent remarks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYjjOX4s5wY) at congressional hearings, when he said that the US could not be a mediator because it supports Ukraine.
Now, when Washington expresses interest in playing a constructive role and bringing the parties together, this already sounds like a bid for mediation.
❗️ Of course, this entire situation needs to be clarified. But the fact remains: US proposals were discussed in Alaska, and they were accepted by the Russian Side.
Back to Belarus. We may toss this away as the usual Zelenski dreams if it was not for what you heard in Marat’s video above. This war is coming to its end and the complete shape of the end of Ukraine because of conditions on the ground is in Russia’s hands. Desperation wants to change this.
Something may yet be set up for Belarus. A friend mentions that it may be another Kursk type incursion. Again, we can toss that away to dreams if it was not for the fact that Presidents Putin and Lukashenko spent the last two days together. No, not only a few hours or a phonecall but two days of closed meetings. There is talk of more Russian troops being sent in to Belarus and these may contain some troops from the .
The end of the SMO will be world changing.
Europe is still talking war and even giving a timeline: 2028, 2029 or 2030. Yet in Germany they received 500 applications for a voluntary military call-up of 50,000. They are now talking about conscription. China is still lashing Japan with words, because the military build-up is visible. We may think we are on the cusp of tension in West Asia, but the end of the SMO, with all the tensions around that, is right in line on the tension graph. The end of the SMO, as Marat says, and according to current timelines, may be around the start of fall. Europe and Zelenski are hard at work trying to change that timeline to a war that never ends. May Russia not fall for that.