ZELENSKY: ‘SUCH A STRONG COUNTRY … SUCH A WEAK REACTION’: With its ground campaign sputtering, Russia has increased its bombing of the civilian areas far from the front line, including a deadly strike of a restaurant in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s home town of Kryvyi Rih Friday.
An initial statement from U.S. Ambassador Bridget Brink infuriated Ukrainians because while she said she was “horrified” by the ballistic missile attack, which killed 20 people, including nine children at a nearby playground, she made no mention of Russia.
“Unfortunately, the reaction of the American Embassy is unpleasantly surprising: such a strong country, such a strong people, and such a weak reaction,” said Zelesnky. “They are even afraid to say the word ‘Russian’ when talking about the missile that killed the children.”
Later, Brink posted an update on X, showing an American flag at the U.S. Embassy at half-staff and expressing “deepest condolences” for the “Russian missile attack.” But Zelensky’s frustration goes beyond an inadvertent diplomatic slight. Russia, as he predicted, appears intent on stalling any ceasefire deal to continue punishing air strikes against civilians to compensate for his lack of progress on the ground.
“Every day the Russian army launches ballistic missiles; every day people are killed,” Zelensky said Sunday. “Every day brings lost opportunities for diplomacy. All this cannot be tolerated in silence.”
“One of the reasons why Russia is distorting diplomacy, why it is refusing to agree to an unconditional ceasefire – they want to preserve their ability to strike our cities and ports from the sea,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “Putin does not want to end the war. He is looking for ways to preserve the option of reigniting it at any moment, with even greater force. That’s exactly why all forms of pressure on Russia must continue.”
TRUMP: ‘I’D LIKE THEM TO STOP: Zelensky argues the U.S. is pressuring Ukraine to hold to a ceasefire that Russia is largely ignoring. “Ukraine has agreed to the U.S. proposal, the proposal of a full, unconditional ceasefire. Putin is refusing. We are awaiting a response from the United States. None has come so far.”
“We’re talking to Russia. We’d like him to stop. I don’t like the bombing,” Trump said last night, speaking to reporters on Air Force One. “The bombing goes on and on, and every week, people and thousands of young people are being killed, and it’s a horrible thing.”
Asked on Friday if Russian President Vladimir Putin is “dragging his feet,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels, “He might be.”
“We’re working through that process,” Rubio said. “You can’t end a war unless both sides agree, and that’s what we’re in the process of finding out. We will know soon enough — in a matter of weeks, not months — whether Russia is serious about peace or not.”
“If there is a ceasefire, it must be unconditional,” Zelensky said Sunday. “One that does not allow for the destruction of life.”
PUTIN IS LEADING TRUMP ON A UKRAINE GOOSE CHASE. HOW LONG BEFORE PATIENCE RUNS OUT?
UK: RUSSIA’S ‘RATE OF ADVANCE SLOWING’: As NATO’s supreme military commander, Gen. Christopher Cavoli, testified before Congress last week, Russia’s ground forces are getting bogged down trying to carry out Putin’s orders to seize more territory before the fighting stops.
The British Defense Ministry says in an intelligence update posted on X that Russia’s rate of advance began slowing in November. In the first quarter of this year, its territorial gains have dropped from 430 square miles to just three square miles a month. What little ground the Russians have gained in the central Donetsk region, where Ukrainian troops have mounted several successful counterattacks, the U.K. assessment says.
“Ukrainian forces have conducted localized counterattacks in the Pokrovsk and Toretsk directions in recent weeks, regaining lost positions in these areas and contributing to slowing Russian advances in Ukraine,” the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War says in its latest assessment.
“ISW has observed geolocated footage to concur in the assessment that the monthly rate of Russian advances in Ukraine has decreased since November 2024,” it said in noting the British report. “The U.K. MoD likely uses a different methodology or sources to assess Russian advances in Ukraine, but the U.K. MoD’s report is consistent with evidence ISW has observed of decreasing monthly Russian advances between November 2024 and March 2025.”
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Good Monday 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: BRACING FOR BLACK MONDAY: President Donald Trump’s attack on the norms of international trade has ignited a worldwide meltdown of stock markets, with many U.S. experts predicting a third day of steep sell-off of U.S. stocks today on Wall Street, that could rival the “Black Monday” stock market crash of October 1987.
Trump seemed unconcerned about the fallout from his sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs, which has wiped out more than $5 trillion in wealth of U.S. companies and devastated the 401k retirement accounts of millions of Americans. “What’s going to happen with the market, I can’t tell you, but I can tell you our country has gotten a lot stronger. And eventually, it will be a country like no other.”
Asked by a reporter on Air Force One if there was a point where “pain” in the market would become intolerable, Trump bristled, saying the question was “so stupid.”
“I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” he said.
TRUMP SIGNALS SWEEPING TARIFFS HERE TO STAY AS FUTURES MARKET PLUNGES
ALSO TODAY: NETANYAHU’S BACK IN TOWN: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with President Trump at the White House this afternoon, with a joint news conference set for 2:30 p.m.
Netanyahu’s visit — second White House sit-down since Trump’s return to office — comes as new Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip over the weekend killed at least 32 people, including over a dozen women and children.
Since relaunching its war against Hamas last month, Israel has dramatically expanded its footprint in the Gaza Strip, and according to the Associated Press, it now controls more than 50% of the territory, squeezing Palestinians into an ever-shrinking area of Gaza.
BACON: ‘RUSSIA AND CHINA ARE LAUGHING AT US’: Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) has a lot of questions about the sudden, unexplained firing of Gen. Timothy Haugh, director of the National Security Agency and U.S. cyber commander.
“General Haugh is the absolute best leader in the U.S. military to lead Cyber Command and National Security Agency,” Bacon said on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday. “He served 34 years in the military, and his entire career was working signals intelligence or cyber operations.”
“This puts us back. It hurts us,” Bacon told CBS’s Margaret Brennan, “Russia and China today are laughing at us because we just fired the absolute best leaders, the most qualified. Guys that we spent three and a half decades preparing to have this role, and he’s gone.”
“It also happened as at least six other National Security Council officials at the White House were dismissed on the advice of Laura Loomer,” Brennan said. “I’m wondering, again respectfully, sir, Republicans are in control, and you have oversight?”
“I’m the chairman of the Cyber Subcommittee, and so I guarantee you that we will have various military leaders, we’ll have the secretary of defense speak to us, and he will be asked about this,” Bacon replied. “The president does have the constitutional right to do this … but it doesn’t make it right.”
“And I have a responsibility to make clear this was wrong. It hurt us. It hurt our country,” he said.
LOOMER SAYS SHE WANTS ROLE IN TRUMP ADMINISTRATION: ‘NOTHING I WANT MORE’
THE RUNDOWN:
Washington Examiner: US starts collecting Trump’s 10% baseline tariff
Washington Examiner: Trump signals sweeping tariffs here to stay as futures market plunges
Washington Examiner: Trump confirms reports that China tariffs killed TikTok deal
Washington Examiner: Lutnick says Trump tariffs on small islands are strategic closing of trade ‘loopholes’
Washington Examiner: Brooke Rollins touts 50 countries are calling Trump to negotiate tariffs in sparring with CNN’s Jake Tapper
Washington Examiner: Starmer wants to ‘turbocharge’ UK’s industry to respond to Trump tariffs
Washington Examiner: Putin is leading Trump on a Ukraine goose chase. How long before patience runs out?
Washington Examiner: Rubio mute on Greenland as Danish foreign minister tells US annexation is ‘unacceptable and disrespectful’
Washington Examiner: US customs braces for ‘huge task’ of enforcing Trump tariffs and finding cheats
Washington Examiner: Thousands protest across the US against Trump and Musk at ‘Hands Off’ rallies
Washington Examiner: Waltz meant to add Trump spokesman to Signal chat, not Goldberg: Report
Washington Examiner: Trump administration argues judge can’t order return of man mistakenly deported to El Salvador
Washington Examiner: VA steps up rollout of new electronic health records system amid concerns over cost and support
Washington Examiner: DOGE to target Department of Homeland Security in new staffing cuts: Report
Washington Examiner: Loomer says she wants role in Trump administration: ‘Nothing I want more’
AP: Israeli Strikes on Gaza Kill 32, Mostly Women and Children
Reuters: Iran-backed militias in Iraq ready to disarm to avert Trump wrath
New York Times: US Patience on Ukraine Is Running Out, Rubio Warns Russia
AP: Ukraine will send a team to the US next week for talks on a new draft mineral deal
Wall Street Journal: China Wanted to Negotiate With Trump. Now It’s Arming for Another Trade War.
Reuters: New Zealand aims to nearly double defence spending to 2% of GDP
Washington Post: Army cites glaring failures in drone attack that killed U.S. troops
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Space Force Awards Up to $13.7 Billion in Launch Contracts
Air & Space Forces Magazine: USAF F-35 Squadrons at Lakenheath Near Full Readiness
Air & Space Forces Magazine: NSA Director, an Air Force General, Fired with No Cause Stated
Air & Space Forces Magazine: B-1 Speed Records
THE CALENDAR:
MONDAY | APRIL 7
8:30 a.m. 201 Waterfront St., National Harbor, Maryland — Navy League 2025 Sea-Air-Space Conference, April 7-9, with Vice Adm. Carl Chebi, commander, Navy Naval Air Systems Command; Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever, commander, Naval Air Forces and the Naval Air Force Pacific; Vice Adm. Jim Kilby, acting chief of naval operations; Vice Adm. James Downey, commander, Navy Naval Sea Systems Command; Vice Adm. Michael Boyle, director of Navy staff; Vice Adm. Craig Clapperton, commander, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command and the U.S. Tenth Fleet; Vice Adm. Blake Converse, deputy commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, and Vice Adm. Tom Allan, acting deputy commandant at the Coast Guard https://www.seaairspace.org
11 a.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual discussion: “The Future of U.S.-ROK-Japan Trilateral Cooperation,” with Michael Green, CSIS nonresident senior adviser; and Victor Cha, CSIS Korea chair https://www.csis.org/events/impossible-state-live
12:30 p.m. — Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies virtual discussion: “The Transatlantic Relationship and Geoeconomics,” with Renaud Dehousse, director of Johns Hopkins SAIS Europe https://sais.jhu.edu/campus-events
TUESDAY | APRIL 8
7:30 a.m. 201 Waterfront St., National Harbor, Maryland — Navy League 2025 Sea-Air-Space Conference, April 7-9, with Lt. Gen. Melvin “Jerry” Carter, deputy commandant for information at the Marine Corps; Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever, commander, Naval Air Forces and the Naval Air Force Pacific; Lt. Gen. Mark Simerly, director, Army Defense Logistics Agency; Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CN); and Vice Adm. James Downey, commander, Navy Naval Sea System Command https://www.seaairspace.org
8:15 a.m.100 Westgate Cir., Annapolis, Maryland — American Bar Association 2025 Federal Procurement Institute, with David Norquist, president and CEO, National Defense Industrial Association https://events.americanbar.org/event
9:30 a.m. G-50 Dirksen — Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the nominations of Bradley Hansell to be undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security; Earl Matthews to be Pentagon general counsel; Dale Marks to be assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment; and Brandon Williams to be Energy undersecretary for nuclear security http://www.armed-services.senate.gov
10 a.m. — Carnegie Endowment for International Peace virtual discussion: “What Comes Next for Israel?” with former Shin Bet Director Ami Ayalon; and Aaron David Miller, CEIP senior fellow https://carnegieendowment.org/events
2:30 p.m. G-50 Dirksen — Senate Armed Services Committee Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee hearing: “The U.S. Special Operations Command in Review of the Defense Authorization Request for FY2026 and the Future Years Defense Program,” with testimony from Colby Jenkins, performing the duties of the assistant Defense secretary for special operations and low-intensity conflict; and Army Gen. Bryan Fenton, commander, U.S. Special Operations Command http://www.armed-services.senate.gov
2:30 p.m. 222 Russell — Senate Armed Services Committee Seapower Subcommittee hearing: “The State of Nuclear Shipbuilding,” with testimony from Matthew Sermon, program manager at the Maritime Industrial Base; Rear Adm. Jonathan Rucker, program executive officer for attack submarines; Rear Adm. Casey Moton, program executive officer for aircraft carriers; and Rear Adm. Todd Weeks, program executive officer for strategic submarines http://www.armed-services.senate.gov
WEDNESDAY | APRIL 9
2:30 p.m. — Senate Armed Services Committee Personnel Subcommittee hearing: “Department of Defense Personnel Policies and Programs in Review of the Defense Authorization Request for FY2026 and the Future Years Defense Program,” with testimony from Army Lt. Gen. Brian Eifler, deputy chief of staff for personnel; Vice Adm. Richard Cheeseman., chief of naval personnel; Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Michael Borgschulte, deputy commandant for manpower and reserve affairs; Air Force Lt. Gen. Caroline Miller, deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel, and services; and Katharine Kelley, Space Force deputy chief of space operations for human capital http://www.armed-services.senate.gov
3:30 p.m. 2118 Rayburn — House Armed Services Committee Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing: “FY26 Strategic Forces Posture Hearing.” http://www.armedservices.house.gov
