As the Russian invasion of Ukraine nears its third anniversary later this month, there is little doubt that Moscow has the upper hand both politically and on the battlefield.
Even though roughly 800,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded since the war’s onset, Russia has been able to absorb its losses and continue to generate combat power, while Ukraine faces a serious manpower shortage, a recent report found.
Now, President Donald Trump has vowed to end the war as relations between Washington, D.C., and Kyiv have become noticeably cooler, as evidenced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s comments on Wednesday that appeared to give Russia major concessions before negotiations on ending the conflict had even begun.
Hegseth initially told reporters that it was unrealistic that Ukraine could join NATO, or return to its pre-war borders, and he ruled out any U.S. involvement in a post-conflict peacekeeping mission.
On Thursday, Hegseth then clarified his comments when he emphasized that Trump is leading all negotiations regarding Russia and Ukraine, adding “everything is on the table” and that it’s not his job as defense secretary to “define the parameters” of Trump’s efforts to end the war.
“But simply pointing out realism like the borders won’t be rolled back to what everybody would like them to be in 2014 is not a concession to [Russian President] Vladimir Putin,” Hegseth said. “It’s a recognition of the hard-power realities on the ground, after a lot of investment and sacrifice, first by the Ukrainians and then by allies, and then a realization that a negotiated peace is going to be some sort of demarcation that neither side wants.”
As always, there’s much more news. Here’s your weekly rundown.
- Aircraft carrier collision. The Navy aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman collided with a merchant vessel in the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday, but there are no reports of flooding or injuries aboard the carrier. More information should become available in the coming days and weeks about how this collision happened. In 2017, a total of 17 sailors were killed in two separate ship collisions involving the destroyers USS John S. McCain and USS Fitzgerald. Navy Cmdr. Alfredo Sanchez, the McCain’s former commanding officer, was eventually sentenced to forfeit $6,000 in pay and awarded a letter of reprimand in 2018 after pleading guilty to dereliction of duty as part of an agreement with prosecutors. In 2019, then-Navy Secretary Richard Spencer dropped all charges against Cmdr. Bryce Benson, the Fitzgerald’s former captain, and Lt. Natalie Combs, the ship’s tactical action officer during a collision. Both Benson and Combs received letters of censure.
- The heavy burden of the Marine Corps’ most iconic role. Nothing is more emblematic of the Marine Corps’ focus on discipline, strength, and a bias for action than its drill instructors, who have just 13 weeks to turn civilians into Marines. But drill instructors face a grueling workload that can be overwhelming, especially in a military occupation where perfection is the expectation. Over the past five years, at least seven Marine drill instructors have died by suicide, including three at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina in less than three months in 2023, according to a revealing story from Military.com and the Washington Post.
- Bragg is back. Fort Liberty was just a candle in the wind. Hegseth returned the name Fort Bragg to the iconic North Carolina Army base that is home to the 82nd Airborne Division. Now, the post is named for Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, a paratrooper awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. With the stroke of a pen, Hegseth has also shown that all the handwringing and careful deliberation about changing the names of nine Army bases that honored Confederate leaders may have been overkill. In 2021, Congress created the Commission on the Naming of Items of the Department of Defense that Commemorates the Confederate States of America or Any Person Who Served Voluntarily with the Confederate States of America, or simply CNIDDCCSAAPWSVCSA, which issued its recommendations on the bases’ new names the following year. Hegseth has been on the job for nearly three weeks, and he’s already undone more than two years of deliberation and debate.
- Pentagon’s about-face on IVF. The Pentagon has made clear that it will cover the travel costs for service members who travel out of state for in-vitro fertilization treatment, or IVF. The Defense Department had announced on Jan. 29 that it had canceled a travel policy from President Joe Biden’s administration, under which the military provided travel allowances to service members to go out of state for abortions and other reproductive care, including IVF. Then on Feb. 4, the Pentagon announced it had carved out an exception so that troops could still use the travel policy for IVF. The Biden administration had implemented the policy following the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which determined the Constitution does not provide women a right to have abortions. Since then, many states to which women in the military are assigned have partially or fully outlawed abortion care.
- Ban on transgender recruits. Hegseth has ordered that the military cease bringing in new recruits who have a history of gender dysphoria, which The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota describes as “a feeling of distress that can happen when a person’s gender identity differs from the sex assigned at birth.” In his Feb. 7 memo, Hegseth also directed that “all unscheduled, scheduled, or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition for service members are paused.” The Pentagon will provide further guidance for troops who are already diagnosed or have a history of gender dysphoria. The move comes after Trump issued a Jan. 27 executive order declaring that, “Expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”
- The war against ISIS isn’t over. On Monday, forces with U.S. Central Command “enabled” Iraqi Security Forces to carry out an airstrike near Kirkuk that killed two suspected fighters with the Islamic State group, or ISIS, according to CENTCOM. “An initial post-strike clearance found the dead ISIS operatives, an explosive suicide belt, explosive material, and components of weapons destroyed in the strike,” a CENTCOM news release says. CENTCOM did not specify what role its forces played in the operation. This is the second airstrike against ISIS near Kirkuk since Jan. 31. The U.S. military has also carried out airstrikes in Somalia and Syria against ISIS and al-Qaida.
Thanks for reading this week’s Rundown!
Jeff Schogol.