President Donald Trump starts out his post-Independence Day week beginning with intense meetings with members of NATO over the wars in Ukraine.
Coming off a weekend of widespread celebration of the United States’ 250 anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence that included appearances at Mt. Rushmore and at an elaborate fireworks display Saturday night, President Trump is said to be looking for peace initiatives in the coming weeks.
European leaders are said to be calling for President Trump to place pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zolenski and Russian President Valimyr Putin to come up with at least new peace talks if not a new peace plan, and Trump is said to be ready to ask Zelynskyy to propose new talks with Russia.
For its part, though, Russia has been bombarding the Ukrianian capital of Kiev with rockets and drones, causing billions of dollars in damage and killing more than a dozen people over the past several days, in response to Ukranian attacks on oil refineries and other valuable infrastructure in Russia, right up to the Russian capital of Moscow, where one oil refinery bombing sent black smoke hovering over Moscow as if it were a war zone.