Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened on Friday to unleash “hell” on Hamas until the Palestinian militant group agrees to his country’s conditions on ending the war. Katz confirmed in a post on X that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the final approval for the invasion of Gaza City on Thursday, noting the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) plans to “defeat Hamas in Gaza – with intense fire, evacuation of residents, and maneuvering.” “Soon, the gates of hell will open upon the heads of Hamas’s murderers and rapists in Gaza – until they agree to Israel’s conditions for ending the war, primarily the release of all hostages and their disarmament,” Katz warned and claimed that Gaza City will face the same fate as Rafah and Beit Hanoun, which Israel has destroyed, unless Hamas agrees to his country’s terms.
Putin’s demand to Ukraine: give up Donbas
MOSCOW, Aug 21 (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin is demanding that Ukraine give up all of the eastern Donbas region, renounce ambitions to join NATO, remain neutral and keep Western troops out of the country, three sources familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking told Reuters. The Russian president met Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday for the first Russia-U.S. summit in more than four years and spent almost all of their three-hour closed meeting discussing what a compromise on Ukraine might look like, according to the sources who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Speaking afterwards beside Trump, Putin said the meeting would hopefully open up the road to peace in Ukraine – but neither leader gave specifics about what they discussed. In the most detailed Russian-based reporting to date on Putin’s offer at the summit, Reuters was able to outline the contours of what the Kremlin would like to see in a possible peace deal to end a war that has killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people. In essence, the Russian sources said, Kyiv rejected those terms as tantamount to surrender. In his new proposal, the Russian president has stuck to his demand that Ukraine completely withdraw from the parts of the Donbas it still controls, according to the three sources. In return, though, Moscow would halt the current front lines in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, they added.
Russia controls about 88% of the Donbas and 73% of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, according to U.S. estimates and open-source data. Moscow is also willing to hand over the small parts of the Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions of Ukraine it controls as part of a possible deal, the sources said. Putin is sticking, too, to his previous demands that Ukraine give up its NATO ambitions and for a legally binding pledge from the U.S.-led military alliance that it will not expand further eastwards, as well as for limits on the Ukrainian army and an agreement that no Western troops will be deployed on the ground in Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force, the sources said. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly dismissed the idea of withdrawing from internationally recognised Ukrainian land as part of a deal, and has said the industrial Donbas region serves as a fortress holding back Russian advances deeper into Ukraine.
“If we’re talking about simply withdrawing from the east, we cannot do that,” he told reporters in comments released by Kyiv on Thursday. “It is a matter of our country’s survival, involving the strongest defensive lines.” “There are two choices: war or peace, and if there is no peace, then there is more war,” one of the people said.
NN: This ends badly for Ukraine
Trump: Impossible for Ukraine to win without attacking Russia
United States President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Thursday to explain that Ukraine does not stand a good chance of winning the war against Russia if it is only permitted to defend its territory. “It is very hard, if not impossible, to win a war without attacking an invaders country. It’s like a great team in sports that has a fantastic defense, but is not allowed to play offensive. There is no chance of winning! It is like that with Ukraine and Russia. Crooked and grossly incompetent Joe Biden would not let Ukraine FIGHT BACK, only DEFEND defend,” the president wrote, asking, “How did that work out?” Trump ended the post by promising “interesting times ahead” and reiterated that the conflict between Moscow and Kiev would never have started if he had been president, insisting there would have been “zero chance” of that happening.
IEA Weekly Petroleum Data
Summary of Weekly Petroleum Data for the week ending August 15, 2025
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) decreased by 6 million barrels from the previous week. At 420.7 million barrels, U.S. crude oil
inventories are about 6% below the five year average for this time of year. U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 17.2 million barrels per day during the week ending August 15, 2025, which was 28 thousand barrels per day more than the previous week’s average. Refineries operated at 96.6% of their operable capacity last week. Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.6 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased by 193 thousand barrels per day last week, averaging 5.3 million barrels per day. U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.5 million barrels per day last week, decreased by 423 thousand barrels per day from the previous week. Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.4 million barrels per day, 2.3% less than the same four-week period last year. Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 655 thousand barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 124 thousand
barrels per day. Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 2.7 million barrels from last week and are 1% below the five year average for this time of year. Both finished gasoline inventories and blending componentsinventories decreased last week. Distillate fuel inventories increased by 2.3 million barrels last week and are about 13% below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene
inventories increased by 2.6 million barrels from last week and are 12% above the five year average for this time of year. Total commercial petroleum inventories decreased by 4.2 million barrels last week. Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 21.1 million barrels a day, up by
3.3% from the same period last year. Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 9 million barrels a day, down by 1.2% from the same period last year. Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.7 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 4.7% from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 7.4% compared with the same four
European leaders not confident of Trump’s peace in Ukraine
The prices of crude oil rose by more than 1% as investors digested the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) private data, which showed that crude oil inventories in the United States declined by 2.4 million barrels last week. Supply concerns were also boosted by some reports showing that
European leaders are not confident that US President Donald Trump’s efforts to arrange peace in Ukraine will be successful, and that they are ready to impose stronger sanctions on Moscow.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for settlements in October climbed by 1.26% at 3:34 am ET to go for $62.47 per barrel. Meanwhile, Brent for the same month’s deliveries grew by 1.06% and went for $66.48 a barrel at 3:35 am ET.
NN: I want to be perfectly clear here. No way in hell do I believe that Putin will make a lasting peace deal in Ukraine. Which he’s slicing like a salami. He now controls 40%of the land mass {including the Crimea} of Ukrainian. the best mineral rich strategic land. Putin believes with all his evil heart and dark soul that Ukraine is part of Russia. And nothing will deter him from conquest his of Ukraine. Peace talks is a trick used by all these fascist dictatorship to buy time. They realize that the pacifist peace loving woke dopes beating their bongo drums believe that their will be peace in the valley. Their will never be peace with the Savages until they’re eliminated, humiliated and dominated. Ask Hitler and Hirohito.
Trump says Putin may not want to make a deal on Ukraine
WASHINGTON/LONDON/KYIV, Aug 19 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he hoped Russia’s Vladimir Putin would move forward on ending the war in Ukraine but conceded that the Kremlin leader may not want to make a deal at all, adding this would create a “rough situation” for Putin.In an interview with the Fox News “Fox & Friends” programme, Trump said he believed Putin’s course of action would become clear in the next couple of weeks. Trump again ruled out American troops on the ground in Ukraine and gave no specifics about the security guarantees he has previously said Washington could offer Kyiv under any post-war settlement. “I don’t think it’s going to be a problem (reaching a peace deal), to be honest with you. I think Putin is tired of it. I think they’re all tired of it, but you never know,”
Trump said.
“We’re going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks … It’s possible that he doesn’t want to make a deal,” said Trump, who has previously threatened more sanctions on Russia and nations that buy its oil if Putin does not make peace.
Ukraine and its European allies have been buoyed by Trump’s promise of security guarantees to help end the war during an extraordinary summit on Monday but face many unanswered questions, including how willing Russia will be to play ball. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed the talks at the White House as a “major step forward” towards ending Europe’s deadliest conflict in 80 years and setting up a trilateral meeting with Putin and Trump in the coming weeks.
Zelenskiy was flanked by the leaders of allies including Germany, France and Britain at the summit. His warm rapport with Trump contrasted sharply with their disastrous Oval Office meeting in February. But the path to peace remains deeply uncertain and Zelenskiy may be forced to make painful compromises to end the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Analysts say more than 1 million people have been killed or wounded in the conflict.
While the Washington talks allowed for a temporary sense of relief in Kyiv, there was no let-up in the fighting. Russia launched 270 drones and 10 missiles in an overnight attack on Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said, the largest this month. The energy ministry said Russia had targeted energy facilities in the central Poltava region, home to Ukraine’s only oil refinery, causing big fires. There is a great deal of uncertainty about the nature of security guarantees and what exactly the U.S. has in mind.” NATO military leaders were expected to meet on Wednesday to discuss Ukraine, with U.S. General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expected to attend the meeting virtually, officials told Reuters. “We are now actively working at all levels on the specifics, on what the architecture of the guarantees will look like, with all members of the Coalition of the Willing, and very concretely with the United States,” Zelenskiy said on X.
Trump told Zelenskiy after summit that Putin wants more of Ukraine, source says
WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/KYIV, Aug 16 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday Ukraine should make a deal to end the war with Russia because “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not”, after hosting a summit where Vladimir Putin was reported to have demanded more Ukrainian land.
In a subsequent briefing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a source familiar with the discussion cited Trump as saying
the Russian leader had offered to freeze most front lines if Kyiv’s forces ceded all of Donetsk, the industrial region that is one of Moscow’s main targets.
Zelenskiy rejected the demand, the source said. Russia already controls a fifth of Ukraine, including about three-quarters of Donetsk province, which it first entered in 2014.
Trump also said he had agreed with Putin that a peace deal should be sought without the prior ceasefire that Ukraine and its European allies, until now with U.S. support, have demanded.
Trump’s meeting with Putin in Alaska on Friday, the first U.S.-Russia summit since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, lasted just three hours.
“It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,” Trump posted on Truth Social.Russia has been gradually advancing for months. The war – the deadliest in Europe for 80 years – has killed or wounded well over a million people from both sides, including thousands of mostly Ukrainian civilians, according to analysts. In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump signalled that he and Putin had discussed land transfers and security guarantees for Ukraine, and had “largely agreed”.
“I think we’re pretty close to a deal,” he said, adding: “Ukraine has to agree to it. Maybe they’ll say ‘no’.”Asked what he would advise Zelenskiy to do, Trump said: “Gotta make a deal.”
“Look, Russia is a very big power, and they’re not,” he added.
Trump: I don’t think there will be a ceasefire
United States President Donald Trump said on Monday that he does not believe there will be a temporary ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine until the end of the war. “I don’t think you need a ceasefire … We can work on a peace deal while they’re fighting. They have to fight. I wish they could stop. I’d like them to stop, but strategically that would be a disadvantage for one side or the other,” Trump told journalists during his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. Additionally, the US president reiterated that he “likes the concept of a ceasefire for one reason – because you’d stop killing people immediately, as opposed to two weeks or one week or whatever it takes.”
Hamas accepts new proposal for Gaza ceasefire
Senior Hamas leader and the group’s chief negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, submitted the militant group’s updated response to the latest ceasefire proposal to Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani during their meeting in Egypt, Axios’ Global Affairs Correspondent Barak Ravid reported on Monday, citing a diplomatic source.
Meanwhile, United States President Donald Trump claimed earlier today that the only way for the Israeli hostages to be released is for Hamas to be “confronted and destroyed.”
Zelensky arrives in Washington, wants war ended ‘quickly
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X that he had arrived in Washington ahead of his visit to the White House on Monday and voiced the “strong desire” shared by himself and Kiev’s allies to end the war with Russia “quickly and reliably.” “And peace must be lasting. Not like it was years ago, when Ukraine was forced to give up Crimea and part of our East—part of Donbas—and Putin simply used it as a springboard for a new attack,” the Ukrainian leader wrote. Just earlier, United States President Donald Trump appeared to shift the responsibility for ending the war entirely onto Zelensky, saying the Ukrainian president has the option of doing so “almost immediately.” “I am confident that we will defend Ukraine, effectively guarantee security, and that our people will always be grateful to President Trump, everyone in America, and every partner and ally,” Zelensky noted in his post.
NN: ‘Et Tu Donald’ Zelensky is on time for his back stabbing. Today they cave in on Ukraine. Tomorrow its Poland….. Next the EU.
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