Robert Wilkie to Newsmax: Trump Will 'Break the Russian Economy' By Sandy Fitzgerald | Saturday, 02 August 2025 If Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to hold out past President Donald Trump's shortened deadline for a ceasefire with Ukraine, Trump will most likely repeat his first-term playbook and "break the Russian economy," with sanctions on oil exports, former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie said on Newsmax Saturday. "I think we'll see an enhanced replay of what President Trump did in the first administration, which was really to break the Russian economy, break the Russian banking system, but this time, the impact will be on the one thing that Russia exports," said Wilkie on Newsmax's "Saturday Agenda." "He's sending a message to China and to India that Putin is on the verge of having extreme sanctions put on any country that buys Russian oil and gas," he added. And Putin, said Wilkie, "cannot survive his war." "The economy cannot survive if Russia's oil goes below $40 a barrel," he added. "It's sitting at about $43, and if Trump restricts countries from buying that stuff, Putin's economy is going to spiral out of control and he can't continue his war." Wilkie predicted that Putin will continue his actions up to the last minute of "trying to kill as many civilians as possible." "This is a traditional Russian barbarism," he said. "He's not making any headway on the battlefield, so he's trying to terrorize the civilian population into submission again. Donald Trump holds all the arrows. Putin cannot continue if Donald Trump pulls these economic levers." But Putin won't go to extremes, said Wilkie, as he's "not a homicidal maniac like Hitler, or even to some extent, Stalin or Mao." "He wants to survive," he said. "He wants to be rich. The pillars of his regime are rich people that he allowed to become billionaires, and I don't think he wants to risk that. I think he will try to find some way to squirm out of this." Putin has also had 1 million casualties in less than three years with his war against Ukraine, including 500,000 or more dead on the battlefield, said Wilkie. "We had 56,000 dead in 10 years of Vietnam," he said. "We had 600,000 wounded. HE's gone far beyond that and is not making any progress." It's also "nonsensical" to think that Putin could turn to tackle Finland or Poland, "much less the United States," as he can't defeat Ukraine, said Wilkie. Putin's endgame, he continued, is to recreate the former Russian Empire. "When Ukraine became an independent state, he considered that one of the great calamities in Russian history," said Wilkie. "He wants to turn the Baltics into pliant clients of Russia and then threaten the former Soviet clients in Eastern Europe." Putin has also awakened "sleeping military giants" in Sweden and Finland, he said. "Finland has more artillery tubes than any country on the planet, and they're all pointed in one direction, and that's Russia," said Wilkie. "The last time the Russians came across the Finnish border at the beginning of World War II, they lost 380,000 troops in three months. So that's not one that he wants to bite off on."
Trump & Putin will scratch each others back, Putin with the help from Teflon Don will find a way out, they both will. The biggest thankyou should be towards Biden.
One of the persistent conditions of ending the war in Ukraine being demanded by Putin is that Ukraine be demilitarized and neutral after the war. Man, is that ever going in the opposite direction. The Europeans are investing more in Ukrainian production for the defense of Ukraine but also to turn Ukraine into an arms production center for Europe. Not something Vlad wants to see in his "demilitarized" Ukraine. And the more he insists on Ukraine not having anything to do with NATO, the more it creates a need for Ukraine to develop a non-NATO homegrown defense. Quite an about-face for Germany. You may recall that under previous leadership at the beginning of the war, Germany was a clown show that offered Ukraine just helmets for defense. Clown show incarnate. The other obvious thing here (that Vlad does not want to see but he is continuing to see) is that Ukraine is taking out very long distance deep-inside Russia targets with non-American weaponry. That has messed up Putin's little routine where he has previously whined to Trump about Ukraine hitting targets inside Russia (so unfair, blah, blah, blah. why should they be allowed to do that?) while Russia targeted everything that moved in Ukraine. So Vlad would call Trump up and whine and Trump would either threaten or actually cut off aid to Ukraine. Well that has fallen apart a bit. Attacks deep inside Russia are here to stay. And Trump is willing to look more and more the other way if American weapons are not being used. And Vlad does not who to whine to now. He deals with it by just killing more civilians in Kiev which only causes Trump to give more defensive/patriot type weapons. Also something Vlad does not want to see. Be careful Vlad. It can get ugly when good love goes bad. Long-distance arms: German money for Ukraine's combat drones Roman Goncharenko 6 hours ago6 hours ago Germany is investing more in the production of Ukrainian weaponry, particularly long-range drones. What is possible, and what are the limits? www.dw.com/en/long-distance-weapons-german-money-for-ukraines-combat-drones/a-73503871
I'd be wary against underestimating Russia as they've like Ukraine constantly improved during the war. See this interview with an Ukrainian drone commander: E.g. assaults near Pokrovsk consist of these distinct steps: 1. Preparatory gas bombing by drones to force UA soldiers to wear gas masks. 2. Napalm/incendiary strikes (by drones) to burn up drone protecting nets at entrances of defensive structures. 3. Assuming prior step was successful, nerve gas is delivered directly (again by drones) into defensives structures. 4. Constant suicide FPV drone strikes + infantry waves then commence. The reason Russia's advance is slow now is because Ukraine has also gotten really good at using drones for defense. Meanwhile Western militaries are trying to figure out how to drop bombs from FPV drones.
The west has failed on the basics. Russia has had limited success in advancing its front lines but has pummeled and occupied a number of cities and villages. Despite all the talk about missiles and drones and fighter planes and hypersonic weapons and manpower etc., the overwhelming factor has been Russia's access to artillery shells. And that is a lesson that has to be kept in mind amidst all the news about the never ending news about new weapons being developed. Russia has burned through all of its recent vintage artillery shells and has burned through its soviet era shells. And is now relying upon North Korean sh#t, but they keep patching supply together. The problem Vlad is having which is increasing by the day is that he is unable to replace artillery barrels that all burn out by the day. That Korea stuff is dirty and hard on their guns too. Plus the Ukrainians have destroyed loads of shells at ammo depots before reaching the front. In addition the new American and European production plants that have been being built for the last couple years are coming on line starting in October. But Russia has had and currently has an overwhelming advantage there. Of course, the Ukrainians are not idiots. They are targeting ammo production sites and ammo supply depots. Nevertheless, it has been uphill and Putin planned to have lots of shells in stock and the west did not. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has repeatedly said that Moscow’s annual ammunition production capacity is four times greater than that of the western alliance.
What Ukraine has done well in this Ukraine war is their production of drones. However, the Russians targeting military weapons supply chains including, drone manufacturers in Ukraine will put an end to that at some point. Russians even found and destroyed the airbase housing the F-16s. Ukraine also, has to deal with more advanced Russian drones like Geran variety, a much better, more improved version of the Iranian made, Shahed drones. These Russian drones are able to dive like the US dive bombers of World War 2 and very hard to stop. Ukraine can from time to time hit Russia with attacks from its drones but, how long will they survive the Russian drones, glide bombs, missiles and thermobaric bombs (a new invention of the Russians that burns after it explodes? Russia has also, destroyed 3 Patriot missile batteries including, its radar just recently. Russian army advancing in all fronts too. Zelensky is about done and Russia will put him on trial for all his crimes if they catch him.