NBC Uses Anonymous Intel Sources to Attack Trump Admin’s Negotiations with Russia

NBC News is reporting — based on multiple unnamed “Western intelligence officials” — that President Donald Trump’s initiative to end the war in Ukraine will be pointless because Russian President Vladimir Putin does not really want peace.

The reporting feels like a throwback to the 2020 presidential election, with 51 intelligence officials claiming that Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation, or the entire Robert Mueller Russia probe into the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Moscow during the 2016 race. In short, it feels like fake news.

NBC News reported, “Vladimir Putin still wants to control all of Ukraine, according to four Western intelligence officials and two U.S. congressional officials.

“We have zero intelligence that Putin is interested in a real peace deal right now,” one of the congressional officials asserted.

So these six people think, given his druthers, Putin would prefer to have all of Ukraine and not just part of it. They must have burned the midnight oil to reach that intelligence assessment.

Actually, if they did, they’re not that bright, because that’s the history of warfare. The aggressor nation wants all its territorial objectives, not part of them. Germany wanted to conquer all of France in World War I, but never made it to Paris.

North Korea wanted all of South Korea in the 1950s, but got none of it. Iraq sought all of Kuwait in the Gulf War in 1991, but was forced to retreat completely from it.

So the proper response to these “intelligence officials” regarding Putin’s desires is, “Tell us something we don’t already know.”

In 2022, the Russian president certainly anticipated the conquest of Ukraine would be relatively easy and his forces would take Kyiv in a matter of weeks. It didn’t work out that way, but such are the vicissitudes of war.

Now the conflict has reached pretty much a stalemate and both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reportedly told Trump during phone calls last week they want peace, so the U.S. president sent a team to Saudi Arabia to meet with Russian officials Tuesday.

Last week, Vice President J.D. Vance also met with Zelenskyy in Munich to discuss possible peace terms.

“Zelenskyy said he will only agree to meet in person with Russian leader Vladimir Putin after a common plan is negotiated with U.S. President Donald Trump,” the Associated Press reported.

“We want peace very much, but we need real security guarantees,” Zelenskyy said.

Meanwhile, Vance said, “Fundamentally, the goal is, as President Trump outlined it, we want the war to come to a close.”

“We want the killings to stop. Not the kind of peace that’s going to have Eastern Europe in conflict just a couple of years down the road,” he added.

So the U.S. and Ukraine are on the same page — they do not want some temporary peace that allows Russia to reload and reinvade.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters after meeting with Russian officials in Riyadh Tuesday, “We’re going to appoint a high-level team on our end to help negotiate and work through the end of the conflict in Ukraine in a way that’s enduring and acceptable to all the parties engaged.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio outlines three points on U.S. and Russia discussions to end the war in Ukraine after a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Saudi Arabia:

1 – Reestablish diplomatic facilities in each respective country.
2 – Appoint a high level… pic.twitter.com/tFQ04RqLKf

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 18, 2025

So the Americans and Ukrainians are entering into potential peace talks with eyes wide open, knowing Putin’s word is not simply to be trusted.

The unnamed intelligence officials NBC spoke with likely have their own agenda for trying to cast doubt on any peace process — perhaps for political reasons or otherwise.

The news outlet’s reporting should be taken with a huge grain of salt, because it feels like we’ve seen this movie before.

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