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The President's Daily Brief
PDB Afternoon Bulletin | August 12th, 2025: Breakthrough: Russia Hits Ukraine With Surprise Offensive & Trump Grants Beijing Another Tariff Reprieve
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Mike Baker
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Unknown
Foreign.
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Mike Baker
It's Tuesday, the 12th of August. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, Russian forces mount a surprise assault along the front lines in eastern Ukraine in a bid to take full control of Ukraine's Donetsk region ahead of Vladimir Putin's summit with President Trump in Alaska on Friday of this week. It's such a mystery, I'm sure you're saying to yourself if Putin is actually interested in peace, nothing says I'm serious about peace talks like mounting a surprise assault. We'll have the details later in the show. Trump grants China another tariff reprieve. On Monday, the president signed an executive order implementing a 90 day pause on additional tariffs that was set to take effect today against the Chinese regiment as tense trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing continue. But first, today's afternoon spotlight with a summit between Trump and Putin apparently set to take place in Alaska. On Friday, the Russian military launched a new offensive in eastern Ukraine, which begs the question, at what point does the White House actually lose patience with Putin and move forward with the maximum sanctions plan? In recent days, Russian forces have made a sudden thrust into eastern Ukraine and near the coal mining town of Doopilya in a bid to take full control of Ukraine's Donetsk region. Now the surprise offensive comes just days before Putin is set to sit down with President Trump in Alaska. The offensive is likely designed to strengthen the Kremlin's negotiating hand ahead of the critical summit. That's according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. By Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said Russian forces had managed to advance at least six miles north of the front lines in a two pronged attack that took advantage of a gap in Ukraine's defensive lines. Ukrainian soldiers said Russia had been launching weeks of probing attacks along the front lines in the region while they massed sufficient forces to mount an offensive push. Small groups of Russian soldiers then pierced the first line of Ukrainian defenses and skirted a belt of fortifications that Ukrainian troops had spent months building. Military leaders in Kyiv said they were already organizing counterattacks in the region against the surprise assaults, but their response has reportedly been handicapped by their depleted troop levels. One officer serving in Ukraine's Azov Brigade told the Journal that their forces have detected around 150 Russian infantry soldiers daily since the new offensive began, but said a lack of skilled drone pilots on their part has limited their ability to repel the attackers. News of Russia's surprise advance triggered swift backlash against Kyiv's top brass from soldiers and activists alike, who say Ukraine's leaders have ignored their warnings about the deteriorating defensive situation along the front lines. In Donetsk. Rank and file troops say commanders continue to waste their manpower conducting risky assaults with little strategic value while denying requests from exhausted or surrounded units to retreat, leading to unnecessary troop losses. A Ukrainian veteran who currently runs a charity that helps buy drones and other equipment for the military told the Journal, quote, the situation unfolding in Donetsk is the result of actions or inaction that was warned about. Ignoring problems doesn't lead to their resolution, end quote. The result has been a severe depletion of Ukraine's infantry units, leaving large vulnerabilities in their defensive perimeter. The major question now is whether Russian forces can sustain their new assault, widen the breach in Ukraine's defensive lines and push further into territory with weaker defenses. If successful, it would advance Russia's slow and costly effort to encircle Ukraine's fortress belt of cities in the eastern Donetsk region. That's the last hurdle, preventing their forces from eventually pushing further west. As Russia works to consolidate control over the entire Donetsk region, their forces are also inching closer to the city of Pokrovsk, a crucial logistics hub that connects several cities in Ukraine's eastern defensive arc. Russian troops have been steadily advancing on the city for several weeks from the north and the east and south, using small infantry groups and drone surveillance to stretch Ukrainian forces thin. If that city eventually falls, Russia would be able to cut off one of the Ukraine military's main supply routes and take control over nearly the entire Donetsk region. It's a primary objective for Moscow since the war began. Such gains could significantly strengthen Putin's negotiating hand in the event that he actually wants to negotiate, just as President Trump tries to revive direct diplomacy with the Kremlin in an effort to end the war. Or those gains could further encourage Putin to continue paying lip service to ceasefire talks, effectively stringing along the White House while taking additional Ukrainian territory. Now Putin and Trump will sit down in Alaska, reportedly on Friday, which will mark their first in person encounter since a 2019 G20 summit. As we discussed earlier on the PDB Putin will reportedly seek major territorial concessions from Kyiv and global recognition of Russia's territorial claims in Ukraine. According to White House officials, Putin wants the Ukrainian military to pull all its forces out of the eastern Donetsk region, which would effectively grant Moscow control over the entire Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine, as well as, of course, the Crimean peninsula. Once a withdrawal is complete. Putin reportedly wants to negotiate, quote, land swaps with Ukraine, though it's still unclear what Ukraine would receive in return for ceding vast swaths of their eastern territories. But Putin clearly feels he has the upper hand ahead of Friday's summit, and it appears he will continue to press the attack on the front lines in a bid to back Kiev into a corner. Now, I've said it before, so I apologize for beating this dead Russian horse and. But it's simple enough to broker a ceasefire deal with Putin if you simply give him what he wants. And that's been true for at least a couple of years now. Clearly, the White House is keen to secure a ceasefire that would be a big political win and fulfill one of Trump's key campaign promises. But right now, this appears to be all about appeasing Putin and not about creating a situation where Kyiv can negotiate from a position of strength. Trump has already identified the best way to get Putin's attention. That would be serious. Maximum pressure. Economic sanctions on Russia and their energy trading partners. Choke off their energy revenues to the degree possible. Without that, and given the territorial gains being made by the Russian military, any actual negotiation, assuming Putin cares about negotiating, will be one sided. Have the dialogue by all means. Diplomacy is worth pursuing. But don't be surprised if Putin is simply blowing smoke up the U.S. s backside. Up next, President Trump grants China another 90 day pause on additional tariffs as the White House continues to pursue a comprehensive new trade deal with Beijing. 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Piers Morgan
I'm Piers Morgan, the host of the Piers Morgan Uncensored podcast. We do big interviews and we do big debates about whatever's getting people talking. We make news, we make noise, and we make a little bit of trouble too. Come and see what all the fuss is about. You can listen to Piers Morgan Uncensored on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Mike Baker
Welcome back to the Afternoon Bulletin. President Trump on Monday signed an executive order granting China another 90 day reprieve from tariffs that were set to hit today, averting a rate spike that both economic giants warned could choke trade to a crawl. Announced on Trump's Truth Social account, the order pushes the hike off until 1 minute past midnight on 10th November, leaving all other truce terms untouched. The text of the executive order reads, quote, the U.S. continues to have discussions with China to address the lack of trade reciprocity in our economic relationship and our resulting national and economic security concerns, end quote. The move again delays the steepest tax hikes on Chinese imports as negotiators hunt for a broader deal. White House officials framed the pause as buying more time to address, quote, unfair trade practices that and, quote, remedy trade imbalances, pointing to the nearly $300 billion US trade deficit with China, which was the largest of any American trading partner last year. China's Commerce Ministry quickly matched the move early Tuesday, postponing for 90 days a planned expansion of trade and investment blacklists targeting American firms. In Beijing, the 11th hour executive order was greeted with visible relief among CCP officials already grappling with the threat that Trump's trade policy poses to the economy's export driven growth model. As we've tracked here on the pdb, Trump's global trade war tensions peaked in April when the president unveiled sweeping global tariffs, hitting China the hardest. Beijing hit back in kind, igniting a tit for tat that drove levies into the stratosphere, reaching 145% on Chinese goods and 125% on American exports. Officials on both sides have warned that such levels would have amounted to a virtual trade embargo. The truce now once again in place was first hammered out in Geneva in May, setting the current 30% US tariffs on Chinese imports and 10% Chinese tariffs on American goods, alongside sector specific duties on steel, medical supplies and other strategic items. Negotiations in Stockholm in late July saw US envoys return to Washington by recommending an extension, citing unresolved disputes over semiconductor access, particularly the resumption of Nvidia's AI chip exports to China as well as rare earth shipments, Beijing's continued purchases of Russian oil and US restrictions on advanced technology sales. The added breathing room could also pave the way for a face to face meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year, with both capitals signaling interest in holding it as soon as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, or apec, summit in South Korea scheduled for late October. And looping back to our previous story on the upcoming summit with Trump and Putin, the 90 day reprieve on China trade tariffs leaves unanswered the question of a possible punishing tariff on China for their continued purchasing of Russian oil and gas. The US has levied a 25% tariff on India for their support of the Russian energy sector, but China is the number one consumer of Russian oil and gas. If one were to read the tea leaves, the 90 day reprieve on China indicates that the White House would be reluctant to extend that secondary tariff regime to Beijing. It's likely that the Kremlin is interpreting it that way and will strategize accordingly. And that, my friends, is the PDB Afternoon bulletin for Tuesday 12th August. Now if you have any questions or comments, and I hope you do, please reach out to me at pdb@thefirst tv.com and don't forget, if you get some time in your busy schedule, please head over to our YouTube channel to check it out and subscribe. Just go to YouTube, well, obviously and you'll find it at President's Daily Brief. It's chock full of informative and hopefully entertaining stuff. I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.