Russia claims it's open to a ceasefire in Ukraine—but can Putin be trusted? More importantly, is this really a peace offer, or just another strategic move?

The Trump administration is working to broker a deal, and Ukraine has already agreed to a 30-day ceasefire with no strings attached. Russia, on the other hand, has countered with a laundry list of demands—basically requiring Ukraine to surrender everything it’s been fighting for.

Here’s what Russia wants in exchange for a temporary pause in the war:
✅ Ukraine must recognize Russia’s ownership of occupied regions.
✅ Withdraw all Ukrainian troops from the front lines.
✅ Promise never to join NATO.
✅ Limit its military permanently.
✅ Hold new elections.

So, is this a ceasefire, or just a demand for total capitulation?

To understand what’s happening today, you need to look at Russia’s past. This isn’t just about Ukraine—Russia has a long history of terrorizing its neighbors.

• Holodomor (1932-33): Stalin starved 4 million Ukrainians to death.
• Chechnya (1999-2009): Russian forces bombed civilians, tortured dissidents, and left mass graves behind.
• Georgia (2008): Russia annexed two provinces, committing ethnic cleansing.
• Crimea (2014): Russian-backed militants took over and massacred Crimean Tatars.
• Syria (2015-Present): Russia bombed hospitals and used chemical weapons.
• Ukraine (2022-Present): Mass executions, torture camps, war crimes—the list goes on.

This isn’t about defense. Russia’s strategy has always been brute force, occupation, and ethnic cleansing.

The Cost of War 

Russia has suffered 434,000 casualties in the last year alone. Despite some recent territorial gains, their progress is moving slower than a garden snail—and they know it.

With U.S. military aid to Ukraine restarting, Russia is under pressure. Could this “ceasefire” proposal be a desperate attempt to secure gains before Ukraine gets back on its feet?

The Syrian conflict is one of the most complex and misunderstood wars of the modern era. While recent massacres of Alawites and Christians have drawn international condemnation, it is crucial to understand the deeper historical and sectarian dynamics at play. The Assad regime, dominated by the Alawite minority, has long been allied with Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, to maintain power in Syria. Meanwhile, the Sunni majority has suffered decades of brutal repression, and the Christian minority finds itself caught in the crossfire, suffering regardless of who is in control.

The Sunni-Shia Divide in Syria

Syria’s population is primarily Sunni Muslim (about 74%), but its ruling elite belongs to the Alawite sect, a branch of Shia Islam. Historically, the Alawites were a marginalized group, but under French colonial rule (1920-1946), they gained influence through military service. By the time Hafez al-Assad seized power in 1970, the Alawites had entrenched themselves within the military, intelligence services, and government bureaucracy.

This created deep resentment among the Sunni majority, who viewed Alawite rule as illegitimate and oppressive. The Sunni-Shia divide has been a driving force of conflict in Syria, with Sunnis leading opposition movements and Islamist groups seeking to overthrow the regime, while Alawites, fearing persecution, have clung to power by any means necessary.

The Assad Regime’s Alliance with Hezbollah

Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia militia and proxy of Iran, has played a crucial role in propping up the Assad regime. While Alawites and Shia Muslims historically had distinct religious traditions, Iran has embraced Alawites as part of the Shia fold to expand its influence in Syria.

Hezbollah’s Military Role in Syria

When the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011, Hezbollah intervened decisively on Assad’s behalf. The group provided:

• Elite fighters to reinforce Assad’s struggling army.

• Urban warfare specialists to retake rebel-held cities.

• Advanced weaponry and logistics supplied by Iran.

• Assassination squads to eliminate opposition leaders.

One of Hezbollah’s most significant interventions was during the Battle of Qusayr (2013), a strategic town on the Lebanese border. Hezbollah fighters spearheaded the regime’s assault, demonstrating how deeply the Alawite regime depended on its Shia allies.

Alawite Rule and the Systematic Persecution of Sunnis

While recent killings of Alawites by Sunni jihadist groups have garnered international attention, it is essential to recognize that the Assad regime’s repression of Sunnis has been far more extensive and systematic. Some key examples include:

• The Hama Massacre (1982): Hafez al-Assad’s forces killed between 10,000 and 40,000 Sunnis to crush an Islamist uprising.

• The Syrian Civil War (2011-Present): Assad’s forces have bombed Sunni-majority cities, used chemical weapons (e.g., Ghouta, 2013), and displaced millions.

• The Role of Pro-Regime Militias: Alawite militias like the Shabiha carried out mass executions, rapes, and looting in Sunni neighborhoods.

Despite these atrocities, many Western observers fail to see the Alawite regime as a primary aggressor, instead focusing on the war crimes of jihadist factions. However, the Syrian government’s brutality fueled the rise of extremism, as moderate Sunni opposition groups were wiped out or radicalized in response to the regime’s scorched-earth policies.

The Forgotten Suffering of Syria’s Christians

Syria’s Christian minority has been disproportionately affected by the war, suffering no matter who is in charge.

Assad’s Repression of Christians

While Assad has portrayed himself as a protector of Christians, his regime has also persecuted Christian political activists, imprisoned church leaders who refused to endorse him, and bombed Christian-majority areas when they aligned with the opposition.

Jihadist Persecution of Christians

On the other hand, radical Sunni groups like ISIS and Al-Nusra Front have targeted Christians, forcing them to convert, flee, or be executed. Christian churches have been destroyed, and entire communities wiped out.

The Exodus of Syrian Christians

Before the war, Christians made up about 10% of Syria’s population (1.7 million people). Today, that number has plummeted to 300,000-500,000, with most fleeing to Europe or Lebanon. More than a million Christians have been displaced, caught between the brutality of the regime and the extremism of Islamist groups.

Conclusion: A War of Power, Not Just Religion

The war in Syria is not just a battle between Sunnis and Shia-aligned Alawites; it is a power struggle where religious identity is often exploited for political gain. The Assad regime and Hezbollah’s alliance has ensured the Alawites’ grip on power, while Sunnis continue to resist their rule. Meanwhile, Syria’s Christians have been devastated, used as pawns by all sides and left without a safe future in their own homeland.

Understanding these dynamics is crucial to seeing the full picture of Syria’s ongoing tragedy. The Alawites may face retaliation today, but for decades, they were the ruling elite who repressed millions. Meanwhile, the Christians—who posed no political threat—continue to suffer, no matter who controls Damascus.

For years, we’ve exposed how the U.S. government has been funneling taxpayer dollars to organizations with ties to terrorism. The patterns were obvious. The red flags were everywhere. And yet, Washington kept writing the checks, ignoring the warnings from watchdogs and intelligence experts.

Now, the Middle East Forum has provided undeniable proof of what we’ve known all along. Their multi-year investigation has uncovered at least $164 million in approved grants to radical organizations, with $122 million going directly to groups aligned with designated terrorist entities. This isn’t some bureaucratic oversight—it’s a deliberate, systemic problem that’s been allowed to fester for decades.

The good news? The pipeline is finally being shut down.

USAID: A Global ATM for Terrorists

USAID—the agency that claims to provide humanitarian aid—has in reality served as a slush fund for terrorist-adjacent groups for years. This investigation uncovered millions of taxpayer dollars being handed directly to organizations operating in Hamas-controlled Gaza—and not by accident.

• USAID officials have visited the offices of Hamas-linked groups and launched joint programs with them.
• USAID funding has gone to organizations whose leaders have called for their land to be “cleansed from the impurity of the Jews.”
• USAID beneficiaries openly glorify violence and celebrate terrorist attacks.

The worst part? The federal government knew all of this. And still, the money kept flowing.

State Department Complicity in Domestic Terror Funding

It’s not just foreign terrorist groups benefitting from U.S. taxpayer dollars. This report also confirms that the State Department has been funneling money to radical domestic organizations that fuel extremism right here in the U.S.

Take the Tides Foundation, which members of Congress have accused of funding pro-Hamas, anti-Jewish violence on college campuses across America. The very same mob that harasses Jewish students and disrupts universities? Subsidized with your tax dollars.

Then there are the major aid organizations like World Vision and Catholic Relief Services, which receive billions in federal funding but partner with terror-linked groups over and over again. These are organizations that, at best, don’t bother to vet their recipients—and at worst, know exactly where the money is going and do it anyway.

Systemic Corruption, Zero Oversight

The MEF report also confirms how deeply broken the system is when it comes to transparency and accountability.

• USAID records are incomplete, missing, or outright deleted.
• Millions in grants go to “anonymous beneficiaries” in terrorism hotbeds.
• No real vetting process exists to ensure U.S. money isn’t funding radicals.

USAID’s own Office of Inspector General (OIG) has repeatedly warned about the failures in the system—stating outright that armed groups are taking advantage of U.S. funding, and that USAID’s grant process fails to catch extremist ties.

But for years, no one in charge cared enough to fix it.

Now, It’s Finally Being Shut Down

For those of us who have been calling this out for years, the revelations in this report are no surprise. What is different now is that, for the first time, something is actually being done about it.

The Trump administration is dismantling USAID as we know it, freezing most of its operations, and gutting the bloated bureaucracy that has kept this corruption alive. The decision to roll much of USAID’s functions into the State Department is a direct response to this kind of waste, fraud, and terror funding.

For years, the establishment resisted shutting down USAID’s corrupt pipeline, even as proof of its failures piled up. Now, the money is finally drying up.

Of course, there are critics—those who claim that cutting off funding will hurt genuine humanitarian efforts. But let’s be clear: there was nothing “humanitarian” about subsidizing organizations tied to Hamas. The same bureaucrats and NGO leaders who enabled this fraud are the ones crying the loudest now that their gravy train is ending.

This is Vindication—But the Fight Isn’t Over

This MEF report is the final nail in the coffin of any argument that USAID was just making mistakes or that these grants were slipping through the cracks. This was deliberate. This was systemic. And we’ve been right about it all along.

But even with USAID being dismantled, the fight isn’t over.

• How much of this funding has already fallen into the wrong hands?
• What other agencies are still enabling this corruption?
• Will the same bad actors just find new ways to funnel money to extremists?

USAID may be going away, but the people who allowed this to happen are still in Washington, and they will try to keep the money flowing any way they can.

This is why full transparency and accountability must be the next step.

• Every single grant tied to terrorism must be exposed.
• Every bureaucrat who enabled this must be held accountable.
• Every agency that funds NGOs must be forced to show exactly where the money is going.

Shutting down USAID’s corruption is a major victory, but if we don’t stay on top of this, the same criminals will just find a new way to keep the scam going.

The truth is finally out. The pipeline is shutting down. Now, it’s time to make sure it stays that way.