WION (India): Russia-Ukraine War - White House Confirms Donald Trump Was Not Informed About The Attack

The web is now afire with sensationalist titles of interviews with talking heads of all political convictions who are telling us that World War III is fast approaching. Yesterday, none other than Jeffrey Sachs weighed in on the prospects for a US-Russia nuclear exchange in the coming days.

My best advice to the Community is to remember that yellow journalism is not something that went out of style with the print newspapers. It is very much with us in the digital age. It sells, it attracts incredibly large audiences.

For all of these reasons, I am especially appreciative that WION has kept the titles attached to this morning’s interview factual and not speculative.

The interview is only 10 minutes long and I leave it to you to watch it or wait for the transcript which will be posted before long.

I use this space to expand upon one point I made in the interview: that the Spider Web attack on Russia’s heavy bombers, which form a key part of its nuclear triad, may ruin any chances for the Trump administration to enter into arms limitation talks with the Russians should the move towards rapprochement be pressed by his administration.

Just remember that arms limitation negotiations have been the key interest of Russia-haters in the USA in good times and bad. They want to be sure that their own necks are safe even if they are planning and doing their best to sabotage the Russian economy, to isolate the country and otherwise to do it harm.

There can be little doubt that the USA and Britain were active in the planning and for some time in the implementation stages of Spider Web. Most likely Britain was a participant right up to the launch of the attack.

The operation took advantage of the vulnerability of the Russian bombers out in the open that was mandated by the New SALT arms limitation treaty. The Russians have suspended their participation in that treaty but pledged not to violate its terms. Clearly, they kept to their word. And equally clearly the USA under Biden egregiously violated the treaty by enabling the Ukrainian attack on those jets.

If I were Vladimir Putin, which I am not, I would say to the States that there can be no talks, no extensions or new treaties on arms limitation until and unless the USA and Britain admit to their foul play and pay compensation for the damaged jets. We will see in the immediately coming days what Putin actually does to exact a price from Russia’s enemies.

As I say in this interview, all of Russia’s ambassadors have been called home and will be meeting with Lavrov and likely with Putin during this week before heading home to officiate at Russia’s National Day festivities, the equivalent of their July 4^th on 9-10 June. I fully expect Putin to issue an address at this meeting that represents Russia’s response to the attacks of this past weekend.

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2025