The Russians are counting down the days to the inauguration of Donald Trump, because they see him as the last best hope for peace.  The Russians would very much prefer to avoid a nuclear confrontation, and they have been greatly encouraged by what Trump has been saying about the war in Ukraine.  But if the Russians ultimately conclude that there is no way to avoid an all-out war between our two nations after negotiating with Trump, all bets are off.

While most Americans are focused on holiday festivities, events on the other side of the globe threaten to spiral out of control.

The Russians are telling us that they will “definitely” respond to the long-range missile attack on the city of Taganrog…

The Kremlin said Thursday it would “definitely” respond to a Ukrainian attack on a military airfield in its south that used U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia would respond to the ATACMS strike on a military airfield in the southern city of Taganrog, in the Rostov region.

President Vladimir Putin has previously threatened to launch Russia’s new hypersonic ballistic missile, named Oreshnik, at the center of Kyiv if Ukraine does not halt its attacks on Russian territory with U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles.

I don’t even want to think about what an Oreshnik missile could do to the center of the city of Kiev.

That would be a major escalation, and so let us hope that it does not happen.

But the Biden administration is warning that the Russians appear to be gearing up to launch another Oreshnik soon…

A U.S. official said on Wednesday that Russia could launch another hypersonic ballistic missile in Ukraine in the coming days, but Washington does not consider the Oreshnik weapon a game-changer in the war.

The good news is that the Russians are not going to use nuclear weapons at this stage. Before they cross that threshold, they want to talk with Trump first to see if something can be worked out.

On Thursday, Trump was named Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year”…

Donald Trump once publicly speculated that Time would never name him the news magazine’s “Person of the Year.”

Now, the honor has been bestowed on him twice.

Time on Thursday named Trump as this year’s choice, recognizing the president-elect as the individual or group deemed to have wielded the greatest influence on global affairs “for good or for ill.” To celebrate the unveiling of the magazine cover, Trump will ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. Trump sat for a wide-ranging interview with the magazine last month.

During his interview with Time Magazine, Trump had quite a bit to say about the war in Ukraine.

In fact, he specifically stated that it was a “foolish decision” for Joe Biden to authorize long-range missile strikes deep into Russia…

Joe Biden’s decision to permit Ukraine to use American-supplied long-range missiles on targets inside Russia was “foolish” and a “major escalation” in the conflict, according to President-elect Donald Trump.

“Anything can happen. Anything can happen. It’s a very volatile situation,” President-elect Trump said of the Ukraine conflict in an interview with Time on November 25, published on Thursday. “I think the most dangerous thing right now is what’s happening, where [Volodymyr] Zelensky has decided, with the approval of, I assume, the president, to start shooting missiles into Russia. I think that’s a major escalation. I think it’s a foolish decision.”

For those of us that are hopeful that a nuclear war can be avoided, those are really good words to hear.

In addition, Trump also told Time Magazine that he personally disagrees “very vehemently” with what Biden has decided to do…

“I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia,” Trump said in his interview with Time. “Why are we doing that? We’re just escalating this war and making it worse. That should not have been allowed to be done.”

I think that it is clear that Trump wants to work out something with the Russians. But will that be possible?

Our European allies definitely do not want this war to end.  In fact, the secretary general of NATO just warned that “we are not ready for what is coming”, and he is urging western countries to prepare for war with Russia.

In Washington D.C., most members of Congress on both sides of the aisle do not want this war to end either.  They want to keep fighting until Ukraine has won, but that simply is not going to happen.

Right now the Russians are gobbling up territory faster than they have since the early days of the conflict, and as long as they hold the “strategic initiative” they will not have an incentive to end the war until all of their goals have been achieved…

It’s a feature of our days that the Intelligence heads of the great powers have been acting in a quasi-diplomatic function, stepping out of the shadows of the world of espionage to engage in open discussion of the issues.

That applies to CIA’s director Burns, the Ukrainian Budanov, and also to Russia’s spy chief, Sergei Naryshkin.

Heading Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SRV), the current incarnation of the famous (and infamous) KBG, Naryshkin has said that Russia is ‘close to achieving all its war goals and holds the strategic initiative in all areas of the war.’

The Russians have been publicly telling us that in order for the war to end Ukraine must forget about joining NATO and there cannot be any NATO forces on Ukrainian soil when the conflict is over.

On the other side, the Ukrainians are insisting on being allowed to join NATO when the war has concluded, and they want a very large contingent of western troops on Ukrainian soil in order to prevent the Russians from invading again.

I don’t see how that gap can be bridged any time soon.

In addition, the Russians say that they want to keep all of the territory that they have captured, and that is a non-starter for the Ukrainians.

The Ukrainians are acting as if they still have a chance to win this war, but that doesn’t make sense.  According to ABC News, about a million Ukrainian soldiers have died since the war began.  It is also being reported that “hundreds of thousands” of soldiers have lost limbs.  Ukrainian forces are completely worn out, and they are losing more ground with each passing day.

The only way that the Ukrainians could win this war would be for NATO to get directly involved in fighting Russia. As I have repeatedly warned, once we are in a direct war with Russia it is just a matter of time before it goes nuclear. For now, Donald Trump is the only thing standing between us and nuclear war.

Will he be able to successfully negotiate with the Russians and bring this horrible ordeal to an end? We better hope so, because at this moment we are closer to nuclear war than we have ever been before.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

On Tuesday, Ukraine fired six long-range missiles that were provided by the United States into Russia. On Wednesday, Ukraine fired twelve long-range missiles that were provided by the United Kingdom into Russia. This is literally insane.

What would we do if another superpower was using Canada or Mexico to launch long-range missiles at us? Needless to say, there would be millions of Americans screaming for us to use nukes against that superpower.

Well, right now there are millions of people inside Russia that want their government to use nuclear weapons against the United States and Europe.

Of course if there is a full-blown nuclear war, there won’t be any winners.  As I pointed out in this video, more than 90 percent of the U.S. population would eventually end up dead.

We should be doing all that we can to find a way out of this mess.

The war in Ukraine is not good for anyone except for the military-industrial complex, and so leaders on both sides should be seeking to sit down at the negotiating table while it is still possible to do so.

But instead of pushing for negotiations, a number of countries in Europe appear to be preparing for war.

For example, on Monday Sweden began to distribute more than 5 million copies of a booklet “advising its citizens how to prepare for war”…

Sweden on Monday started to distribute copies of a booklet advising its citizens how to prepare for war, as Nordic countries teach people how to brace for a potential Russian attack.

The 32-page brochure, which is also available in English and several other languages, advises citizens on warning systems, how to seek shelter during an air raid and even psychological and digital security.

Why would Sweden need to prepare for war? Nobody is going to attack Sweden.

Something doesn’t smell right.

Sweden has not had to fight a war for a very long time, but apparently top Swedish officials believe that this is a very real possibility…

Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin made waves in January when he warned: “There could be war in Sweden.”

Sweden’s then army chief Micael Byden also alarmed many when he days later said “Swedes have to mentally prepare for war.”

Sweden has not gone to war in more than two centuries.

Meanwhile, Finland and Norway are also suddenly interested in getting their citizens prepared for war…

As Norwegian paper Aftenposten recently reported, Norway’s citizens have also received similar “emergency preparedness” pamphlets because “in the worst case” acts of war could also affect Norway.

Finland’s government, too, has released a digital booklet to prepare citizens for “incidents and crises,” stating that the country “has always been prepared for the worst possible threat, war.”

In particular, Finland has become quite paranoid.

They are actually constructing a 10-foot-tall wall that is going to be 200 km long when it is finally finished…

Finland shares a 1,340-kilometre (830-mile) border with Russia and Helsinki has maintained a higher level of preparedness.

But after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Helsinki announced plans to build a 200-kilometre border fence with Russia.

Three meters (10 feet) tall and topped with barbed wire, it is due to be completed by 2026.

Why would the Russians invade Finland?

The Russians have their hands quite full with Ukraine, and that isn’t going to change any time soon.

Once again, something is not adding up.

In Germany, an incredibly detailed document that is a thousand pages long contains intricate plans for a war with Russia…

According to a 1,000-page document entitled ‘Operationsplan Deutschland’, Germany would reportedly host hundreds of thousands of troops from NATO countries and serve as a logistics hub for sending huge quantities of military equipment, food and medicine toward the front.

A report by Der Spiegel in the summer said as many as 800,000 soldiers from the security bloc could be hosted by Germany as they transit to posts further East.

The German army is also instructing companies and civilians on how to protect key infrastructure and mobilise for national defence, envisaging a situation in which Russia expands drone flights, spying operations and sabotage attacks across Europe.

Why are they spending so much time and energy preparing for a hypothetical war with Russia?

If the Russians become convinced that an all-out war with NATO is inevitable, they won’t invade Europe with conventional forces.

Instead, they will use their nukes.

And the Europeans won’t be the first to get nuked.

We will.

As I have relentlessly warned my readers, Russia has been preparing to fight a nuclear war with the United States for a long time.

Their strategic nuclear arsenal is far superior to our own, their anti-missile systems are far superior to our own, and the subs that they would use to deliver a devastating first strike are so quiet that we cannot even track them effectively.

So let’s find a peaceful solution to the problem in Ukraine before events spiral completely out of control.

Because right now we are closer to nuclear war than we have ever been, and the death and destruction that a full-blown nuclear war would cause would be unthinkable.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.