Russia Targets Kiev & Odessa After Donbass Fall; Sarmat; China Tightens Rare Earths; US China Summit (Alexander Mercouris)

Russia's military commanders have reportedly told Putin they can deliver the entire Donbass by autumn 2026, and Alexander Mercouris of The Duran argues this is not an end point but a starting gun, after which Putin is expected to issue sweeping new demands, with Kiev and Odessa firmly in his sights. In this in-depth analysis, Mercouris dissects the Financial Times report on the collapse of US-brokered peace talks, explaining why both Russia and Ukraine have lost all faith in American diplomacy, and what the granular front-line reality around Konstantynivka, Zaporizhzhia, and Sumy actually shows despite Western media claims of a stalled Russian offensive. Meanwhile, a Reuters report confirms that China has maintained tight restrictions on rare earth exports since April 2025, a quiet economic lever that is already driving up costs for US weapons manufacturers by 150% and may be tightening further if Trump escalates against Iran. Trump's Beijing summit, arriving alongside Nvidia, Apple, and BlackRock executives, looks far more like a commercial delegation than a geopolitical reset, and Mercouris questions whether Washington has any real strategy for what comes next. With peace talks effectively dead, a Donbass collapse approaching, and China holding the rare earth card over American defense production, is the United States sleepwalking into the most dangerous phase of this conflict yet?



[Posted at the SpookyWeather2 blog, May 14, 2026.]