The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | March 11th, 2025: Ukraine Agrees To A Ceasefire & Elon Musk's X Hit By Major Cyber Attack

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:   First, Ukraine has reportedly agreed to a 30-day ceasefire after a U.S. delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets today with senior Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia. Later in the show, Elon Musk’s X came under a massive cyber-attack on Monday that disrupted service on the social media site for several hours. We’ll discuss the fallout, and why Musk initially appeared to blame the cyber intrusion on Ukraine. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Exclusions apply for licenses. See homedepo.com slash license numbers. It's Tuesday, the 11th of March. 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, an update from Saudi Arabia, where a U.S. delegation led by Secretary of State, Marker Rubio, met with senior Ukrainian officials. U.S. aid, both military aid as well as intelligence sharing, has now been restored after Keeve agreed to a 30-day ceasefire. Now, of course, there's the the matter of Moscow's intentions. Later in the show, Elon Musk's ex came under a massive cyber attack

on Monday that disrupted service on the social media site for several hours. We'll discuss the fallout and why Musk initially appeared to blame the cyber intrusion on Ukraine. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. Delegations from the U.S. and Ukraine met in Jeddah Saudi Arabia today, and in a somewhat surprising turn, although maybe not that surprising, given the ups and downs of the past couple of weeks, the meeting wrapped up with a breakthrough. The U.S. is lifting its pause on military aid and intelligence sharing effective immediately, after Keeve agreed to an American proposal for a 30-day ceasefire. According to a joint statement released Tuesday, Ukraine accepted Washington's plan for a, quote, immediate interim 30-day ceasefire. However, well, the ball is now in Moscow's

court to determine whether they'll agree to the same terms. As you might suspect, a conflict doesn't end if only one side stops shooting. The statement added that both countries, meaning the U.S. and Ukraine, have agreed to name their negotiating teams and, quote, immediately begin negotiations toward an enduring peace that provides for Ukraine's long-term security. The U.S. also committed to taking these specific proposals to Russian representatives, while Ukraine reiterated its position that European allies should be involved in the process. The joint statement went on to say, quote, representatives of both nations praised the bravery of the Ukrainian people in defense of their nation, and agreed that now is the time to begin a process toward lasting peace, and quote. During the nearly

seven-hour meeting, Ukrainian officials also took time to express gratitude to President Trump, the U.S. Congress, and the American people for helping create what they called, quote, meaningful progress toward peace. This shift in tone is a major turnaround from just days ago when President Trump suspended all military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine following the February 28th Oval Office confrontation. At the time, Trump's advisors justified the move by citing concerns over Zelensky's commitment to peace, saying aid would pause until Kiev showed it was serious about negotiations with Russia. While the initial we response from Ukraine included a carefully worded public statement of regret. U.S. Special Envoy Steve

Whitgolf later revealed that Zelensky privately apologized to Trump in a letter. Now, Trump read portions of that letter aloud during his congressional address last week, but made no mention of an apology. With this new agreement on the table, the focus, of course, shifts to Moscow. Will Putin agree to the same 30-day ceasefire terms? And if so, what kind of lasting deal can actually come from these talks. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who led the U.S. delegation in Jetta, seemed hopeful, telling reporters, quote, we're in a different place now and I think we'll continue moving forward, end quote. Well, even for the State Department, that statement is a masterclass in vagueness. Still, Ukraine remains under heavy bombardment from Russian forces. As we've recently

discussed on the PDB, Moscow has been on the counteroffensive against the Ukrainian military in the Hursk region of Russia and has been making slow but steady gains in the eastern portion of Ukraine. It's, frankly, anyone's guess at this stage, whether Putin will be interested in talking about a ceasefire when his troops appear to have the upper hand. Coming up next, Elon Musk's ex, the social media app, formerly known as Twitter, of course, came under a massive cyber attack on Monday that disrupted service on the social media site for several hours, sparking wild speculation over who may be behind the intrusion. Really? Wild speculations on social media? That hardly seems likely. I'll be right back.

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time offer subject to change. See Visible.com for plan features and network management details. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. After several hours of recurring outages Monday, Elon Musk claims that X was the target of a quote, massive cyber attack. Speaking to Fox Business, the billionaire and Doge chief, said X was hit by a large-scale cyber operation, but admitted he wasn't entirely sure. where it originated from. Musk stated, quote, there was a massive cyber attack to try to bring down the X system, with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area, end quote. The outage was widespread, with more than 40,000 users reporting problems by 10 a.m. Eastern Time, according to downdetector.com. Many users were met with an error message stating, quote, something went wrong.

Hmm, another statement in vagueness. hours later, another wave of 25,000 reports flooded in. By late afternoon, Musk announced that X was back online, but suggested the attack had state sponsorship, or was done by a large coordinated group. In a post on X, Musk said, quote, we get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources, end quote. Musk's comments quickly ignited speculation, but cybersecurity experts pointed out that IP addresses can be manipulated, meaning Russia or another actor anywhere on the globe could have intentionally masked the origin to make Ukraine appear responsible. A senior fellow at the American Think Tank Atlantic Council dismissed the idea that Ukrainian

government actors would launch such an attack, particularly on the eve of the critical U.S.-Ukraine peace negotiations meeting. The fellow stated, quote, it makes absolutely no sense for Ukrainian hackers to attack Elon Musk the day before a meeting in which they're attempting to get the U.S. to start sharing intelligence again and provide aid in assistance, end quote. He added that Russia stood to gain the most from this timing, not to mention, of course, that Russia and China are the largest perpetrators of state-sponsored cyber attacks and shenanigans. Another potential culprit is the hacking collective Anonymous, which has been openly critical of Musk. But cybersecurity analysts argue that Russia remains the

most likely suspect, pointing to Moscow's long history of using cyber warfare to sow chaos and weaken adversaries. Meanwhile, Musk's relationship with Ukraine remains complicated. His starling terminals have been indispensable to Ukrainian forces, providing battlefield connectivity when other communication networks collapsed. Musk has emphasized their alliance, stating, quote, their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off, end quote. Yet Musk remains critical of Ukrainian President Zelensky, echoing President Trump's demands for an immediate ceasefire. Again, well, a ceasefire only works if both sides agree to it. On Sunday, Musk urged for, quote, peace now in a post on X, underscoring years of slaughter and a stalemate they, quote,

Ukraine will inevitably lose. As investigations into the X outage continue, cybersecurity experts caution against jumping to conclusions. While Musk's remarks have fueled rampant speculation, cyber analysts warn that without concrete evidence, premature accusations risk playing into the hands of those looking to exploit uncertainty. Well, the only problem is social media is tailor-made for speculation and jumping to conclusions. It's kind of social media's signature move. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Tuesday, 11 March. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirstTV.com. And finally, to listen to the show ad-free, well, you can do that. It's simple.

Become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting PDB premium.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. All. Pay off your home. Travel for life. Drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board Buckslot Machine by Aristocrat Gaming, The Yama Vosort and Casino at San Manuel is giving one person a $1.6 million dream package. The biggest prize in Yama Vaz history. Club's Toronto members can earn daily instant prizes and secure a spot in the finale May 29th. Don't pass go and own it all.

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