Brian Kilmeade Hears Republican Say Donald Trump's Team Misreads Vladimir Putin

On Tuesday's episode of The Brian Kilmeade Show, Steven Moore, founder of the Ukraine Freedom Project, said Vladimir Putin has launched an average of 190 drones and missiles into Ukraine on each day he has spoken with Donald Trump about peace. The figure is Moore's own count, and he did not explain on air how he reached it.

Moore was chief of staff to Illinois Republican Rep. Peter Roskam and moved to Ukraine days after Russia's 2022 invasion. His group raises money for aid to Ukrainians, so he has a stake in the issue. He told Brian Kilmeade that the Trump administration's negotiators have misjudged what the Russian leader wants. Kilmeade largely agreed and did not challenge the numbers.

The interview came a week before the midterms, with planned talks in the United Arab Emirates under discussion.

Steven Moore's Count of Trump-Putin Calls

Moore dismissed the question of who Moscow would send to the talks as secondary to the bombing.

"Listen, I think no matter who shows up, that is a side show," he said. "President Trump and Vladimir Putin have had 15 phone calls and one meeting talking about peace. And on average, on those days, Putin sent 190 drones and missiles into Ukraine."

"And then he gets off the phone and hits launch and kills a bunch of Ukrainian civilians." — Steven Moore

For scale, the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated in July that Russia launched about 55,000 Shahed drones in 2025, or 5,000 to 6,000 a month in the second half of the year. That works out to roughly 165 to 200 drones a day. The estimate covers Shaheds only, not missiles, and does not measure Moore's average for days Trump and Putin spoke.

Recent weeks fit Moore's broader point. In an October 10 call, Putin told Trump that peace talks were unlikely to resume soon, citing Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow.

Russia then fired 315 drones and 15 missiles on October 16, and about 280 drones plus ballistic missiles overnight into Tuesday.

What Moore Says the Trump Team Gets Wrong

Moore aimed his criticism at the administration's assumptions about Putin, not at Trump himself.

"There is nothing that you can give Vladimir Putin that will make him stop attacking Ukraine," he said. "And the misunderstanding that the Trump and negotiating team has is that, again, that there's something that he wants, that there's a business deal, there's economic prosperity."

He also said it "sounds like" Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has made a deal not to attack energy infrastructure in Russia, which he called "a real one-sided thing." Moore offered no evidence of such an agreement, and the claim is unverified.

Kilmeade agreed with Moore's view of Putin. "He's gotta be embarrassed, he's costing him a ton of money, he's destroying his country," the host said.

Moore ended on Trump. "Donald Trump's the President of the United States. He could do this, he could make Putin stop, and that's kind of what needs to happen," he said.

Starlink and F-16 Claims

Moore said SpaceX "slowed it down so that if it's on a vehicle going faster than 100 miles an hour, the signal cuts out," which he said hurt Ukrainian interceptor drones built to run on Starlink. He dated the change to October 15. Ukrainian forces first reported the speed cap on Starshield, the military version of the service, on the night of October 13–14.

Elon Musk said SpaceX closed a "loophole" that let Ukraine use the system for offensive operations. Kyiv denied breaching the terms, and Ukraine said full service returned Saturday.

Moore also said Sabena, the Belgian company that maintains Ukraine's F-16s, is "wildly underperforming." He said Ukraine has 43 of the jets and that Zelensky said about a month ago that more than half of them are awaiting maintenance; he offered no documentation for those two claims. He did cite a Wall Street Journal editorial on the Belgian delays. Euromaidan Press reported that fewer than half of delivered F-16s may be operational and that routine inspections in Belgium have taken about 40 weeks, compared with two to six weeks in the U.S., figures it drew from a Journal editorial. Moore called the Belgians' public account of their maintenance pace "nonsense," adding that F-16 pilots he knows say about 10 jets have been serviced this year.

What Happens Next

American officials will judge Russia's seriousness by the rank of the delegation it sends to the UAE, according to Kilmeade. Moore said the more important test is whether the drones stop.

The talks, which a speaker on the program said would take place "within two weeks," come as the midterms close in. Earlier in the program, Kilmeade said that once the midterms are over, "all bets are off" for the president.