The prospect of progress in the Trump administration’s push for peace negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv dimmed over the weekend, amid a fresh war of words between the U.S. president and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — the latter of whom said during an interview on American television that Mr. Trump has the power to end Russia’s military campaign.

Mr. Zelenskyy told ABC News that “hard pressure” from the U.S. is the only thing that will stop Russia from seeking the “total defeat” of his country. “I am convinced that the president of the United States has all the powers and enough leverage to step up,” the Ukrainian president said.

The comments aired after Mr. Trump, who campaigned on ending the war, said last week that it’s best to let Ukraine and Russia continue duking it out before the U.S. gets involved in brokering a peace deal. Speaking from the Oval Office, Mr. Trump had likened the war to “two young children fighting like crazy.” Mr. Zelenskyy bristled at the metaphor, telling ABC that people watching the war from thousands of miles away cannot grasp the pain and suffering of those surrounded by it.

A report from the China Aerospace Studies Institute — a U.S. Air Force think tank — quotes People’s Liberation Army Gen. Zhang Youxia, the most powerful military officer in China, voicing concerns that the PLA has not moved fast enough to be ready for an invasion or blockade of Taiwan by 2027, as Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered.

Details of the shortcomings were disclosed by Gen. Zhang last year in a state-media essay that revealed weaknesses in military leadership, problems with wartime military-civilian coordination and an inability to conduct both joint operations and information warfare operations needed for a major joint military campaign.

The warning is significant since Gen. Zhang is vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Military Commission, the party organ that controls China’s 3 million-troop army. The China Aerospace Studies Institute report states that “after nine years of corruption purges, modernization initiatives, and substantial reforms, Xi and China’s military leaders remain concerned.” 

A U.S. defense official told Threat Status months ago that “while we are respectful of [China’s military] gains … we see a lot of holes still in their ability to execute things.”

At least 300 National Guard troops joined local law enforcement in Los Angeles on Sunday, deployed by Mr. Trump in response to violent protests against the administration’s attempt to increase deportations by targeting the country’s largest pool of illegal immigrants.

“We’re going to have troops everywhere,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “We’re not going to let this happen to our country. We’re not going to let our country be torn apart like it was under Biden.” The situation has escalated tensions between the White House and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat and fierce Trump critic, who said he was filing a lawsuit Monday against the administration for deploying the Guard without his consent.

Mr. Newsom also pushed back against warnings from Trump border czar Tom Homan, who has said that anyone who stops Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids will be arrested. The governor said, “Come after me, arrest me, let’s just get it over with, tough guy.”

The Los Angeles Police Department said about 60 people were arrested over the weekend. 

Mr. Trump signed a memorandum on Saturday authorizing the deployment of 2,000 Guardsmen. The initial deployment of 300 soldiers marked the first time since the 1960s that Guard troops had been activated without their governor’s consent.

Washington Times Commentary Editor and columnist Kelly Sadler reviews federal government investigations into Chinese espionage and other alleged subterfuge targeting the United States in recent years, writing that operatives tied to the communist government in Beijing are “waging war against America on our own soil.”

“In 2020, the FBI reported that about half its nearly 5,000 counterintelligence cases involved China,” writes Ms. Sadler, who adds that “it has been well documented that China is purchasing American farmland, often near sensitive military sites.”

“Chinese infiltration in our higher institutions — stealing trade, intellectual property and other sensitive research — remains the most nefarious,” she writes. “[It] is why Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced last week that the U.S. government would ‘aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.’”

Tom Roseth of the Norwegian Defense University College in Oslo, Norway, and John Weaver of York College in York, Pennsylvania, write in a letter to the editor of The Times that there are a slate of reasons why “the U.S. should renew its engagement” with NATO as the trans-Atlantic alliance’s annual summit takes place later this month.

Chief among them is that “Vladimir Putin is playing the United States,” write Mr. Roseth and Mr. Weaver, who assert that the Russian president “does not want peace in Ukraine.”

Among other reasons, they write, is that “Chinese military capability and capacities are an increasing threat to the United States and our Western allies,” a threat that “will only grow with time.”

• June 9 — Why the U.S. Needs to Win the Biotechnology Race against the CCP, Hudson Institute

• June 10 — U.S.-China Competition and the Value of Middle East Influence, Defense Priorities

• June 10 — Adapting the U.S. Nuclear Posture in Response to Adversary Threats, Hudson Institute

• June 12 — What is the Opportunity Cost of State AI Policy? Cato Institute 

• June 25 — The New IC, Intelligence and National Security Alliance

• June 26 — The Realities of an Invasion of Taiwan, Stimson Center