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A Russian drone hit the Ukrainian internal intelligence headquarters in Kiev, striking a blow at the heart of its war machine just on the eve of the mission of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, sent by Trump first to Moscow and then to the Ukrainian capital itself. The two will bring with them – according to the tycoon – a “proposal to put an end to the war” between Russia and Ukraine. “We have an idea for peace between Russia and Ukraine,” he specified, underlining that Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky hate each other. «I’m talking to Putin. I know him very well”, added the commander in chief, specifying that the Kremlin leader “has no intention of attacking NATO territories”.
A targeted attack on the «boss study»
The raid in Kiev makes it clear how the two Americans are walking on a very thin line, between the statements of the Russian president – who only yesterday had spoken of a possibility of resolving the conflict with Ukraine – and the harsh reality of the facts, characterized by positions that remain very distant and by the continuous intensification of the raids. The attack was not a routine operation. According to what was reported by the Ukrainian president himself, the Russian drone targeted “the office of the head” of the secret services. By targeting the Ukrainian security services, Moscow wants to demonstrate that the defense of the capital is vulnerable, to weaken its psychological resistance even before its political one.
Zelensky: «The places to hit are already established»
For this reason, Zelensky’s response was immediate and incisive: “We will respond adequately, significantly and, if possible, proportionally”, promised the Ukrainian president immediately. The head of the SBU, Oleksandr Poklad, the alleged target of the raid, has already informed him of the response plans: “The places to be hit have already been established and the moment will be chosen in order to guarantee the results”, Zelensky explained crypticly.
Nine injured and damage to Santa Sofia
The attack, which injured nine people as well as having damaged the Hagia Sophia cathedral (a UNESCO heritage site), not only represents “a serious escalation that requires resolute responses” but, for Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, it is proof that Putin does not want any truce in the hostilities: “Moscow launched this attack during a renewed diplomatic initiative for peace, highlighting its real rejection of diplomacy.”
Trump’s mission on a thin thread
The umpteenth military flare-up on the ground therefore complicates Trump’s diplomatic mission and enters a phase of dynamic stalemate, where every kilometer gained in the field or every building gutted in Kiev weighs like a boulder on the future negotiating table. Not only that: the American mission has to deal with a hot geopolitical scenario, while the tycoon, already stuck in Iran, would like to bring home a result before the midterm elections to satisfy an electorate tired of wars and deeply dissatisfied with the effects on their pockets of the conflict in the Middle East. Breaking the political, diplomatic and military stalemate at least on the Ukrainian front would be a result for Trump, but the strategy of fait accompli and terror from the skies applied by Putin risks undermining the room for maneuver of the two US negotiators, who are nevertheless determined to keep the communication channels open to reach that mediation platform which could pave the way for a direct meeting between Zelensky and Putin.
Cross raids on the Black Sea
In the meantime, the attrition of the cross-raids that inflame the Black Sea continues, with Kiev’s drones targeting oil depots and ships in Sochi, while the Russian ones have caused further victims in Odessa (one dead and three injured) as well as in Kherson (one dead and 12 injured). So, while Moscow continues to claim small advances in the field – today, the conquest of the village of Gruzskoye in Donetsk – Witkoff and Kushner are packing their bags for Moscow and Kiev. For a complex mission also from a safety point of view. Between Moscow and Kiev, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said clearly, there will be no direct agreements for security during the visit, while Zelensky calls for “the raids to stop” during the visit. The Russians – this is the theory of the Ukrainian media – would have tried to discourage the Ukrainian stop of the tycoon’s emissaries to the point of hypothesizing the cancellation of the two’s mission to Kiev.