The advance of the Russian Army in Ukraine and the difficulties faced by Kiev's forces are causing tensions between Moscow and Western countries to rise to alarming levels. The Kremlin has warned that there is a risk of one “direct escalation” after the French president Emmanuel Macron he returned to evoke the possibility of sending troops and the British Foreign Secretary David Cameron judged it permissible for the Ukrainians to use weapons supplied by London to attack Russian territory. In an interview with the Economist weekly, Macron said that the West should consider sending soldiers to Ukraine in case the Russians breach the lines. A possibility that he had already spoken about last February, encountering negative reactions from NATO allies, starting with the USA. Also today, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani reiterated Italy's opposition: «We have always said that we are not at war with Russia and therefore we will not send Italian soldiers to fight in Ukraine», clarified the head of the Farnesina. Compared to three months ago, the conditions for the Ukrainian forces have worsened, clearly showing the shortages in terms of armaments and men in the face of the progress of the Russian forces. Since the beginning of the year, Defense Minister Serghei Shoigu said, Moscow's troops have conquered about 550 square kilometers of territory, particularly in Donbass, and now continue to “penetrate Ukrainian strongholds along the entire line of contact ». It is no coincidence, therefore, that Macron has returned to talking about his proposal, explicitly hypothesizing a collapse of Kiev's defenses and warning Moscow against trying to take advantage of it. Macron's words are “very important and very dangerous”, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, warning that Moscow continues to “closely monitor” the statements from Paris. But also those from London, after Minister Cameron yesterday , on a visit to Kiev, told Reuters that Britain had not only agreed to provide three billion pounds a year in aid to Ukraine “for as long as it was needed” but also that Ukrainians “have the right” to use such weapons directly against Russian territory, a statement which for Peskov poses the risk of a “direct escalation” between Western countries and Moscow, and which “could potentially represent a danger to European security”.
Precisely the attacks on Russian territory, so far carried out mainly with drones, are the response that Kiev has relied on to try to deal with the dramatic situation on the ground. Now it could make such raids more lethal by using new weapons, in particular the Atacms ballistic missiles supplied by the US. For days, rumors have been circulating among the Russian authorities and in diplomatic circles in Moscow about possible attacks on the Crimean Bridge over the Kerch Strait, which joins the peninsula annexed in 2014 to the territory of the Russian Federation, already hit by an attack in 2022. Addressing the US, UK and EU Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that such an attack would receive an “overwhelming retaliation”. And underlining the gravity of the moment was the news given by Moscow on the overflight of two Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers over the international waters of the Bering Sea near the western coast of Alaska. Ukrainians are also on high alert for possible new large-scale attacks by Russian aerospace forces. The Kyiv Independent newspaper writes that the authorities have advised citizens against going to church during Sunday's Orthodox Easter celebrations and against following the religious service online for fear of bombings. Today two people were killed and two others were injured in a Russian attack in the city of Kurakhovo, Donetsk region, according to local Ukrainian authorities. While a woman died in a bombing in Kharkiv, in the north-east of the country. In the Russian region of Belgorod, however, a gas depot caught fire and two people were injured in new bombings by Ukrainian forces with kamikaze drones, according to the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov.