The eyes of the international community are currently focused on the Middle East, but Volodymyr Zelensky is trying to keep the allies’ attention high on his war too. The Ukrainian leader heard from Donald Trump for the second time in two days and spoke with Emmanuel Macron. The pressing request is always the same: more anti-aircraft defense systems and more missiles, with particular attention to long-range carriers, to counter the Russian offensive. Kiev’s objective is to exploit the emotional wave of the occupant of the White House, who seems to have tired of Vladimir Putin’s broken promises of peace.
The latest clue in this direction is provided by the Financial Times: the Ukrainians have received US intelligence information to target Russian energy resources. “I just spoke with Potus” and “this conversation was also very productive”, Zelensky said in the early afternoon on his social media channels. On this occasion, the issues raised in the conversation of the previous 24 hours were explored in depth, which concern “all aspects”, explained the Ukrainian president. Starting above all from “strengthening our capabilities in air defense, resilience and long-range capabilities”.
On the Washington-Kiev line, therefore, Trump’s openness to sending Tomahawk missiles to his ally, with a range of around 2500 kilometers and therefore capable of multiplying Ukrainian attack options, would have been deepened. The conversation with the French president was of a similar nature. “I informed him of our priority needs, first and foremost air defense systems and missiles”, explained Zelensky, underlining that “Russia is now exploiting the moment”, from the “Middle East” to the “internal issues of each country” (see the political crisis shaking the Elysée), to conduct “increasingly cowardly” attacks against Ukraine.
To address the need for new weapons, Kiev is working with Paris “to expand the Purl initiative”, with NATO countries purchasing American weapons to pass on to Ukraine.
The possible arrival of Tomahawks in the Ukrainian arsenals is a cause of “serious concern” for the Kremlin, which however clarified: “It is an important weapon, which can be in a conventional or nuclear configuration, but at the same time it cannot change the situation on the fronts”, said Dmitry Peskov in an interview with a Russian media.
Once again sending back to the sender the accusations of not wanting to negotiate: “We are living in a dramatic moment of escalation with tensions on all sides”, in the face of which “the Russian side continues to declare that it is ready for a peaceful solution”, and “even Trump speaks of the need to sit at the table”, while instead “the Europeans and the Kiev regime demonstrate total reluctance in this regard”.
In reality, Trump has recently abandoned his conciliatory tone towards Putin and has actually made it known that he could increase sanctions against Moscow. And on a military level, it emerged that intelligence support for Ukrainian operations “has intensified since mid-summer”: to target the main source of Russian wealth, energy, “including oil refineries located well beyond the front line”.
Raids which, according to the FT, «have caused energy prices in Russia to skyrocket and forced Moscow to cut diesel exports and import fuel». In response to attacks on Russian territory, the Army is intensifying ground operations in the epicenter of the conflict, Donbass. So much so that local Ukrainian authorities have ordered the evacuation of civilians from some parts of the city of Kramatorsk, because the invading troops are less than 20 kilometers away.
The city in Donetsk, which before the war had nearly 150,000 inhabitants, many engaged in coal mining, has been a symbol of resistance for more than a decade, fending off the enemy even at the start of the conflict in 2022.