After several standoffs, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met this Friday at the Trump Towerr with the Republican candidate. This meeting follows harsh statements from the former US president last Wednesday, in which accused Zelensky of being a “dealer”, He criticized him for not reaching an agreement with Russia and assured that I was only looking for Kamala Harris to win in the next elections, by defeating his supporters and placing aid to Ukraine at the center of the campaign.
In fact, Trump dropped this Thursday that He had no intention of meeting Zelensky, a visit that had been closed for some time, while the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson demanded that the Ukrainian president fire his ambassador to the United States for “election interference.” Oksana Markarova, a respected diplomat, had limited herself to organizing Zelensky’s visit to the North American country, which Johnson described as “a partisan act aimed at helping the Democrats and interfering in the elections.”
This Republican offensive is by far the most violent since the start of the war between Ukraine and Russia. Johnson blocked major aid package for months in Congress and vice-presidential candidate, J.D. Vancehas repeatedly expressed its desire to let Russia retain all of the occupied territory in order to stop financing Ukrainian defense. Nothing compared to Trump, who declared at a rally this week that Ukraine was “a dead and destroyed country.”
Again, Zelensky swallowed his pride and accepted Trump’s change of heart and met him at his home. At the exit, the two politicians wanted to appear normal amid obvious tensions between them. Zelensky assured that the two men were aiming for peace in Ukraine, and Trump made clear that he wanted that peace to be “equitable in its terms for both sides.” Election polls have Harris and Trump almost tied, so the diplomatic effort is more than justified, although at this point no one doubts that, if Trump wins, he will pander to Putin’s interests.
The symbolic fall of Vuhledar
Zelensky’s visit to the United States coincides with one of the worst times for the Ukrainian army in recent months. Having avoided collapse on the Eastern Front when Russian troops began to approach dangerously close to Pokrovsk, Gerasimov’s near-suicidal insistence continues to wreak havoc in Donetsk province. Having difficulty mobilizing and training new recruits and being under-equipped by the enemy, Ukrainian soldiers are fighting at every meter from Kupiansk in the north to Vuhledar in the south.
Although the frontal advance towards Pokrovsk was stopped near Hrodivka, Russia continues to expand occupied territory to the north and south of the main Ukrainian communications hub south of Donetsk. After the conquest of Krasnohorivka and Ukrainsk in recent weeks and the siege of Selidove, the situation in the symbolic town of Vuhledar is deteriorating hour by hour and the troops still protecting the enclave risk being trapped, Russia having almost finished the cauldron. the city is closed and the only emergency exit by road is continually bombed.
Ukrainian soldiers with a missile launcher.
Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
Vuhledar’s defense had become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance…and the failure of the enemy. Wanted since 2014 by pro-Russian militias, Vuhledar had resisted a series of savage attacks from the south and east during two and a half years of open war. The city had become a sort of inaccessible fortress for the Russians, who never tired of sending men and armored vehicles to the slaughterhouse. The alleged withdrawal in the coming hours represents a significant moral blow for Ukraine and Russian propaganda will take the opportunity to magnify this feat.
The price of the war of attrition
In fact, the general’s criticism Alexander Syrsky because defending the city at all costs and not withdrawing its men have been constant in recent days. Syrsky had already been criticized for a similar maneuver in Bakhmut, when the United States urged him to withdraw his men towards Chasiv Yar. The vision of the general chief of the Ukrainian army is different: very delicate balance between advantages and disadvantages in which you only stop fighting when it is clear that you are not going to continue harming the enemy.
This happened in Mariupol, Severodonetsk, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and now Vuhledar. Syrskyi does not surrender his positions as long as they serve to further weaken the Russian army and there is minimal opportunity for an organized retreat. In Vuhledar, this opportunity diminishes over time. The troops, some of whom are the most experienced on the Ukrainian side, are surrounded and under enemy fire. They could flee through the forest if the road became impassable, but it is difficult to organize such a retreat.
The conquest of Vuhledar occurred precisely on the day when American sources estimated The economist In 100,000 is the number of Russians killed in combat, with 430,000 wounded.and diverse consideration. Half a million young people who saw their lives cut short on the one hand and who join on the other half a million Ukrainians who would have suffered the same fate, according to Western estimates. The war of attrition is what it is: attacking day and night, in any context; day and night, defend every square inch of your territory. An absurd barbarism which is now heading towards Velyka Novosilka, Pokrovsk or Sloviansk. Terror never rests.
