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Telegraph
2 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Putin has cemented Russia's status as a great power. Europe should be terrified
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin met as equals on American soil this week, not because Mr Trump is in thrall to Putin but because his advances into Ukraine have been unstoppable despite over three years of Western effort. Ukrainian forces have fought hard and with tremendous courage, skill and sacrifice. They prevented the intended Russian blitzkrieg at the beginning of the war and have pushed Russia back in places. They even conducted audacious assaults into Russian territory and inflicted unexpected damage on Moscow's forces including in the Black Sea and as far away as eastern Siberia. But Putin still believes he can absorb whatever blows Kyiv throws at him and win even more territory as his forces push hard and continue to make progress in the Donbas. This region, rich in mineral wealth, is Russia's main military focus. Pushing against well-prepared Ukrainian defences here has proven costly in men and munitions and has made slow progress. Putin would prefer not to continue fighting for it if he can get it by other means and he told Mr Trump at Anchorage that the war could end if Ukraine withdraws from the 30 per cent of Donetsk that his forces have not yet conquered. Volodymyr Zelensky will be reluctant to agree to that and has said that voluntarily ceding any Ukrainian territory would require constitutional change. He will have to balance that with his judgment on whether Ukrainian forces will be able to hold on to it if the war continues, and what the price of that might be. That assessment will have to include the extent to which the West, eyeing the potential for peace, will continue to enable his defensive efforts and how effective Ukraine can be on its own. On top of that, Mr Zelensky will be mindful that at this stage in this extremely costly war, polling suggests that the majority of the population want to see its end, with significant proportions reluctantly willing to give up land. What is Putin offering in return? Virtually nothing. Russia has taken small areas of territory in the north-east, around Kharkiv and Sumy, and has said he will be willing to withdraw from there in exchange for Donetsk. He has also agreed to freeze the front lines in the south, in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, of which Russia currently holds around three quarters of the total. A ceasefire prior to Putin's 'deal' is of no interest to him and it seems any such thing, which had been a Western priority, was not seriously entertained in Anchorage. Despite serious military flaws that became only too evident since the start of the war, Russia has shown that its forces are no paper tiger. The much-vaunted Western hardware, technical sophistication and military doctrines are not enough to beat it. Indeed Russia has learnt the lessons of modern warfare, adapting its forces and strategies to deal with drones and other battlefield innovations in a way that the West has not. Russia is maintaining astonishing levels of arms production and has been supplementing its own output with supplies from Iran, North Korea and China. In this form of attritional warfare the West has been unable or unwilling to keep up. Putin has reoriented his economy away from Europe especially towards the Brics nations. Although Russian finances are in difficulties, the West has not yet been willing to administer the level of shock that might lead to anything approaching collapse. Instead, dependent on Russian energy, European countries have continued to play their part in fuelling the war machine. Western sanctions have been severe but insufficient, and the additional sanctions President Trump threatened, as well as secondary tariffs, seem to have evaporated since Putin agreed to the Alaska summit. The net result of all this is that it seems the war will continue to grind on unless President Zelensky accedes to Putin's maximalist demands which, as the summit showed, have not changed since the day he launched his special military operation. Meanwhile, the Europeans have reduced themselves to spectators to Ukraine's fate – and their own. European leaders don't even seem to recognise that the cause of this entire situation, and whatever develops from it, largely falls at their own doorstep. Putin claims that a reason for invading Ukraine was Nato aggression towards the east. Yet it was the opposite. He noted that there was no price to be paid for his 2014 invasion of Crimea, notwithstanding Western guarantees that Ukraine would not be threatened by its agreement to give up its nuclear arsenal. Putin read the situation exactly right: it was Nato that was the paper tiger. Mr Trump has been discussing security guarantees with the Europeans as part of a final settlement. That would not include membership of Nato, which in any case would not be acceptable to Putin were he to agree any peace deal. It is unlikely to be any internationally binding treaty but rather a Nato 'article 5' type arrangement whereby participating states would agree to come to Ukraine's defence if it were to be attacked. That would amount to no more than political promises along the lines of previous guarantees given to Kyiv which were not subsequently honoured. Geography alone dictates that European countries should, theoretically, have greater investment in Ukraine's future than the US, and it is they who ought to be looking to bear the burden of security guarantees rather than always looking across the Atlantic. We keep hearing about the 'coalition of the willing', with European forces led by Britain and France to send in forces to guarantee a ceasefire or perhaps a peace agreement. Yet always this is accompanied by the caveat of a US backstop if it is to work. We also hear from European leaders how, if Putin gets his way in Ukraine, it will encourage him to further aggression. Well, it now looks likely that he may well get his way, or at least much of it. So rather than lamenting a dire situation that their own negligence has helped bring about, these European leaders need to get serious about defence – and fast. That means more than just promises to increase defence spending to repair their destitute armed services sometime in the future. It means hardening political thinking away from decades of flabby compromise, appeasement and accommodation and bringing about societal change so that when the Russian bear comes back for more there will be sufficient patriots ready and willing to get into the trenches rather than the hope that Uncle Sam will come to their rescue.
Washington Post
3 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Ukraine scrambles to roll back Russian advance in the east ahead of summit
DONETSK REGION, Ukraine — Ukrainian troops are racing to claw back a key stretch of land on the eastern front after a surprise Russian advance bolstered Moscow's position ahead of Friday's summit in Alaska between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine rushed elite troops to try to seal the disastrous breach after small groups of Russian foot soldiers exploited weak points on Ukraine's flanks and pushed more than nine miles toward the eastern city of Dobropillya in rapid gains that threaten the security of the entire contested region.
News.com.au
31-07-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Chasiv Yar: Ukraine disputes Russia claim that tiny village crucial to war effort has been lost
Russia's announcement on Thursday that it had captured Chasiv Yar marks yet another blow for Kyiv after months of accumulating setbacks across the sprawling front line in eastern and southern Ukraine. It underscores systemic problems plaguing the Ukrainian army, like manpower shortages and logistics problems, that have given Russian forces the edge after three and a half years of brutal fighting. The Ukrainian army denied that the strategic hilltop settlement had fallen to Russian forces. If confirmed, the capture would come after many months of intensive battles in the area that have seen Russia make painstaking but incremental gains. Russian forces had advanced along the flanks of Chasiv Yar before pushing into the city, heavily bombing Ukrainian positions until it was untenable to hold them. Images released by the Ukrainian military earlier this year, showing rows of smouldering and skeletal Soviet-era housing blocs and lines of shredded trees, attest to the ferocity of Russia's shelling of Chasiv Yar. The town had a population of some 12,000 people before the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The battle for Chasiv Yar began in earnest after May 2023, when Russian forces and units from the Wagner mercenary group captured the nearby town of Bakhmut. That same month, AFP video journalist Arman Soldin was killed aged 32 by incoming rocket fire on the outskirts of the city. Russian forces first crossed an important waterway in the town in 2024, and a turning point came when Ukrainian forces ceded a large industrial facility and a key defensive position in Chasiv Yar in January this year. If confirmed, its fall will now pave the way for Russian forces to advance on remaining civilian strongholds in the eastern Donetsk region, like Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. The Kremlin has made the complete capture of the Donetsk region its military priority and already in late 2022 claimed that the industrial territory was part of Russia.
Al Arabiya
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Ukraine's top general says Ukraine stopped Russian advances in northern Sumy region
Ukraine's forces stopped Russian advances in the border area of Ukraine's northern region of Sumy this week, the country's top general said in a statement released on Thursday. 'The advance of Russian troops in the border areas of Sumy region has been halted, and the line of combat has stabilized,' Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a statement about the front visit. Developing
Reuters
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Residents weigh their chances as Russian troops approach Ukrainian city
SUMY, Ukraine, June 13 (Reuters) - Vladyslav Solomko, a 29-year-old French language tutor, is having trouble convincing his parents it would be better not to be in their home in Sumy if rapidly-advancing Russian forces capture the northeastern Ukrainian city. "I keep asking them to leave," Solomko said on Friday, standing in front of a concrete air raid shelter that had been installed in the street to protect people from Russian drone and missile attacks that have grown in intensity. For now, he said, his parents are not budging. But he added: "If the situation gets worse, there is no discussion: we will have to leave." Sumy, a city of around 250,000 people, is located just 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the border with Russia. It was briefly encircled by Russian forces at the start of 2022 when they launched their full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian forces soon pulled out and since then, despite its proximity to the border, Sumy has been relatively quiet, as the focus of the Russian fighting has been further east and south in areas Moscow claims as its own without having full control. However, that changed earlier this year when Russian forces pushed across the Ukraine-Russian border. Since the start of June, their advance has accelerated. Displaced people from outlying villages have been given refuge in public buildings. The Russian advance also means the city is now within range of their artillery. On June 3, four people were killed and nearly 30 were injured when a Russian short-range battlefield rocket landed in the centre of Sumy. Olha Kalchenko, a 29-year-old on maternity leave from her job as an accountant, said the question of whether to stay or leave was now a major topic of debate among her social circle. "It is a bit scary," she said as she pushed her seven-month-old daughter, Oleksandra, in a stroller. "Yes, there are thoughts about leaving but there is nowhere to go, so we stay here." she said. "As long as they (Russian troops) are still a bit further away, it is still ok to live here. But if they get closer we will start thinking and planning to leave, that's for sure. At least me and the baby." But another resident, Sergiy Petrakov, 63, said he would stay put in Sumy, even if Russian forces reached the city limits. He said he trusted Ukraine's armed forces to push back the Russian advance, and would be willing to help build barricades and man checkpoints, adding: "We shall overcome, I think."
