After giving Kiev and the USA one last chance to avoid the next round of territorial acquisitions, it’s evident that Russia has accepted the futility of attempting to convince anyone on the NATO side to see reason. The Russian logic is impeccable: if the only territory that will be conceded for the purposes of a ceasefire is territory that is already under Russian military control, then there is no reason to hold up the Special Military Operation until all of the territories deemed necessary for a sound long-term defensive strategy have been acquired.
Here are the obvious signs that the next phase has begun and will probably not stop until the five provinces from Sumy to Odessa are under Russian control.
- Britain, France, Germany and the United States have lifted restrictions on the range of military supplies to Ukraine, German Chancellor Merz said.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin has officially announced the establishment of a “security buffer zone” along the border with Ukraine. Russian troops, according to the Kremlin, have already been ordered to push ahead and are actively targeting Ukrainian military positions near the frontier. The move is aimed at protecting Russian regions far from the front line – particularly Belgorod, Bryansk, and Kursk – which have faced frequent shelling, drone strikes, as well as sabotage missions launched by Ukrainian forces.
- Kiev’s Western backers — particularly the UK, France, Germany, and the EU’s leadership — bear responsibility for the latest Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian territory, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said during a Q&A session in Moscow.
- The scale of the onslaught was stunning. Russia hit Ukraine with 367 drones and missiles, making this the largest single attack of the more than three-years-long war, according to Ukraine Air Force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat. It was “the most massive strike in terms of the number of air attack weapons on the territory of Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022,” Ihnat said.
President Trump appears to have recognized that the Russians are no longer interested in his administration’s constant posturing, although he still doesn’t seem to have accepted that he is no longer holding any cards.
I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY! He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever. I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia! Likewise, President Zelenskyy is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop. This is a War that would never have started if I were President. This is Zelenskyy’s, Putin’s, and Biden’s War, not “Trump’s,” I am only helping to put out the big and ugly fires, that have been started through Gross Incompetence and Hatred.
It may not have begun as Trump’s war, but it is Trump’s war now. He has refused to shut down the flow of aid to Ukraine, and if the German Chancellor is to be believed, he has also lifted restrictions on the range of US missiles being supplied to Kiev, so he is clearly responsible for the Kiev regime being able to continue fighting. If he had, as many serious observers advised at the time, begun his second term in January by unequivocally stating that the US would not continue to provide any weapons and financial aid to the Kiev regime, or to any third party doing so, the war would already be over now. But the president simply didn’t do what the Russians knew he had the power to do, and so they have correctly concluded that if they are going to achieve their objectives, they will need to do so on the battlefield.