Donald Trump wants to take advantage of the momentum of the ceasefire in Gaza to reach the peace agreement that is resisting it in Ukraine. Elated by the signing of the pact with Hamas that certified this Monday the return of the Israeli hostages, the president of the United States confessed from the Knesset rostrum that “it would be great if we could reach a peace agreement [con Irán]…but first we have to solve the Russia thing.”
Volodímir Zelenski Try to take advantage of this window of opportunity. “[El acuerdo entre Israel y Hamás] It gives us signs and hope. “With the same pressure that President Trump exerted in the Middle East to achieve peace, I trust that he will use that same instrument, and even more forcefully, to pressure Putin and stop his war in Ukraine,” he declared this Sunday in Fox News.
The Ukrainian leader had a “very productive” phone call with Trump that same day, in which they discussed strengthening his country’s “air defense, resilience and long-range capabilities,” as well as other “details related to the energy sector,” according to the statement from his office.
Trump is scheduled to receive him this Friday for the third time at the White House. Their first face to face in the Oval Office remains to be remembered, when Zelensky suffered a rhetorical ambush that set off alarms in the European chancelleries.
The second meeting, held in August, served to reduce tensions. The accompaniment of up to seven continental leaders – among whom were the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutteand the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen— avoided a new run-in with Trump.
Zelensky will not be able to count on the same company this Friday in Washington, but there is nothing to suggest that the third meeting in the Oval Office will be similar to the first. The bilateral relationship has changed significantly since this summer.
Following the latest meeting between Trump and Zelensky on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the United States has strengthened collaboration with Ukraine to carry out long-range attacks against Russian energy infrastructure, according to the Financial Times.
According to the newspaper, US intelligence information has allowed Ukrainian troops to bypass Russian air defenses to carry out operations against the engine of the Kremlin’s war machine.
Among the damaged targets are the Bashneft oil refinery in Ufa, about 1,400 kilometers from Ukraine, and another fuel processing plant in Ryazan, which normally produces 340,000 barrels per day.
The coordinated effort aims to hit the waterline of the already suffering Russian economy. It is the White House’s strategy to seat Vladimir Putin at the negotiation table. A table that he has managed to avoid since the August summit in Alaska, where Trump urged him to meet face to face with Zelensky.
It is too early to measure the effectiveness of the new strategy. For now, however, the attacks — carried out with Fire Point and Liutyi drones and Neptune and Flamingo missiles, long-range weapons manufactured in Ukraine — have forced Russian authorities to raise energy prices and reduce diesel exports and fuel imports.
“According to ReutersIn August, 17% of Russian refining capacity was idle due to attacks. However, this does not imply a 17% drop in production, since refineries can partially compensate for the damage by increasing the performance of the equipment that is still operational,” explains the analyst. Farida Rustamova in your Substack newsletter.
Russian President Vladimir Putin
EFE
Tomahawk
In parallel, Trump is considering the possibility of sending Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv. The tenant of the White House threatens to do so in case Putin prolongs the so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Last week, Trump commented that he had “more or less made a decision” about sending the missiles, which have a range of 2,400 kilometers. “I could talk to him [Putin]. I could tell him, ‘Look, if this war is not going to be resolved, I’m going to send you Tomahawk,'” he declared days later aboard Air Force One. “The Tomahawk is an incredible weapon, very offensive. And honestly, Russia doesn’t need that.”
Zelensky himself asked them by phone this Saturday. In that dialogue, the Ukrainian leader also proposed toughening the sanctions regime against Moscow after the massive Russian attack on its electrical grid. Specifically, Zelensky called for much stricter sanctions against buyers of Russian oil, in line with the bipartisan bill that senators Lindsey Graham y Richard Blumenthal they have been promoting for several months.
Russia had launched, according to the Ukrainian president, an offensive “with more than 3,100 drones, 92 missiles and around 1,360 gliding bombs” against the infrastructures of Kyiv, Donetsk, Odesa and Chernigov.
Russia shows its teeth
Putin warned a few days ago that sending Tomahawk to Ukraine would open “a new stage of escalation.” Your spokesperson, Dmitri Peskovacknowledged this Sunday that the discussion on American long-range missiles, with which Kyiv could attack the Urals and even areas of Siberia, is a matter of “extreme concern” for the Kremlin.
The former Russian president Dmitri Medvédev also reacted to Trump’s “one hundred and first threat,” albeit with his usual incendiary rhetoric. “The supply of these missiles can end badly for everyone. And, above all, for Trump himself,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.
Medvedev did not stop there: “It has already been clearly stated, even for the ‘stars and stripes guy’ in uniform, that it is impossible to distinguish in flight a nuclear version of a ‘Tomahawk’ from a conventional one. Its launch will not be carried out by the flagist Kyiv [por Stepán Bandera, el nacionalista ucraniano que colaboró con los nazis]but the United States. Read: Trump. How should Russia respond? Exactly”.
“We can only hope that this is another empty threat, caused by the prolonged negotiations with the cocaine addict clown. Something like sending atomic submarines closer to Russia. You know how it usually happens: the submarine emerged in the steppes of Ukraine,” stated the former Russian prime minister, alluding to his last encounter with Trump.
The Belarusian president Alexandr Lukashenkoan old friend of Putin now interested in smoothing things over with the White House, doubts Trump’s intentions: “I think we should calm down about it. Our friend Donald… sometimes takes a more forceful approach, and then his tactic is to let go a little bit and take a step back. Therefore, we should not take it literally, as if they are going to fly away tomorrow.”