Twentieth day of war. As kyiv awaits visits from the Polish, Czech and Slovenian prime ministers, bombings, missile strikes and fighting continue across the country. The Russian army is stalling, the Ukrainian forces are resisting, and the civilian and military losses are accumulating. Despite the talks, the horror could still last.
Can we hope that the meetings between Russian and Ukrainian dignitaries will have a result? One “fourth round of talks started on March 14, but both sides decided to take a break and resume the next day”, recalls the information site Obozrevatel.
So far, nothing concrete has come of it. However, “President Zelensky noted that for the first time kyiv received positive signals from Moscow. There is talk of the possibility of a personal meeting between the leaders of the two countries, which the Russian Federation has been refusing for two years”.
Zelensky mourns NATO
On the other hand, the Ukrainian president seems to have admitted that his country would never enter the Atlantic Alliance, which has hardly been in the odor of sanctity in the Ukrainian media lately. “It is clear that Ukraine will not be a member of NATO, he said during a video address to the leaders of the countries participating in the Joint Expeditionary Force, created at the initiative of the United Kingdom in 2014. We understand that. Years, we waited in front of the open door, without being able to enter, it is true, it must be recognized. I am delighted that our people are starting to understand this and to rely on themselves and the partners who help us.”
And Volodymyr Zelensky laments:
Some members of the Alliance are simply mesmerized by the aggression of the Russian Federation and concerned about the possible start of World War III if they close the skies over Ukraine.”
This call for the establishment of a no-fly zone over the country is a leitmotif in official speeches as well as in the analyzes of Ukrainian commentators.
Because if the Ukrainian air force has not been eradicated, it remains clearly outnumbered, and can therefore only intervene punctually, whereas to go on the counter-offensive, the armed forces of kyiv should be able to ensure at least partly the mastery of the sky, under penalty of
[…]