“Just peace,” according to Volodymyr Zelensky, can be achieved on condition that Westerners, led by the United States and Great Britain, allow Kiev to strike Russian territory with long-range missiles. This green light, however, continues not to arrive, the Ukrainian leader himself admitted, who is preparing to fly to New York to plead this cause more forcefully with allied leaders and beyond: Zelensky will meet Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, probably Donald Trump, and will have the stage of the UN General Assembly at his disposal.
His horizon is a new peace conference in November, this time with Moscow, but from which a cold shower has come: he will not participate. London and Washington “are afraid of an escalation”, Zelensky told the international media with regret, speaking about the taboo of cruise missiles. The Ukrainian leader will try again in the coming days, especially with the Americans. Joe Biden “can earn his place in history” by “strengthening Ukraine” before leaving office. In addition, he has already “changed his mind” in the past, and some members of his entourage have argued that the OK must be given, which “is already an achievement”, Zelensky noted. In the United States, in addition to the outgoing president and Harris, he should also meet with Trump, between Thursday and Friday. The tycoon is notoriously colder with Kiev, but the Ukrainian leader is aiming for now to have “time” with the Republican candidate. The game of long-range missiles remains complicated, especially since even the EU does not want to provoke Moscow further.
This is Berlin’s position, for example, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz reiterating that “it will not deliver military vehicles that can reach Moscow”, such as the Taurus. And Rome is on the same line, considering that any action that opens a direct front between Moscow and NATO must be avoided. The use of Atacms and Storm Shadows to strike Russia is an integral part of the “victory plan” that the Ukrainian president will present to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday. No details have emerged so far, but from what has emerged, Zelensky’s initiative aims to obtain new security guarantees, more weapons and economic support for Kiev. A concrete plan, unlike the “too vague” one presented by China and Brazil in the spring, estimated the Ukrainian leader, who considers the two countries too close to Putin. Kiev, after the conference in Switzerland, now wants to involve Moscow, to actually bring about the end of hostilities.
A difficult task, because in the evening Russia announced that it has no plans to participate in the summit scheduled for November. By promoting “the inapplicable Zelensky formula”, it would be “an ultimatum on our capitulation”, said the spokeswoman for diplomacy Maria Zakharova. If Russia were to one day decide to negotiate, Ukraine would put on the table the withdrawal from the occupied territories beyond the border, Zelensky implied. Meanwhile, its armed forces reported having destroyed “thousands of tons of ammunition, including from North Korea” in two warehouses in Krasnodar.
A blow apparently successful, because the regional governor has ordered the evacuation of over a thousand residents from the area. These operations on Russian territory are defined by the Ukrainians as defensive, at a time when the invading troops continue to gain ground in Donetsk, threatening the important logistics center of Pokrovsk: the Army is only ten kilometers away. Kiev also believes that the enemy has planned new attacks on nuclear power plants, to further compromise the energy network in view of the winter. The risk, when an atomic plant is involved, is of an accident with “serious” consequences, warned Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. Sharing intelligence information with the IAEA and allies.