The war in ukraine fulfilled his first year amid new promises of military aid from the West for the country of Volodymyr Zelensky, the ruling by Vladimir Putin’s Russia that this territory belongs to them and a surprise pronouncement by China asking for peace talks that the allies question.
Zelensky is convinced that “If our partners keep their word and respect the deadlines, an inevitable victory awaits us (…). I really want it to be this year.”but the Ukrainian commitment to win in 2023 also depends on its allies (the United States and the European Union) delivering F16 fighter jets.
The president knows that he cannot win the war without the support of his allies and puts the ball in the field of the White House, lThe Europeans and NATO, the Transatlantic Alliance that has its resources placed in kyiv to stop Putin’s expansionism.
By the end of the day, the commemoration of the date came with more announcements of military and economic aid for kyiv, from tanks to multi-million dollar transactions, but not with the landing of airplanes.
Sweden will give you 10 Leopard tanks and Germany four of the Leopard 2A6 reference. Poland also gave 4 tanks of that reference and promised another 60 of the PT-91 type, while the United States confirmed a check for 2,000 million dollars in more aid and made official another package of sanctions against the Kremlin that have been implemented by another 20 global actors.
The Ukrainian president, the 45-year-old comedian who has led the front lines, maintains that his country remains strong and “He is prepared for everything”, but his counterpart Putin made it clear that Ukraine does not exist as a state for the Kremlin.
In his annual address to the nation this week, he argued that “The purpose of the West is to take away from Russia the historical territories that today are called Ukraine” and he appealed because “the more means the West gives to kyiv in the long term, the more Russia will be forced to avert the threat itself.”
The wear and tear of a year of the war that is being waged in Eastern Europe confronts two actors convinced that they can be the winners in a dispute that, more than the bipolarity of Ukraine vs. Russiais measuring the capabilities of the latter with NATO and the United States.
The Ukraine issue is a security issue for Russia, which appeals to move Western influence away from its borders, but it also has that category for Europeans and Americans who they see the need to curb Putin’s Soviet expansionist spirits.
China puts chips in Ukraine
Xi Jinping’s China entered that board, which is about to meet with Zelenski to ensure its role as global leader by setting foot in Kiev, a meeting that is known just after President Joe Biden’s visit to the Ukrainian capital.
However, the China question goes beyond a photo of presidents. Beijing is betting on consolidating itself as the second power in a bipolar world with the United States and Beijing does not want a large-scale armed confrontation that results in economic risks.
For this reason and because of his spirit of influence on the battlefield that has been the White House, he presented a 12-point document with what he considered a “peace plan”, but which The West classified as its position” on the conflict, as accused by the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell.
That catalog of notes condemned the possible use of nuclear weapons, a call that came days after the Kremlin to suspend the New Start arms treaty that capped nuclear warheads, and called for the parties to sit down at a table for peace talks.
The progress of that request can only be calculated after Zelenski’s meeting with Xi Jinping, who is a president allied to Putin. What’s more, the intelligence information from the White House accuses him of wanting to deliver military aid to Ukraine, a claim the Chinese strongly deny.
On Friday, Russia once again demanded that its annexations to Ukraine (to the regions of Donbas and Crimea) be recognized, processes that were finalized with illegal referendums. On this point, the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, has already recognized that Crimea is one of the Kremlin’s red lines, Although Zelenski continues to demand that his territory be returned to him as it was before the 2014 annexations.
And although on the international scene everyone shows their teeth again, internally each presidential house has seen situations of mandatory attention. China sees the risk of a national economic crisis due to the fall of the Evergrande company and the United States entered a pre-campaign phase in which Bidenissues that put the war between Russia and Ukraine on another battlefield: how long will the international community be able to sustain it?