Last Friday morning, he announced that he had captured a ruined village, Bezimiane, in the Donetsk region. Once Russian control of the settlement is confirmed, the Konstantinovka-Druzhkivka-Kramatorsk axis, the last strong line of defense preventing the full occupation of the subsoil-rich Donbas valley, is at risk. Further south, another Russian trench has already been closed in Pokrovsk, while in the opposite city of Mirnokhrad, Ukrainian defenders are struggling to keep open a zone just two kilometers wide, to avoid a complete encirclement that would mean their annihilation or capture. Even further south, the town of Khuliaipole is in immediate danger, as the Russians are also gaining ground in the Zaporizhzhya region.
The former line of Ukrainian strongholds (Toretsk, Chasiv Yar, Bakhmut, Solentar), which fell in the past year, became synonymous with the carnage in Donetsk, heavy Russian losses, but also significant Ukrainian losses, which are very difficult, if not practically impossible, to replace. Russia is slowly but surely gnawing away at parts of Ukrainian territory and has taken over a fifth of Ukraine, which is both the part of the country with the richest subsoil and the most important industrial infrastructure.
What the Russians are essentially saying to their American interlocutors is that the rest of Donetsk will fall into their hands sooner or later, so it would be better for everyone if the Ukrainians surrendered it an hour earlier. On the other hand, the government in Kiev – together with the European allies – consider it unthinkable to hand over territory to the Russians and legitimize the invasion. One of the ideas that has fallen on the table is the so-called intermediate solution, namely to declare the remaining one-fifth of Donetsk a “demilitarized zone”. But even so, the question of who will have the upper hand in this zone will have to be answered. Russia rejects the possibility that this area is controlled by an international force, Ukraine refuses to cede territory, for which thousands of lives have been sacrificed.
How much will the “progress” recorded in the US-Russian talks to end the war cost the Ukrainians and their European allies? Probably very expensive, to the extent that it will be confirmed in practice, the publication of the German magazine “Der Spiegel”, about the content of a teleconference of the European leaders with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Europeans’ fears of “betrayal”
While his two secret advisers were traveling to Moscow Donald Trump – his son-in-law Jared Kushner and the real estate agent Steve Witkoff – to negotiate with Vladimir Putinthe French president Emmanuel Macron warned that “there is a possibility that the Americans will betray Ukraine, territorially, without clarity on security guarantees”while the German chancellor Friedrich Mertz advised Zelensky to be very careful, because they “they play games with you and us”. “We shouldn’t leave Zelensky alone with these guys,” says the Finnish president Alexander Stubbsomething with which the NATO Secretary General also reportedly agrees Mark Rutte. The French presidency denied that Macron used the term “treason”, while representatives of the other leaders declined to comment. Behind the fine words for a united stance and the rounded positions announced publicly so as not to “provoke” the “unpredictable” American president, European leaders are deeply concerned about the manipulations of the White House.
For the Europeans, the problem is not only Russia’s maximalist demands, which Putin returned to after the five-hour negotiations with Trump’s envoys, even recalling that Moscow wants the whole of “Novorossiya” (from Kharkiv in the North to Dnipro in the center and Odesa in the South). A key political and economic issue for European leaders is also that the reduction of energy dependence on Russia is accompanied by a corresponding increase in dependence on the USA and indeed at higher prices, but not by American support against “Russian expansionism”.
The president of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen celebrated “full energy de-dependence from Russia” by announcing last week the political agreement reached by the European Parliament and the Council. Liquefied natural gas imports from Russia are being phased out by December 31, 2026, and pipeline natural gas imports by September 30, 2027. At the same time, Europeans are seeing worrying signs of a reduction in the US military presence on the Old Continent. The plan was indirectly confirmed by the US supreme commander of NATO forces in Europe, Gen Grinkevichbut assuring that this will not weaken the Alliance, because the participation of the remaining partners is increasing.
Putin’s trip and deal in India
President Trump sees the Europeans more as an obstacle to his negotiation with Putin to end the war and forge a new global balance than as an equal interlocutor. Also, the US president considers as one of his biggest successes that NATO allies are buying weapons from the US for Ukraine, with the result that Washington wins, instead of shouldering the burden of this war, as he characteristically said a few days ago.
On the other hand, the Kremlin is not only gnawing away at time and territory in Ukraine. Two days after meeting Trump’s envoys, Putin traveled to India to strengthen ties with Asia’s emerging second superpower after China. The Russian president guaranteed his government Narendra Modi the “uninterrupted flow” of fuel and questioned why Washington is threatening India with 50% tariffs for sourcing Russian oil when the US itself buys nuclear fuel from Russia. “We are ready to discuss this issue with President Trump,” Putin said.
