A building destroyed by bombing in the town of Pokrovsk, eastern Ukraine, November 19, 2024 (AFP / Florent VERGNES)
Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Tuesday of the risk of defeat against Moscow in the event of an end to American aid, judging the “survival” of Ukraine at stake at a time when the firing of American ATACM missiles on the territory Russia raises fears of a new escalation.
On the 1,000th day of the war, Moscow promised an “appropriate” response after the attack carried out by Ukraine on its soil during the night from Monday to Tuesday and announced that the possibilities of resorting to nuclear weapons were thus expanded, a rhetoric denounced by Westerners.
While on the ground Russian troops are advancing on several sectors of the front, kyiv and its European allies are worried about the consequences of the return to power on January 20 of Donald Trump, very skeptical of the billions that the administration of Current President Joe Biden has granted grants to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in February 2022.
“If they cut (the aid), I think we will lose,” the Ukrainian leader said in an interview on Fox News, the conservatives' favorite American channel.
“Of course, in any case, we will stay, we will fight. We have our production. But it is not enough to win. And I think it is not enough to survive,” he said. -he added, emphasizing the importance of “unity” between Ukraine and the United States.
A senior American official told AFP that the United States would also provide Ukraine with “non-persistent antipersonnel mines” – that is, equipped with a self-destruct or self-deactivation device. to prevent them from posing a danger for generations after the end of the war– to strengthen its defenses against the Russian invasion.
During his campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly promised to quickly end the war, without specifying how.
On Monday, his bodyguards even denounced an “escalation” or even a risk of “world war three” after Joe Biden's decision to authorize Ukraine to strike on Russian territory with long-range American-made missiles.
– “New phase” –
After the announcement of this green light on Sunday, the Ukrainian attack on Tuesday morning, according to the Russian army, targeted military installations in the Bryansk region, not far from the Ukrainian border. Five projectiles were destroyed.
An ATACMS missile launched from a U.S. Army installation in White Sands, New Mexico, December 14, 2021 (DoD/John Hamilton)
These shots were confirmed to AFP by a Ukrainian official speaking on condition of anonymity, even if the head of state Volodymyr Zelensky limited himself to saying that his country had these missiles and would ” use them.”
the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov for his part judged, on the sidelines of the G20 in Rio, that this sent “a signal” according to which Ukraine and the West “want escalation”. This is “a new phase in the Western war against Russia and we will react accordingly,” he insisted.
For him, these precise missiles supplied by the United States cannot be used by kyiv “without the help of American experts and instructors”.
In response, Mr. Lavrov invited Westerners to “read the entirety” of the new Russian nuclear doctrine, made official on Tuesday by Vladimir Putin, which expands the possibility of using atomic weapons in the event of a “massive” attack. by a non-nuclear country but supported by a nuclear power. A clear reference to Ukraine and the United States.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriï Sybiga called for people to “keep a cool head” and “not give in to fear”.
Washington, London and the European Union have denounced “irresponsible rhetoric” on the part of Vladimir Putin's Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron denounced an “escalatory” posture of Russia which he called “to reason”: “It has responsibilities as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council”.
– Territorial losses –
The Russian president has not yet spoken publicly about the Ukrainian attack on Tuesday morning but his spokesperson Dmitri Peskov, in an interview with the Ria-Novosti agency, accused the West of wanting to cause “a strategic defeat” of Russia and to “use Ukraine as an instrument” for this.
Military ceremony to mark the 1000th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, November 19, 2024 in kyiv (AFP / Roman PILIPEY)
Ukraine has been demanding for months to be able to strike military targets deep in Russia to disrupt the logistics of its army, now supported by thousands of North Korean soldiers, according to kyiv and the West.
Facing the Ukrainian Parliament, Volodymyr Zelensky estimated that the outcome would come in 2025 and recognized that Ukraine could have to wait until after Putin to “restore” its territorial integrity, with Russian forces occupying nearly 20% of its surface area.
This is the first time that he has admitted that his country will “perhaps” have to accept, for a time, the loss of areas occupied by Russia.
