- Статьи
- World
- On the front line: the advance of the Russian Armed Forces turned the political situation around before the NATO summit
On the front line: the advance of the Russian Armed Forces turned the political situation around before the NATO summit
The new successes of the Russian Armed Forces on the battlefield are a serious argument for Washington. And this was confirmed by another telephone conversation between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. It was the American side that initiated the call, expressing its readiness to continue to resolve the issue through diplomacy — Witkoff and Kushner will continue the negotiation process. Meanwhile, the Kiev regime refuses to recognize the liberation of strategically important Konstantinovka by Russian troops and to take the bodies of its own soldiers. Ukraine, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, creates the illusion of victory for Western curators in order to gain support again — after all, the two-day NATO summit begins in Ankara tomorrow.
What changes the conversation between Trump and Putin
The Ukrainian settlement process over the weekend was stirred up by activity on two fronts at once — diplomatic and military. On the most important day for the United States (his country celebrated its 250th anniversary on July 4), Donald Trump conducted a new round of shuttle diplomacy. At the initiative of the American side, he had a telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin, and earlier with Vladimir Zelensky. This order of interlocutors shows who, from Washington's point of view, now has the last word.
In an hour and a half, the Russian leader told his American counterpart about the situation in the SVR zone after the liberation of the strategically important Konstantinovka, adding that the Russian Armed Forces were advancing along the entire front line. The new situation on the battlefield became known on July 3, when the president visited the auxiliary command post of the Joint Forces Group, where he held a meeting with the leadership of the General Staff and the commanders. The message from Moscow is instantly read by Westerners: pressure on Russia is still not working. British politician and journalist Jim Ferguson called the appearance of Vladimir Putin in military uniform a signal, and the correspondent of the Welt channel had to admit that the Russian Armed Forces were moving — and faster than expected.
However, this does not mean that Moscow has exhausted its peacekeeping intentions. According to Yuri Ushakov, an aide to the Russian leader, the president, in a conversation with his counterpart, confirmed his readiness for a political and diplomatic settlement. It is already known that Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner will continue to search for a compromise on the American side.
The call from Washington rather indicates the immutability of the American position and willingness to act as intermediaries, Dmitry Novikov, associate professor at the Higher School of Economics and a leading researcher at the ISSA RAS, told Izvestia. It should be recalled that recently a number of officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have made ambiguous statements, which were interpreted in Brussels and Kiev as a tightening of the position towards Russia.
The initiative of the American leader on a festive Saturday evening did not go unnoticed, especially on the eve of the two—day NATO summit, which begins on July 7. The Guardian believes that Trump is urgently trying to regain his peacemaker status. CNN draws attention to the fact that the United States is now trying to "optimize its contribution to the NATO defense model" in order to reduce the alliance's dependence on American forces. At this point, Trump's willingness to send negotiators to Moscow looks like an attempt to restart the diplomatic track and cool down the conflict in order to justify his own aspirations to sponsor the alliance less.
The third conversation between Trump and Putin in four months demonstrates the willingness of the parties to maintain contacts, Egor Toropov, an American analyst at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, agreed in an interview with Izvestia. This, he believes, is also a symbolic step in the current restoration and future development of dialogue between the countries. Interestingly, according to Ushakov, Trump in the conversation just noted the enormous prospects for economic cooperation between Russia and the United States after the end of the conflict. And logically, he outlined the need to complete it as soon as possible in order to finally realize this potential. In other words, the head of the White House directly linked the restoration of large-scale cooperation between the countries with "the fastest possible cessation of hostilities in Ukraine." The Western press sees this as a signal from Washington to its European allies: the White House does not intend to endlessly incur costs by abandoning promising prospects.
The 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump
Western politicians have so far remained largely silent and have not commented on new contacts between Moscow and Washington — after all, the future of Atlantic unity is almost at stake, and Trump has long proved that he is ready for radical decisions even with regard to allies if it is in the interests of the United States.
Why is Konstantinovka so important?
The situation with the capture of Konstantinovka and the advance of the Russian Armed Forces in other sectors of the front is very significant. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine denied the information of the Russian authorities about the complete liberation of the city. Trying to publicly seize the initiative, Zelensky immediately made a media diplomatic demarche, inviting Vladimir Putin to meet in Konstantinovka.
The Kremlin saw this move as populist. Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov recalled Vladimir Putin's readiness to receive Zelensky in Moscow. "After all, Moscow is the capital of the Russian Federation, not Konstantinovka," the Kremlin spokesman added.
The Russian Defense Ministry also offered to openly transfer the bodies of the dead Ukrainian servicemen, subject to a cease-fire by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. More than 20 media outlets from different countries volunteered to observe the process. However, Kiev refused to stop the fighting — the Ukrainian leadership is trying in every possible way to disguise the real state of affairs on the battlefield.
"Apparently, guided by considerations that then a signal will go to the rest of the world that Ukraine is losing, Kiev, trying not to break the lovingly constructed virtual narrative, is abandoning the remains of its own twin cities," Rodion Miroshnik, ambassador—at-large of the Russian Foreign Ministry for crimes of the Kiev regime, told Izvestia.
Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry for Crimes of the Kiev regime Rodion Miroshnik
Thus, Kiev is delaying a political and diplomatic settlement, trying to create the illusion of success on the battlefield before the NATO summit.
"They are ready to throw bodies at cities, throw the remains of their people, who were called heroes yesterday, just so that at the NATO summit there would be some acceptable, constructed, but absolutely false picture, under which you can beg for money and some kind of support," the diplomat added.
It is important that the capture of Konstantinovka opens a direct road for further advance to Kramatorsk and Slavyansk — and this is the key to liberating the entire territory of the DPR. Therefore, the refusal to cease fire suggests that the losses of this point are perceived by the command and political leadership of Ukraine quite painfully, and recognizing victory here for the Russian Armed Forces actually means admitting defeat and local surrender, Dmitry Novikov believes.
— The capture of Konstantinovka is a pretty serious argument in favor of the fact that Russia still has the opportunity to retake these territories on its own. And, of course, these are arguments in the dialogue with Washington," the expert emphasizes.
Trump's call is certainly related to changes on the battlefield. Western publications state that the loss of this key fortified area endangers the entire defensive line of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Donbas. The advance of the Russian Armed Forces on the eve of the start of the Turkish summit makes it impossible for the alliance to continue blindly modeling negotiations on Ukraine from a position of strength. Russia is backing up its demands with real territorial changes, while the United States and its allies may have to urgently rewrite settlement scenarios.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
