We must talk about Ukraine again. The world has forgotten about the conflict in Eastern Europe and all attention is focused on what is happening in Gaza. And the news coming from Kyiv is not at all positive or flattering for Ukraine. In the five months of its army's much-publicized counteroffensive, Russia has only given up 17 kilometers of the territory it had previously conquered. Despite reinforcements and aid from Western allies, Ukrainian soldiers are unable to advance their troops and are stuck on the front. Given the imminent arrival of low winter temperatures, everything seems to indicate that the situation is on its way to becoming a great stalemate. Neither Ukraine nor Russia advances. It is as if we were living the tragedy of the First World War, a hundred years later.
And, meanwhile, Russian planes continue to punish the Ukrainian populations and just yesterday the Kyiv Government reported that more than 100 towns in the country had been attacked in the last 24 hours. The optimism of the first days of war for having contained the Russian invasion has given way to discouragement due to the difficulties of subduing the Russians and the difficulties of obtaining more military support from the allied countries. Long-range missiles and tanks have been a good help, but not enough. Ukraine needs more weapons and, unfortunately for it, very possibly some of the material that was going to be used to fight Russia will end up in the hands of Israel.
In this context, the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, showed this week his willingness to seek a solution to the war in Ukraine that required the West to review its "destructive policy" with Russia. Aware of the growing political and military weakness of Volodymyr Zelensky's Government, Russia begins to move pieces to seek a way out of the conflict. We must be attentive to the position of the United States and the EU in the coming weeks if the situation in the Middle East becomes complicated. Ukraine is disappearing from the news spotlight. Let's hope not because of the West's interest in helping him win the war.
