British prime minister Keir Starmer, and French president Emmanuel Macron faced this Thursday, July 10, in the face of the implacability of Vladimir Putin in Ukraine. Before the “coalition of volunteer countries”, gathered in videoconference, the two leaders asked to increase the “pressure” in Moscow to obtain a fire.
“We have to redirect our efforts to prepare peace, forcing Putin to go to the negotiating table (…). This coordinated pressure will make a difference,” said Keir Starmer, while Emmanuel Macron begged “intensifying support” to Kyiv.
“Ukraine must keep until Vladimir Putin decides to stop the massacre,” Jérôme Pellistrandi, BFMTV defense consultant judges.
A war more intense than ever
Russia has multiplied in recent weeks its night blows in Ukraine, exceeding records in number of drawn devices, provided by a defense industry that works at full speed. On the night of Tuesday, July 8 to Wednesday, July 9, Moscow launched its greatest attack of drones and missiles since the beginning of the invasion in February 2022. 728 drones and 13 missiles were fired according to the Ukraine Air Force.
During the night of Thursday, another 400 drones and 18 missiles launched in a “massive” attack of “almost ten o’clock”, killing kyiv.
“The Ukrainians now face attacks by hundreds of drones every night. It’s pure terrorism,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to invest more in defense.
The month of June has the sad record of the number of deaths and civilians injured for three years, according to the UN Mission of Human Rights Surveillance in Ukraine. 232 people died and 1,343 were injured.
“By saturating the Ukrainian sky every night, Vladimir Putin aims to break the moral of the population,” says General Jérôme Pellistrandi. “Its high intensity offensive continues by attacking the entire shameless territory.”
The kyiv capital region, which concentrated the fight at the beginning of the Russian offensive before the front was moved to the southeast of Ukraine, is again greatly attacked.
“The attacks are more numerous and fatal. The Russians want to redouble their efforts to achieve their ends,” explains Carole Grimaud, a specialist in Russia and geopolitics teacher at the University of Montpellier. “Russia has always had the same objectives since 2022,” he says. Whether Ukraine is capitulated, he seizes the four partially occupied regions, put an end to Western aid, prevent kyiv from joining NATO …
In conversations, “Moscow does not move an inch”
And it is not the recent pressure exerted by Donald Trump, after months of approach and complacency by Washington to the Kremlin, which will change the situation. A week ago, the US president said he was “very unhappy” with a telephone conversation organized with Vladimir Putin.
“He wants to go to the end, continue killing people, it’s not good,” he said, evoking possible sanctions towards Russia.
He also announced on Monday by sending “more weapons” to kyiv, including anti -avion defense systems, since Ukraine has been asking for months, exciting the anger of Moscow.
The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, from Malaysia said Thursday that he had noticed his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, “disappointment” and “frustration” of Donald Trump before the “lack of progress” to end the Russian invasion.
“But Putin doesn’t care what Trump can say,” said General Jérôme Pellistrandi. The negotiations, initiated by the US president since his arrival on power on January 20, have been blocked. The third cycle of discussions between Russians and Ukrainians has not yet been announced, after two not very successful meetings in Türkiye in mid -May and then in early June. Moscow, like Kyiv, camp in his positions. The two countries remain far from an agreement, whether a temporary truce or a long -term regulation. The Kremlin continues to reject the idea of a high fire.
“Donald Trump managed to make Russians think it is important to negotiate, but has not obtained anything in particular. War has even reduced intensity since the beginning of American mediation attempts,” says Carole Grimaud, also a researcher in information sciences linked to Russia at the University of Aix-Marseyille. “Moscow does not move an inch, they want their vision of peace.” Except that Kremlin conditions are unacceptable for Kyiv.
“On the ground, every day it looks like”
Given this diplomatic status quo, Ukrainian leaders accuse Russia of seeking to “save time”, strong of their superiority in terms of personnel and armaments.
Russia, which already occupies 20% of the Ukrainian territory, is slowly progressing on the ground. She nibbles lands in the east. She affirmed on Monday that she took a village in the Dnipropetrovsk region, 70 km from the city of Donetsk under Russian control, the first since the beginning of the invasion.
General Jérôme Pellistrandi, however, cancels this news. “It is a small progression that is not significant. When Russia takes a village, a lot of ruins is needed,” he said.
The Ukrainian forces recently advanced “in the north of the Oblast Soumy”, in the northeast of Ukraine, near the Russian border, “in the middle of a series of counterattacks in progress,” said the American Institute of War Study (ISW) on Wednesday.
In retaliation for Russian invasion, Kyiv is carrying out air attacks in Russia almost every day. The Russian authorities announced this Friday, July 11, having demolished 155 Ukrainian drones during the night, and that a drone attack died in the Russian region of Lipetsk. The previous day, according to local authorities, two civilians were killed, on the border with Ukraine, in the Belgorod region, and another in the Koursk region, it is directed in August 2024 of an offensive of the Ukrainian forces hunted last April after months of combat.
“For Ukraine, the priority is for defense. It is not a question for them to prove a great offensive to recover land,” says our defense consultant.
The 1,000 km2 front line is changing little. The fighting, which have already made tens of thousands of deaths, civilians and soldiers combined on both sides, are concentrated on the side of the Oblast Soumy in the Northeast, in Donbass in the southeast and the side of Kherson in the south.
“On the ground, every day they look like,” says General Jérôme Pellistrandi. “Vladimir Putin thinks that the balance of power is favorable for him, but fails to unravel Ukrainian lines of defense.”
Source: BFM TV
