Volodymyr Zelensky’s European tour ended in Chequers, the British Prime Minister’s country retreat, with allusions to Winston Churchill and a walk among the flowers, but without so far having achieved what Ukraine has asked most of its allies: state-of-the-art aircraft. the art hunting equipment. The Ukrainian leader heard from Rishi Sunak the commitment to train pilots “in the summer”. Already after this announcement, President Macron revealed that Ukrainians can “now” start their education in France.
Starting two weeks ago in Helsinki, where he attended a summit with the leaders of Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland, Zelensky continued his journey to The Hague, where he met the Prime Ministers of the Netherlands and Belgium. The second leg of the journey resumed on Saturday, when he moved to Rome (and the Vatican); continued in German lands, Berlin and Aachen; thence to Paris; and finally Checkers, northwest of London. With the exception of the meeting with Pope Francis and the speech in Aachen on the occasion of Zelensky’s award of the Charlemagne Prize, the supposed aim of this initiative was to gain as much military support as possible.
Perhaps the fact is that Ukraine will have received “98% of the combat vehicles” promised by the Allies – as the commander of the US command in Europe, Christopher Cavoli, said. But Zelensky and the Ukrainian high commands would have come to the conclusion that what they had in hand was insufficient, at least to move forward without carnage. “We can go on and, I think, be successful. But we would lose a lot of people. I think that’s unacceptable, so we have to wait and see,” he said in a recent interview.
In Italy, Giorgia Meloni remained true to Rome’s policy of not disclosing what the aid consists of, but promised to stay the course. In Germany, Olaf Scholz announced the largest aid package to date: €2.7 billion in munitions, four IRIS-T anti-aircraft systems, 15 Gepard anti-aircraft tanks, 20 Marder combat vehicles, 30 Leopard 1 tanks, 200 drones and 200 vehicles, including armored vehicles and logistics.
In France, Macron has not broken the aircraft barrier, as the British did with tanks or cruise missiles. At the end of January, the French president said that “nothing is out of the question” in military aid and the defense minister, Sébastien Lecornu, stated that sending French planes did not represent a “taboo” – the hypothesis that the Mirage 2000C will fly to Kiev. But the joint communiqué of the French and Ukrainian presidencies left behind a commitment to equip Kiev’s armed forces with “dozens of armored vehicles and light tanks, including the AMX-10RC”, in addition to the respective training. The next day, in an interview with TF1, he also announced the training of Ukrainian pilots.
In fact, in recent weeks Ukrainian leaders have identified their model of choice, the North American F-16. The US president has long since said a resounding no to the possibility of Washington participating in this move. According to Prime Minister Mark Rutte, this attitude of the maker country made his allies hesitate, but that in addition to the US, talks are now also underway with Denmark and other European countries to continue with a coalition of F-16s, as was previously done with German Leopard- tanks.
In February, on his first visit to the UK since the Russian invasion, Zelensky asked for “wings to freedom”, but in this chapter the hosts – who have Typhoons and F-35s at their service – only showed openness to pilot training. Three months later the same message. There are no plans to supply aircraft, but the UK will play an “important role” in training pilots, Sunak said.
Nothing has discouraged Zelensky: “We want to create a coalition for aircraft and I am very optimistic,” he said, although he acknowledged that the result will not be immediate. Sunak promised to send hundreds of missiles and drones.
Stoltenberg in Lisbon
While China sends its diplomat to Eurasia Li Hui to Kiev in what will be the first of several stops to discuss the conflict, NATO’s secretary general will travel to Lisbon on Thursday. Jens Stoltenberg has scheduled a meeting with Prime Minister António Costa.
Prigozhin proposed a deal with Kiev
The secret documents made public by the Portuguese descendant Jack Teixeira remain a source of information. It has now become known that at the end of January, when heavy losses were recorded among the ranks of Russian mercenaries, businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin proposed a deal to the Ukrainian secret services: if Kiev soldiers withdrew from Bakhmut, Prigozhin would in return provide information about the positions of Russian troops.
To the Washington message, the newspaper that broke the news, two Ukrainian officials confirmed that the owner of the Wagner mercenary company has spoken several times with the Ukrainian secret services, not only by telephone but also during face-to-face meetings in an African country where the Wagner group has a presence. In one document, Prigozhin is said to have advised Ukrainian troops to attack Crimea while Russian troops’ morale was low.
Kiev did not accept Prigozhin’s proposal because the Ukrainian authorities had no confidence in Vladimir Putin’s ally. The St Petersburg businessman – on a collision course with the Russian military – said the news was “ridiculous”. “It means that not only am I fighting for Russia, but Zelensky is also doing what I want.” Prigozhin later accused the Russian elite of being responsible for the allegations.
Source: DN
