Even as fierce new clashes break out, one of Ukraine's toughest fights these days is being waged off the battlefield: persuading the allies that their outgunned and outnumbered army can finally prevail, and that thousands of Millions of dollars in Western military assistance is money well spent.
President Volodymyr Zelensky made that argument Tuesday to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who was visiting kyiv for the first time since Congress' long-delayed approval in April of a $61 billion arms package. perhaps the last major American assistance for some time.
The two met as Ukraine sought to defend itself from a Russian cross-border attack that began last week in the country's northeast, the most concerted attack of its kind since the early days of the war, which sparked street-by-street clashes near the border and forced thousands of civilians to flee the incessant bombardments.
Despite the grim backdrop of war, Blinken sought to take a moment away from serious diplomacy.
After a day of meetings, the 62-year-old secretary of state, whose Instagram bio identifies him as a “(very) amateur guitarist,” went to a popular Kiev nightspot to play rhythm guitar with a local band. The song selection: “Rockin' in the Free World” by Neil Young.
Dressed in a black shirt and jeans, Blinken addressed the crowd before the band began performing the 1989 hit, paying particular tribute to the soldiers and civilians dying in northeastern Ukraine and elsewhere in the country.
“They are fighting not only for a free Ukraine, but for a free world,” he said. “And the free world is with you too.”
The tone of the day's conversations was undeniably somber.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, center, surrounded by security officers, walks through Independence Square in kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday.
(Efrem Lukatsky / Associated Press)
“We know this is a difficult time,” Blinken told Zelensky. The arrival of American military aid, he said, “is going to make a real difference in the face of current Russian aggression on the battlefield.”
Zelensky responded with gratitude for the new weapons that are already beginning to arrive in Ukraine, along with family requests for additional help.
“People are under attack: civilians, warriors, everyone,” the Ukrainian leader said, calling for two Patriot air defense batteries to protect Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, which lies just a few dozen kilometers away. of the latest Russian attack.
Analysts said that if Russia advances further in Kharkiv provincewill put the city of more than 1.3 million inhabitants, already hit by Russian missiles and so-called gliding bombs, back within range of artillery bombardments.
In some ways, Blinken's visit signaled the same delicate line that Zelensky has followed since the start of the full-scale invasion of Russia more than two years ago: impress upon Western partners that Ukraine's military needs are urgent and extreme, and at the same time affirm that the fight is not desperate.
And even as he thanked Western governments for their support, Zelensky bluntly stated that delays – whether bureaucratic delays or political disputes like the Republican Party infighting that blocked US assistance for six months – translate directly into loss of life. civil and military.
“We need to significantly accelerate the supply process,” the Ukrainian leader said in a speech to his compatriots on Tuesday evening. “Currently, the time gap between the announcement of the packages and the actual appearance of weapons on the front is too long.”
Blinken also had a nuanced message to convey: looking toward the day when Ukraine “stands on its own feet militarily, but also economically and democratically,” suggesting that even unlimited support cannot continue indefinitely.
Visits by dignitaries to war zones like these are common, but traveling to the Ukrainian capital remains dangerous enough that such visits are not announced in advance. It is not possible to fly to kyiv; Blinken arrived by night train from Poland.
In the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin, newly sworn in for an essentially uncontested fifth term, was busy signaling his intention to pursue his war goals for as long as necessary.
Over the weekend, the Kremlin announced the appointment of a new defense minister: economist Andrei Belousov, who will be tasked with harnessing the power of Russia's military-industrial complex to sustain the fight.
Putin will also travel to Beijing this week to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, where he is expected to push for a continuation of the partnership that has helped the Kremlin escape the effects of Western wartime sanctions. earn solid oil and gas revenues and obtain the necessary technology and spare parts, although China does not directly supply weapons to Russia.
For all the solidarity Blinken extended to Zelensky, Ukraine is well aware that in an election year in the United States, supporting war amounts to a significant expenditure of political capital.
Other important Western allies are also calibrating their own long-term plans for Ukraine ahead of the US elections in November.
Britain was trying to smooth over the uproar over Foreign Secretary David Cameron's recent pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago, former President Trump's Florida resort. Britain's Sunday Times newspaper reported over the weekend that Cameron had explained to Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, that aid to Ukraine would now set favorable conditions for Trump to quickly negotiate a peace deal if he returns to office.
British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps clarified in a radio interview on Tuesday that Britain would not try to force Ukraine to accept a peace treaty that would involve a loss of territory.
Ukraine got additional support Tuesday from France, whose government announced Tuesday that new, unspecified military aid would be arriving soon, following a phone conversation between Zelensky and President Emmanuel Macron.
Ukraine is also hoping to win pledges of continued support at a peace summit in Switzerland next month (to which Russia has not been invited) and at meetings this summer, including a NATO summit in July in Washington, which It will mark the 75th anniversary of the alliance.
For the kyiv government, however, the short-term outlook is cloudy. Russia has deployed around 2,000 troops in an advance toward the city of Vovchansk in Kharkiv province, according to Ukrainian military officials.
Russian forces were making “tactically significant advances” in what appeared to be an attempt to establish a buffer zone along the border north of the city of Kharkiv, according to the Institute for the Study of War, based in Washington.
Ukraine is already struggling to hold key positions in the east of the country, and analysts have said the Russian advance in Kharkiv could divert troops needed to slow advances elsewhere. Ukraine's general staff on Tuesday reported two dozen separate attacks in the partially Russian-occupied Donetsk province.
Regional governor Oleh Sinegubov said on Ukrainian television that the latest clashes in the northeast had sparked street battles on the outskirts of Vovchansk, the area's largest city, most of whose residents have fled.
The governor reported two deaths in the latest bombing and the evacuation of more than 7,500 civilians.
The country's military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said he hoped the border situation in Kharviv province would stabilize, but speaking on Ukrainian television warned of a new Russian buildup in the Sumy region to the north.
That could trigger a Kharkiv-like scenario: Ukrainian forces were further reduced.
“The situation is under control,” Zelensky said in his evening speech. But he added: “Everything is quite tense.”
