David Kirichenko
Russia’s summer offensive signals Putin’s determination to overwhelm Ukraine using mass drone warfare, motorcycle assaults, and Chinese tech support, while betting on scale, endurance, and Western hesitancy to act.
Vladimir Putin appears increasingly confident that Russia will ultimately prevail on the battlefield in Ukraine as Moscow wages a bloody summer offensive. Just as Putin claimed in his 2021 essay that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people” and that Ukraine’s sovereignty hinges on Moscow’s approval, he reiterated in late June: “I’ve said it before, Russians and Ukrainians are one people. In this sense, all of Ukraine is ours. There’s an old rule that wherever a Russian soldier sets foot, that’s ours.”
Moskovsky Komsomolets noted that that phrase captured the essence of Putin’s “political faith and long-term strategy.”
Putin’s and Trump’s Strained Relationship
US President Donald Trump has been repeatedly disregarded by the Kremlin, despite issuing vague ultimatums, often invoking his signature “two-week” timeline, which has yielded no tangible results. This isn’t “peace through strength,” but rather “weakness through appeasement” that Trump has been demonstrating with Russia.
The Trump administration has resorted to engaging with the Lukashenko regime in Minsk, hoping to revive any momentum with peace talks. To Trump’s credit, he finally got both sides to start talking to each other. But the Russians’ message in the meetings has been that they are intent on finishing this war and subjugating Ukraine. Vladimir Medinsky, Putin’s aide leading the delegation, said, “We’re prepared to fight forever.”
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