Description: Russia’s three – night long aerial offensive, labeled the largest aerial attack so far in the war caused massive upheaval on it’s borders with Poland and Finland and strong condemnatory statement from US President Donald Trump. Poland and Finland have scrambled fighter planes as they warned that Russia violated their airspace repeatedly while launching over 350 drones and 70 ballistic missiles on Kyiv. Trump has stated that he is rapidly losing patience with Putin’s actions while the US alongside Russia and Ukraine are engaged in ensuring a diplomatic resolution to the war. Trump also stated that the US would reconstitute its position on imposing sanctions on Russia if the intensified campaigns persisted. The EU has already agreed on imposing additional 18th package of sanctions which is already being drawn up in order to subvert Russia’s military efforts going forward. Ukraine’s President Volodymir Zelenskyy raised concerns over Russia’s plans to launch a full – scale operation to advance towards Ukraine’s capital in the upcoming summer months. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that his country would provide long – range weapons to Ukrainian military as the Bundestag would vote on lifting the ban for the supply of such weapons to Ukraine’s defense forces.
Impact: Russia continues to exploit the calculative and transactional approach the US has adopted towards the war in Ukraine as well as Europe’s disjointed efforts to support Ukraine’s defenses to make significant gains on and off the battlefield. Sunday’s aerial attacks represented a direct message that Kyiv is within the reach of Russia’s military forces and Ukraine’s defenses are porous and fragile. EU and NATO allies continue to be shackled within their own administrative and overregulation policies as they continuously fail to support Ukraine. The new military offensive by Russia comes after Foreign Minister Lavrov and Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated that a draft ceasefire agreement is being drawn up, contrary to Russia’s actions on the battlefield but complementary with Putin’s strategy to force Ukraine towards capitulation. Sanctions against Russia and its war sponsors such as North Korea, China and Iran have become obsolete, faced with Russia’s multipronged approach towards circumvention. In case EU and the US continue to dissipate their bilateral relations, Ukraine stands to lose more territory while Russia has no incentive to agree towards ceasefire or peace negotiations.