(Dan Tri) – Ukraine is still struggling in a fierce conflict with Russia along the front lines.
Ukrainian soldiers raise the national flag (Photo: Sky News).
Some fear that Ukraine’s slow military progress and cracks in the backing of Kiev’s key allies could also take vital attention away from Ukraine’s conflict with Russia.
Ukraine remains in a bitter war with Russia along hundreds of miles of front lines and is also grappling with worrying changes in the conflict’s geopolitics.
Attention among key allies is focused on the war in Gaza, military aid from the US is bogged down in the Republican battle for leadership in Congress and cracks in support of the
`We are now in a new phase,` Pavlo Klimkin, Ukraine’s former foreign minister, said of the international politics of the war in Ukraine, which in the past week has been overshadowed by the outbreak of war in Israel and Gaza.
Mr. Klimkin said it will be necessary to counter Russia’s efforts to fuel opposition to continued military aid in Europe and the United States, as Kiev’s allies hold elections.
Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, told Ukrainian media that if the fighting in Gaza ended quickly, it would not affect aid to Kiev.
Ukrainian soldiers, eyeing their country’s future arms supply routes, have posted on social media about hopes for a short war in the Middle East.
General Oleksandr Fatsevych, commander of an Interior Ministry unit fighting at the front, wrote on Facebook: `We pray for Israel.`
Hennadiy Druzenko, director of a non-governmental group that provides medical care to the military, said in a Facebook post: `The sooner the Israel Defense Forces defeats Hamas, the sooner the Israeli Defense Forces’ attention and resources will be available.`
Since the first day of the conflict nearly two years ago, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has made it a priority to mobilize international support.
Mr. Zelensky, since last weekend, has introduced Ukraine as a friend of Israel and condemned the surprise attack by Hamas and openly feared that the world’s view could shift.
`If international attention is diverted from Ukraine, one way or another, that will have consequences,` he said in an interview with France 2 television.
Only clear progress on the battlefield will strengthen the argument Ukraine’s allies make to voters that their support is paying off.
Mr. Zelensky told a meeting with defense ministers last week that Russia had `lost the initiative` in the war.
Russia’s minelaying and use of UAVs to effectively target artillery fire has slowed down Ukrainian forces, and Kiev has little prospect of achieving its immediate military goals.
Ukrainian forces captured the small village of Robotyne in late August and infantry broke through the main Russian defense line, but Ukrainian troops were unable to advance further with armored vehicles, moving deep behind Russian lines
In recent days, Russian forces appear to have begun a coordinated offensive in eastern Ukraine with tank attacks on the outskirts of the town of Avdiivka.
“People are now realizing that this is going to be a long-term conflict,” said Michael Kofman, an expert on the Russian and Ukrainian militaries at the Carnegie Endowment. “Planning now has to be done for a conflict.”
