Zelensky and Trump face off to the strains of Vivaldi

Vladimir Putin has no intention of ending the war against Ukraine; on the contrary, he is extending it to Europe, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated during his visit to New York for the UN General Assembly. In an interview with Axios, Zelensky said that the two American envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner – who visited Kyiv for the first time a few weeks ago, after having (naturally) been to Moscow – had told him: ‘We are convinced that Putin is ready’ to reopen negotiations and to reach an agreement. ‘Hmm, I’m not so sure about that,’ the Ukrainian president had said, to which they replied: ‘No, no, we’re close.’ During the meeting in New York between the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, it became clear that Zelensky was right: Moscow is not ready for any negotiations, because it does not want to end the war. Zelensky, on the other hand, is prepared to do anything: agree to stop attacks on Russian refineries, as the United States demands; agree to facilitate the trade in wheat, as the United States hopes; and even sit in the same room with Putin, as Donald Trump dreams of. Zelensky’s only request is that the Russians stop attacking Ukraine – whilst he was in talks with the US President and many other international leaders, Putin carried out two devastating air strikes within twenty-four hours. Putin is insatiable and shows no sign of stopping; Trump’s supporters refuse to accept this (with the exception of the CIA), but Zelensky, as he always has, is working towards a negotiated settlement whilst, at the same time, defending his country, launching counter-attacks and organising humanitarian operations for Ukrainians trapped under Russian occupation.

Operation Vivaldi – the four phases of the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the Donbas, prepared over the last six months – is proceeding successfully and incorporating technological advances, such as the use of ground robots which, on their own, neutralise around 60 per cent of the anti-personnel mines in the area where the Third Army Corps – which is leading this counter-offensive – is operating, and which, in two nights, has cleared thirty kilometres of territory without suffering any casualties. According to the Kyiv-based army, since Operation Vivaldi began (it is reportedly in its second ‘season’, according to the background music), the Ukrainians have liberated 125 square kilometres of territory near the front line, including 50 square kilometres previously occupied by the Russians, who, thanks to the combined action of Ukrainian robots and drones, were forced to abandon their positions. Colonel Rodion Kudryashov, deputy commander of the Third Corps, has published a lengthy article in which he describes how Operation Vivaldi came about, the lengthy preparations during which the command structure was reorganised, troops were reinforced, coordination between technology, logistics and personnel was enhanced, the front line was stabilised, and vast amounts of data were analysed – it is not merely an article, but a manual on modern offensives, a significant portion of which is devoted to the human factor, the soldiers’ motivation, their fatigue and their preparedness.

Kudryashov’s analysis also highlights another aspect that is often overlooked in accounts of this war: Ukraine’s defence and resistance operate as a single system. When Mykhailo Fedorov, a leading expert on innovation, left the Ministry of Defence, there were protests in the streets and a sense that things could spiral out of control, partly due to Zelensky’s self-interest, as he failed to retain Fedorov (who had become increasingly capricious). ‘How can we manage without the genius minister?’ asked exasperated European commentators and officials, suggesting that the Ukrainian president was prioritising his own political standing over the interests of an entire country. Within a few weeks, the system had been restructured—while preparations were under way for Operation Vivaldi—and yesterday the new head of the army’s digital division, Colonel Artem Martynenko, was announced, further demonstrating that in a democracy defending itself against violent aggression, it is not the individual who matters, but the mechanism that keeps the system running. It is a system that puts Ukrainians first, as Zelensky reminds us when he says that his citizens are more important than the price of diesel; when he calls for a humanitarian corridor for the Ukrainians trapped in Oleshky, in the Kherson region – two thousand people, including fifty children – whom the Russians have left without food, without power and without medicines, whilst preventing NGOs from gaining access to evacuate civilians and carrying out their obscene drone ‘safari’ against civilians; and when he is moved by the long fence at Hunter’s Point in South Park, New York, on which 20,000 red teddy bears have been hung – one for every Ukrainian child deported by the Russians.