Ukraine has moved from the ‘you don’t have the cards’ phase to the ‘don’t play your cards’ phase

Ever since Donald Trump announced a completely fabricated energy ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia on Sunday, Ukrainian forces have not struck any Russian refineries. On the contrary, Vladimir Putin’s missiles and jet drones have struck power stations, petrol stations and buildings, completely ignoring a truce that the American president invented specifically to favour the Russians – or rather, their ability to produce diesel and put it on the market in order to lower its price (which has remained unchanged). American pressure on Ukraine is mounting: in addition to the lifting of sanctions – which amounts to funding the Russian war machine – there looms the tragic possibility – denied yesterday – of the suspension of intelligence-sharing between the Americans and the Ukrainians.

General Oleksandr Syrskyi, former Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, has given his first interview since his dismissal to the BBC, in which he states that the front line has been stabilised and the Russians’ offensive capability has been broken. In short, Ukrainian forces are recapturing occupied territory and repelling the Russians, and at this very moment America is choosing to tie the Ukrainians’ hands and untie the already free and ruthless hands of the Russians. As Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrij Sybiha put it yesterday at the Warsaw Security Forum, Kyiv has moved from the "you don't have the cards" phase—as Trump told Volodymyr Zelensky—to the "don't play them, your cards" phase.