DAVID PATRIKARAKOS: Putin pushes on in the knowledge the West will oppose him… but only so much

Dawn breaks as my train judders into Pasazhyrskyi station, punctual as always. This time, though, I am greeted neither by a swarm of Russia n drones , nor the adenoidal whine of an air raid siren .

Vadym Skibitsky, Ukraine’s deputy head of military intelligence, was unflinching in a recent interview. ‘Our problem is very simple,’ he told the Economist magazine. ‘We have no weapons. They always knew April and May would be a difficult time for us.’ They have a point. Without Nato support, Russia would undoubtedly have conquered Ukraine. But as time has passed, getting that aid has become an unceasing struggle.

Putin understands the West will give Ukraine just about enough weapons to keep him at bay but never enough to actually push his troops back across the border. Pictured: Destroyed buildings in Bakhmut, Ukraine With Russia, a similar impulse is at play, but it is made worse by something more pernicious. We are being held hostage to what American sources tell me is US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s near-obsession with ‘escalation management theory’.

Putin understands the West will give Ukraine just about enough weapons to keep him at bay but never enough to actually push his troops back across the border. For now, however, the momentum remains with the Kremlin. On Tuesday, the Ukrainians uncovered yet another Russian assassination plot against president Volodymyr Zelensky, from within the ranks of his own protection unit.

It remains politically impossible for Zelensky to publicly offer terms. Would a British prime minister ever agree to hand Manchester or Leeds over to the enemy for the sake of peace?

News Kharkiv Ukraine Russia Vladimir Putin Kiev Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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