As Russia pummels Ukraine, cautious allies shift gears to help Kyiv
As Russia heavily bombarded Ukraine’s cities during the past week, Kyiv’s two most cautious wartime allies appeared to overcome their inhibitions in helping Ukraine defend itself.
US President Donald Trump on Monday [July 7] said he would resume military aid shipments to Ukraine after his defence secretary suspended them last week.“We’re going to send some more weapons. We have to,” Trump told reporters ahead of a cabinet meeting. “They have to be able to defend themselves. They’re getting hit very hard now.”
Observers have claimed that over the past week, Russia has twice broken its war record for the largest combined strikes against Ukraine.
On Friday, Russia launched 550 air strikes overnight, Ukraine said, including 539 drones and 11 missiles – its biggest strike to date. Ukraine’s Air Force said it neutralised 478 drones and two Iskander-K cruise missiles.
Then on Wednesday, Russia launched 741 air attacks on Ukraine overnight, comprised of 728 Shahed kamikaze drones and a lethal cocktail of missiles. Ukraine claimed to have repelled 711 drones and seven Iskander-K cruise missiles.
The success rate could suggest that Ukraine is far from running out of critical components in its air defence.
That impression was strengthened on Thursday, when Russia launched 397 drones, eight Iskander-M ballistic missiles, six Kh-101 cruise missiles and four S-300/400 guided missiles.
Ukraine’s Air Force neutralised or shot down all the Iskanders, all the Kh-101s, and 382 drones.
But Moscow’s rising aggression is not the only factor in Trump’s apparent change of heart.
The US leader had suspended all military aid to Ukraine in February, fulfilling a Russian condition for peace talks.
Although that did not work, for months, Trump insisted on appeasing Moscow. But after at least two disappointing phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his tone has changed.
Putin on Friday told Trump by phone that “Russia will achieve its goals” in Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Trump told reporters, “We get a lot of b******* thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”Last month at The Hague, during the annual NATO summit, Trump said he found Putin “misguided,” after a phone call, adding he was “very surprised” the Russian leader had not agreed on peace terms.
Putin’s right-hand man, the deputy chairman of Russia’s National Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, this week said Trump was “riding his favourite political roller coaster again”, oscillating between helping Ukraine and not helping it.
“How should we treat this?” he asked on his Telegram messaging service channel. “Business as usual.”
