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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a stopover in Poland on his return trip from Washington to meet his counterpart Andrzej Duda. After his meeting the day before with Joe Biden and the promises of more financial and military assistance to kyiv, the Russian government reacted by saying that the trip shows that there is no “willingness to listen to Russia” and that the North American country is also fighting in a “indirect war against Moscow”.
“We have summed up the year, which has brought historical challenges due to a large-scale war,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported via Telegram about his meeting on Thursday with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda.
“We also discussed the strategic plans for the future, bilateral relations and interactions at the international level in 2023,” added the president after a meeting of about two hours with the Polish president in Rzeszow, in the southeast of that country.
A video showed Duda and Zelensky embracing warmly after the plane carrying the Ukrainian president from Washington landed on Polish soil and he was greeted by public officials.
“They talked for a long time, almost two hours. First of all, about President Zelensky’s visit to the United States and the importance of it for support for Ukraine, but also about bilateral relations between Poland and Ukraine,” said the main Duda’s advisor, Pawel Szrot.
Jakub Kumoch, a Polish foreign official, told the private channel ‘TVN24’ that the government was informed of Zelenski’s trip to the United States from the beginning and helped with the logistics, but had to keep silent for security and confidentiality reasons.
In parallel, the Kremlin accuses the US of waging a “proxy war” against Russia
The Russian government affirmed this Thursday, after the meeting the day before between Biden and Zelensky, that the visit of the Ukrainian president to the United States demonstrates the lack of “willingness to listen to Russia” and that “de facto” the North American nation is waging a “indirect war” against Moscow using the Ukrainian Army as a shield.
In addition, the Kremlin stressed the idea that the delivery of a Patriot air defense missile system to Ukraine “does not contribute to a quick solution (of the conflict), quite the contrary.”
Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Russian Executive, urged that the new military assistance promised to kyiv “cannot prevent the Russian Federation from achieving its objectives in the course of the special military operation.” He also stated that “an antidote will always be found,” calling the Patriot system “old-fashioned” and less effective than Russia’s own S-300.
However, the US air defense system promised to Ukraine is one of the most advanced, capable of intercepting aircraft and ballistic missiles, among others. Its deployment is expected to take several months, while Ukrainian troops train in its use in Germany, it is expected.
Moscow maintains that once installed, the Patriot systems will be a legitimate target for Russian attacks.
For his part, Vladimir Putin said Thursday in statements to journalists that Moscow’s goal is not to prolong the war, but to put an end to it: “We are striving to achieve it, and the sooner the better,” he said. Any conflict ends with negotiations.”
In addition, Putin reported on the intention to sign a decree on Russia’s response to the Western limit on oil prices. Although without specifying the details of the document, it will probably be made public early next week.
On the ground, attacks continue
While the narrative of the war travels oceans and the rhetoric rises on both sides, on the ground the fighting continues.
This Thursday, a former employer of the Russian space agency, Dmitri Rogozin, was injured in a Ukrainian attack on Donetsk, in the eastern Donbass region, until now a stronghold of pro-Russian separatists.
As reported by local authorities through Telegram, Rogozin will undergo surgery in the next few hours to heal a back injury after being hit by a piece of shrapnel on Wednesday night at a hotel where he was staying with other officials.
Also on Thursday, pro-Russian officer Andrei Shtepa, head of the Lyubymivka town in Kherson, was killed in a car bomb attack.
Through another statement on Telegram, the Russian Administration in Kherson, one of the four territories that Russia unilaterally annexed in September and that the Ukrainian Army reconquered shortly after, reported that Shtepa had been found “tragically dead after the explosion of a car” instigated by “Ukrainian terrorists.
With Reuters and AFP
