Ukraine celebrates Independence Day, declared 33 years ago by the parliament of the then Soviet Republiclater confirmed by the referendum of December 1st. Today, in the midst of the conflict, while Russian missiles are still falling and Kiev is engaged in a bold sortie in the Kursk oblast, President Volodymyr Zelensky, addressing his citizens, remarked that, after having unleashed the war, the war has “returned to Russia”. “This is how independence reacts, with retaliation, for our civilians, our parents, our children”, Zelensky declared.
Polish President Andrzej Duda and Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte were then welcomed in the Ukrainian capital during a highly symbolic ceremony since, in addition to being among the strongest allies since the first day of the invasion decided by Vladimir Putin, all three nations were in fact united in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a flourishing political and economic center of the modern era dismembered by Austria, Prussia and Russia during the 18th century.
Not only that. Zelensky chose this day to reveal that, for the first time, the armed forces have “successfully” used against the Russians “a completely new class of weapons”, a «missile-drone called Palianytsia» entirely manufactured in Ukraine. In practice, adding insult to injury, since the Palianytsia is indeed a type of baked bread, but historically it is a word that is made to be pronounced by suspected spies because it is difficult for Russians to pronounce.
Zelensky then stressed that the new ‘homemade’ drone-missile is a way to act “while some partners are slow in their decisions” and once again called on allies to “lift” restrictions on the use of weapons. On X, Vice President Kamala Harris, candidate for the White House, strong from a successful convention that seems to have resuscitated the Democrats, assured that the US “will continue to stand alongside Ukraine in its battle for freedom from Russian aggression”. But congratulations also came from most of the other allies, with the European Union and NATO in the lead.
The war, in all this, of course does not stop. In Kostyantynivka, in the east, five people died and five were injured following a Russian bombing while, for its part, Kiev says it has destroyed an ammunition depot in the Voronezh oblast and threatens to expand further into Kursk. Of course, despite the successes of recent weeks, the situation for Ukraine, especially in Donbas, remains precarious and risks losing the strategic hub of Pokrovsk, in Donetsk. What its strategy is therefore is not entirely clear – the buffer zone to protect civilians is fine but it seems reductive – especially since the president has ruled out wanting to play it “as a card for dialogue”.
Zelensky claims he cannot speak “openly” about the operation in Kursk but one of the objectives is certainly to take as many Russian prisoners as possible and then exchange them with their prisoners across the border. A plan that is evidently working: As many as 115 returned home on Independence Daywith a coup that is also mediatic. But perhaps there is also another explanation for the Kursk operation, more subtle. The independent Russian newspaper Meduza reports that the website of the Russian Center for Public Opinion Research reveals how Putin’s approval rating in the week from August 12 to 18 fell by 3.5% compared to the previous week, reaching 73.6%. It seems like nothing but, again according to the polling institute, it is “a record drop” in the indicators since the beginning of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops in February 2022.
To learn more
Ukraine: Secrecy and new weapons, all the secrets of the Kursk operation
#Russia #Ukraine #War #Zelensky #Celebrates #Independence #Reprisals #Moscow #Prisoner #Swap