Washington- Under the headline “Ukraine Isn’t Defeated Yet,” an editorial in the conservative Wall Street Journal, known for its proximity to Republican Party and the U.S. President’s administration Donald Trumpexpressed its belief that Ukrainian drone strikes deep into Russian territory reflected the will to Kiev and its ability to inflict painful casualties on its enemy, contrary to what President Trump, his vice president, and his top aides keep repeating and believing.
At the same time, Ukraine’s attack on Russian military air bases, which resulted in the destruction of bombers launching cruise missilessome of which can carry nuclear payloads, is both a pleasant surprise for Washington and a major dilemma for President Donald Trump.
Qualitative attacks
Experts noted that the Ukrainian attacks will not change the course of the war, but they show Ukraine’s ability to launch attacks far from its immediate border with Russia.
Despite Russia’s advantage of massive firepower, especially in hard-to-intercept missiles, and Ukraine’s dwindling supply of U.S. air defense interceptors, Kiev – without direct U.S. support – was able to accomplish one of its largest-ever attacks since the war began more than three years ago.
Ukrainians are comparing these attacks to other notable military successes since the Russian invasion, including the sinking of the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the Moskva, and the bombing of the Kerch Bridgeboth in 2022, as well as a missile attack on the port of Sevastopol inCrimea in 2023.
U.S. reports indicate that Russia has 120 strategic bombers, 40 of which were destroyed in this latest strike, a third of Russia’s force of such fighter jets.
Beyond the physical damage, the attacks, which Kiev called Operation Spider’s Web, send other important messages, not only to Russia, but also to Washington and President Trump.
Trump’s prejudice
Since returning to the White House in January, President Trump has been convinced that he can get Russia to stop fighting, as long as he keeps Ukraine out of NATO and freezes the current battle lines, allowing Russia to keep the territory it already occupies.
Trump also froze arms and aid to Kiev and stopped intelligence sharing as a means of pressuring Ukraine to accept the new reality.
Trump had told President Petro Poroshenko Volodymyr Zelensky during their famous meeting in the Oval OfficeWhite House “Ukraine has only 6 months left, you have no cards to play, the ball is in your court for peace, Russia can’t lose.”
Trump escalated the tone of his hostile rhetoric, calling Zelensky a “dictator” and saying that Ukraine started the war, while its president demanded US military guarantees in exchange for his signature on the rare minerals deal, which Trump offered as compensation for Washington’s aid totaling more than 180 billion dollars, as a deal was later reached without security guarantees.
Trump and his vice president JD Vance The narrative that “Ukraine is not winning its war with Russia” is the basis for the decision to end U.S. military and intelligence support to Ukraine, but Kiev has shown with its attacks that it holds a number of cards that Washington doesn’t know about.
How much were the losses #Russia in a surprise “spider web” attack?#infographic pic.twitter.com/v37RE7pvjR
– Al Jazeera (@AJArabic) June 2, 2025
Internal pressure
John Herbst, director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, said his country views Russia as a major adversary, and as U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard noted in this year’s National Intelligence Estimate, “Russia, like China, is an adversary of the United States, and this operation proves that Ukraine is actually contributing to improving U.S. security.”
The latest Ukrainian military achievement increases the political pressure in Washington on Trump, from both Republicans and Democrats, to take further action against Russia.
The Ukrainian attacks came just days after Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democrat Richard Blumenthal to Ukraine, where they announced that Senate will move forward next week on a long-awaited bill to impose significant additional sanctions against Russia.
Beyond the battlefield, the impact of this operation is perhaps even more significant in the political and diplomatic arenas, as it represents a strong response to the Trump administration’s view that the war is inevitably moving in Moscow’s favor, and this same assumption explains why the Russian president Vladimir Putin of several ceasefire proposals by President Trump, and his refusal to send a paper with the Kremlin’s ceasefire conditions ahead of the Istanbul talks.
Trump’s reaction
As of this writing, there has been no reaction from the White House or President Trump to the attacks, but Washington emphasized that Kiev did not inform it in advance, and Washington was limited to a phone conversation between its Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrovwithout disclosing what was discussed.
Trump has been increasingly criticized for his reluctance to put real pressure on Vladimir Putin, due to the Russian president’s refusal to accept Washington’s proposed ceasefire terms, despite Kiev’s acceptance of them.
From Air Force One, Trump said a few days ago that “nothing will happen on the war in Ukraine until he meets personally with his Russian counterpart to resolve this crisis.” However, Trump set a two-week deadline for Putin, threatening a different response if the latter does not respond positively to his proposals to stop the fighting.
In a presentation on the Atlantic Council website, former Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst advised President Trump to convey the message that “if Putin cannot bring himself to accept a ceasefire, significant new US sanctions are coming,” arguing that such a message would be a smart way to capitalize on Ukraine’s success on the battlefield to achieve Trump’s goal of “lasting peace in Ukraine.”
Source link
2025-06-02 18:01:00
