New assault on Kyiv
Moscow is back to the business of assault over Kyiv. Its lull over the occupied territories of Ukraine for almost a fortnight, owing to apparently a stage-managed mutiny against the Kremlin, has simply made it clear that the crisis in the region is there to stay. It has also literally exposed the grand designs of President Vladimir Putin, who believes in limiting NATO and European Union’s eastward expansion towards its frontiers well before it de jure take charge of Ukraine. The fact that Russia launched a devastating aerial attack on the Kyiv has pushed the warmongering to new heights.
This entire episode over the weekend has again posed some critical questions to the powerful military establishment in Moscow. Is Putin reorienting his war strategy with more lethal and accurate assaults over Ukraine? Has he reshuffled his top men involved in Ukraine, as there were complaints of the war being conducted with strategic errors? At least, this is what the rebellious mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin had pointed out by expressing his displeasure over the ongoing aggression. Has the uprising, and the silent exhaustion of Wagner’s standoff as he travelled to greener pastures in Belarus, been used as a political excuse to reformat the grand designs in the region? These are riddles that will keep on popping up as the crisis continues unabated with no perpetual solution in sight.
The world is passing through new alignments. The recent Biden-Modi summit and its prolific defence-oriented tilt must have come as a surprise for Russia. This is where President Putin must indulge in some deep introspection, and pull out his country from warfare, and strike a deal of convenience with Ukraine. War will beget more war, and the Indo-US marshalling of steps will surely come as a challenge. Time to end the aggression over Ukraine.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 3rd, 2023.
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