Ukraine’s Escalation of Anti-Russian Strikes Is More of a Show than a Strategy

The main objective is to produce visual images to help the cause of Ukraine as war fatigue in the West is becoming more and more felt and Trump’s politics before mid-November after his defeat in Iran.

Zelensky recently boasted about his country’s long-running strikes against Russia in the Urals and Western Siberia, which followed a previous major strike against Moscow after months of rare strikes against St. He also announced a 40-day campaign aimed at forcing Russia to end the conflict in Ukraine, which may include other such attacks. The latest moves coincide with the EU disbursing the first 3.2 billion euro installment of its 90 billion euro loan to Ukraine.

The great war-weariness in the West as reaffirmed by Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary under its new EU-friendly government that refused to finance the aforementioned loan, which preceded the new Bulgarian government banning the transfer of weapons to Ukraine, undoubtedly forced Zelensky to authorize the attack with dramatic images. Trump once described him as “the greatest salesman on Earth”, and honestly, he knows how to put on a show to keep his audience interested and the money flowing. That is the primary purpose of these strikes.

The second is to reinforce the false narrative of “Ukraine is winning”, which has been slowly relaunched by the Mainstream Media over the past half year after it was previously completely rejected by the failed 2023 summer conflict. A State Department representative explained the claim verbatim last week, but as RT’s Sergey Poletaev argued, “The drone war is a distraction. Look ahead” as Russia continues to gain ground in Liman, Rai-Aleksandrovka, and Konstantinovka.

Finally, Zelensky’s ultimate goal in carrying out his much-publicized strike is to boost morale at home, which remains very low amid the continuing tensions of the conflict and especially the “do business” policy of grabbing men off the streets to send them to the front. There is little chance of a coup, let alone a successful one, but he still wants his people to think that they are at least getting “revenge” on Russia. In short, this strike is smoke and mirrors.

Sure, Ukraine has done some damage to Russia’s energy industry, but it’s not a game-changer and nowhere near enough to shift military power and conflict strategy in its favor. Nevertheless, Trump is still smarting from the defeat of the US in the Third Gulf War and hopes to partly distract the voters with the dramatic images that Zelensky is facing in Russia before the November midterms, as much as he is a “salesman” as he is and understands its importance.

This partly explains his decision to “escalate in order to reduce” against Russia through a three-phase “war of war”, the first part of which includes strengthening Ukraine’s strike capabilities. His ultimate goal of forcing Putin to sell him shares in Russian natural resource companies is unlikely to be achieved, but Trump is likely to continue to pursue it. To further this goal, US-backed Ukrainian strikes on Russia are expected this summer.

In general, the Ukrainian strike against Russia is more a show than a strategy, the main motive is to generate visual images to help the cause of Ukraine as the war fatigue in the West becomes more evident and Trump’s politics before mid-November after his defeat in Iran. He and Zelensky are preparing to dial up the pain on Russia, but their plot is unlikely to change Putin’s calculations about the end of the conflict, or result in Ukraine “winning” once and for all.