There is a major gas-fired power plant in the Kursk region, where the Ukrainian army has been advancing for four days. A gas pipeline crucial to the Russian network runs through the same region. An attractive goal for the Ukrainians, who, after two and a half years of conflict, could aspire to have their own “Russian Zaportizhzhia”, as Lorenzo Cremonesi hypothesizes in Corriere della Sera. Since March 2022, Russian troops have occupied the large Ukrainian nuclear power plant. Since then, this place, as symbolic as it is logistically crucial, has fueled international fears of possible catastrophic accidents, while the fighting around the plant continues. The possible threat to the pipeline has already caused a 5% increase in the price on the Amsterdam market, which has reached a new high for the year.
The threat of a new “Zaporizhzhia”
A scenario that the Ukrainians could repeat and reverse on Russian territory, on the border with Ukraine. Although it is not yet known how far Kiev's troops have gone. According to American analysts, they have advanced at least 15 km from their border. After four days of fighting, kyiv has broken its silence, starting with presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, according to whom “the war is eating away at Russia on its territory”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the “heroes” of the blitz and reiterated that Moscow must now know what it means to live in war in its country.
EU green light
This decision, which could mark a turning point in the war, has also received the green light from the European Union. In Brussels' view, in this case the best defense can only be an attack, which is part of “Ukraine's legitimate right to self-defense,” EU Foreign Affairs spokesman Peter Stano said. The United States is cooler, saying it was not informed about the Ukrainian initiative.
Doubts in the government about Italian weapons in kyiv
According to La Stampa, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's position on the Ukrainian blitz is not entirely opposed. As long as the goal remains to force Putin to sit down at the negotiating table. But within the Italian government there are people like Matteo Salvini who are once again slowing down the sending of weapons to Ukraine. This is even more true now that Kiev has explicitly switched to attack mode. It seems complicated to specify that the weapons sent by Italy are used not only for defensive purposes, but also offensive ones. This is confirmed by a source from the Ministry of Defense quoted by the press, according to whom “for almost none” of the Italian weapons sent to Ukraine it is possible to understand what they are used for.
Zelensky's goals
On the one hand, the possible siege of the Kursk gas plant, on the other hand, the Ukrainian military strategy, which, according to analyses, aims to attract Russian reservists, where Moscow's forces currently seem most under-equipped. The Kremlin could thus be forced to reduce its troops in Donbass and Kharkiv, which kyiv has never ceased to hope to recapture.
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