U.S. must respond to Russian provocations without ambiguity

The presidents of Ukraine and the U.S. meet quite often, so one should not expect radical changes after another meeting. They last spoke a month ago in Washington, where Zelenskyy, along with European leaders, tried to persuade Trump to increase pressure on Russia to advance towards ending the war.

But since then, one key change has occurred that should spur the U.S. to act to stop the war. This is the expansion of Russia's military operations into NATO countries.

"Last week, three Russian MiG-31Ks—carriers of Kinzhal missiles—flew near Tallinn. Before that, we saw a massive invasion of attack drones into Poland and Romania. And just this week, Germany scrambled its fighter jets to intercept a Russian Il-20M over the Baltic Sea. This is an aircraft designed for reconnaissance, signals intelligence, and terrain imaging."

We remember how many expected the meeting in Alaska to reduce tensions and move towards ending the war. Instead, we saw not only an intensification of strikes on Ukraine but also an increase in Russian provocations against NATO countries.

Obviously, all these actions are united by one goal: to test what interception methods NATO countries will use to protect their skies. But there is a nuance here: in modern warfare, such information becomes outdated very quickly. Europe is rapidly militarizing, and cooperation with the Ukrainian military-industrial complex is deepening, so the data the Russians are collecting now will only be valuable for a few months. In a year, it will be worthless.

That is why the recent radical increase in Russian provocations could be preparation for expanding the war to other countries. Moreover, the number of combat drones Russia produces significantly exceeds the number of targets in Ukraine that the Russians are capable of reconnoitering. Sending a few dozen drones to NATO's eastern flank costs them almost nothing. And if this is done now, the Alliance's reaction is more or less predictable: Europe is not yet ready for active defense and will try to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia.

It is worth recalling: the war between North and South Korea lasted three years, two of which were spent on peace negotiations. Putin perceived the results of the Alaska summit as a weakness of the U.S.: America wants to end the war but is not ready to act decisively.

Of course, we do not know what exactly Zelenskyy and Trump will talk about this week. But one thing is clear: America's return to strong and clear actions against Russia is necessary not only to end the war in Ukraine but also to deter the expansion of hostilities into the territory of NATO countries. After all, the U.S. administration will have to respond to such a situation without any ambiguity.

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About the author. Mykola Kniazhytskyi, journalist, Ukrainian lawmaker.

The editorial board does not always share the opinions expressed by the authors of blogs or columns.