allies reaffirm their support for Ukraine but tensions appear

While all eyes are on the Middle East, “the world does not forget Ukraine”. This is the message that the United States and its allies have hammered home over the past two days at a NATO meeting. However, some signals are red.

They have said it so much that it really begins to resemble the Coué method. No, we are not tired of this war which is entering its second winter, no we are not disappointed with this Ukrainian counter-offensive now stuck on insignificant gains, no we are not going to stop investing, and no, of course not, there is no question of putting pressure to open negotiations. “Allies will continue their support for as long as necessary.”, it is written in black and white in the final declaration on Wednesday November 29. Message also intended for the Russian president. Difficult to make it clearer.

On the European side, certainly Germany and the Netherlands have just announced two new relatively substantial envelopes, but as far as ammunition is concerned, the 27 will not be able, as they had promised, to deliver a million shells by spring, production capacities are not sufficient. On the political level too, things are starting to rock.

Two spoilsport have just entered the club: the new Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fitzo and the Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, both fiercely opposed to continued aid to Ukraine. Viktor Orban, the pro-Putin Hungarian who keeps putting his foot on the brake, has found allies. The discussions planned in 15 days on the European budget will be difficult, with the billions of euros planned for kyiv probably revised downwards.

On the other side of the Atlantic things are not much better, Washington’s money is still blocked in Congress by the Republicans who no longer want to contribute to the war effort, at least not before having evaluated the needs of Israel.

Meanwhile, on the ground, the Russians are on the offensive

On Wednesday, November 29, they claimed the capture of a village near Bakhmut and, still in the east, they are making significant progress in Avdiivka, the new fixation point of the front, in particular thanks to the tactic of human waves: soldiers who are literally going to the slaughterhouse by advancing in their thousands at the same time in the same place. But Russia has switched to a war economy, it has no problem with resources, neither in men nor in material, thanks to Iran and North Korea. This is the message that the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs tried to convey on Wednesday in Brussels: the longer the war lasts, the more Vladimir Putin will benefit from it.