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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Ukrainian News Agency (UNIAN), Dmytro Klyuchko
A military and diplomatic turning point in the war in Ukraine’s favor, which seemed evident at the start of the summer, is now giving way to growing disappointment. This is what appears in a material by the reputable American magazine The Atlantic.
As the authors of the publication note, at the start of the summer Ukraine for the first time in a long period seized the initiative in the war. Kyiv demonstrated to Western partners successes at the front, development of unmanned technologies, and strikes on Russian infrastructure. Against this backdrop, the tone of Trump toward Zelensky also changed. After talks in Turkey in early July, the American president spoke positively about the meeting with the Ukrainian leader.
“In that room there was a lot of love, a lot of unity,” the publication quotes Trump as characterizing the atmosphere after the talks.
At the same time, an important role in improving relations between Kyiv and Washington was played by Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Olga Stefanishyna. She tried to present Ukraine not only as a state asking for military aid, but as a partner capable of offering Washington its own technological and military solutions.
A particularly strong argument was made by Ukrainian unmanned technologies. The authors in particular tell of Ukrainian drone interceptors, which even attracted the interest of the Pentagon.
“Now everyone in Washington thinks Ukraine will win,” the authors quote one of the Republican strategists as saying. According to him, Americans saw Ukrainian drones and themselves wanted access to such technologies.
However, the positive dynamic quickly changed. During the latest meeting with Zelensky, Trump did not agree to transfer to Ukraine additional Patriot systems, necessary to defend against Russian strategic missiles. The American president also backtracked from the prior promise to allow Ukraine to produce these systems independently.
Parallel to this, problems related to corruption in Kyiv intensified. Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov was dismissed, whom Ukrainians saw as a fighter against corruption in the defense sector. The already mentioned Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States Olga Stefanishyna returned to Kyiv amid accusations of illicit enrichment.
Another issue remains Starlink. Zelensky asked Trump to appeal to Elon Musk so that Starlink access would be opened to carry out Ukrainian strikes against Russian missile batteries in the border zone of the Russian Federation. However Kyiv has not yet received a positive decision.
As a result, The Atlantic writes, within several days Ukraine had lost a substantial part of its diplomatic and military momentum that had accumulated over months. Trump effectively slowed down on previous Patriot promises, talks with Musk yielded no result, Fedorov’s dismissal triggered protests in Kyiv, and Ukraine remained without an ambassador in Washington.
Meanwhile, Russia intensified missile strikes on Kyiv, taking advantage of the deficit of Ukrainian air defense. In early August the capital and its suburbs were attacked by at least two dozen ballistic missiles in one night. Ukrainian forces could not shoot down any of them. 17 civilians were killed, another 44 people were wounded.
War in Ukraine: Strategic Dimension
As UNIAN wrote, a similar assessment of the current situation in the war was given on the eve by German military commentator Julian Reopak(e). After a trip to Ukraine, he noted that the restrained optimism among Ukrainian military personnel largely disappeared, as strikes on Russian logistics did not yield the expected strategic effect.
Despite record losses, the Russian army continues its offensive, actively using kamikaze drones, air bombs, and ballistic missiles for the systematic destruction of Ukrainian rear nodes.
According to Reopke, Ukraine is actively modernizing its army, developing robotic systems and unmanned technologies, but no strategic turning point on the front has yet occurred.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Дипломатичний контранаступ України на Вашингтон захлинувся, - The Atlantic". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: UNIAN.
