While in the United States, the expulsions of illegal immigrants continue, the entry this week in the territory of a somewhat special individual is controversial. This is Kirill Dmitriev. A Russian therefore, and not just any since he is neither more nor less than the closest advisor to Vladimir Putin on Ukraine. To make it possible, the Treasury Department had to raise certain sanctions for the Russian personalities for seven days, so that the State Department delivers a visa. It is indeed the first time since February 2022 that a high Russian dignitary crowd the territory of the United States of America.
Kirill Dmitriev must meet Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s advisor. Since the weekend, the latter has not taken off. The United States had announced a deal on stopping black sea fighting. Ukraine said yes. But just after, the Russians brought up the auctions, explaining that the cease-fire did not meet the causes of the conflict.
For her part, Putin spoke of a management by the country of the country, while elections are held. Admitted goal: to get rid of Volodymyr Zelensky. The Russians also asked that sanctions be lifted. Faced with this, the commentators mocked Trump saying that he had rolled in the flour. However, it is not, as an investigation of the New York Times. Because in the field, in Ukraine, it is always the Americans who lead dance. With them, the Ukrainians hold. Without them, war is over.
The Americans, ready to disengage?
The involvement of the United States in Ukraine is older and deep than we imagined until then. On February 20, 2014, Russia invaded Crimea. Valentyn Nalyvaïtchenko, the then director of SBU, Ukrainian intelligence, contacted the CIA and MI6 post office chiefs, British espionage. The CIA immediately decides to create twelve secret bases along the Russian border. It will take ten years to learn their existence, thanks to a first short investigation of the New York Times. The American daily drives the point home.
We learn that there is not only the clandestine activity of the Ukrainians that is controlled by Washington. Armament, training, equipment, but also the strategic choices of war until the design of operations, everything is a deep borrowing from Washington, almost at each stage of the conflict. This involvement weighs today, when, under the aegis of Trump, the USA seem to wish to disengage. Will they leave everything behind them as they did in Afghanistan, a real obsession with the Ukrainian staff, tells us New York Times ? Will Europe and the other allies of Ukraine be able to replace the USA before such a withdrawal? Will a faster and clearer advance of the Russians be the consequence? In short, if Trump really withdraws, will he end up giving Putin victory on a set?
Today, the master of the Kremlin seems to have the advantage
In April 2022, during a report on volunteers who came to help Ukraine, we discovered to our amazement that the selection and supervision of the “Ukrainian Legion” which welcomed them were operated by American instructors. It was taboo to talk about it then. The emotion caused by the Russian invasion dominated everything. However, at the same time, in Clay Kaser, HQ of American forces in Europe located in Wiesbaden, Germany, a meeting between American and Ukrainian soldiers devoted an alliance of a magnitude never revealed so far.
On that day, General Chris Donahue, commander of the 18th airborne body, sealed a partnership with the Ukrainian general Mykhaïlo Zabrodskyi who was going to last the whole war. Donahue’s initial objective was to introduce the whole palette of American weapons to the battlefield for the benefit of Ukraine. Cooperation will quickly take on a completely different dimension.
The American involvement, whose only supply of equipment will reach the sum of $ 66.5 billion, results in the common design, still in Wiesbaden, offensives and counter-offensives, integrating intelligence, strategy, planning. In principle, the Ukrainians keep the initiative, but just behind, we find the American eye that sees everything, the American ear that hears everything. And on the ground, miracles follow one another.
After the noose loosened around kyiv, the withdrawal of the Russians from the regions of Kharkiv then Kherson, it is the turn of the Black Sea fleet to be neutralized by naval drones in its Sebastopol base, until it is moved. Just before, the Ukrainians had flowed the Moskvathe flagship of the Russian fleet, still with the help of American intelligence. 2022 ends at the credit of Ukraine. Sometimes the American hand is too heavy, creating tensions. Other times, Ukrainians persist in ignoring their advice. Above all, they complain that Washington does not provide them with enough armaments, or that they are prevented from hitting the Russians on their territory, for fear of causing an escalation in the conflict.
All along, the Americans are well aware that their involvement flirts with cobelligerance, but the Biden administration always ends up yielding
The lines move
In 2023, politics and Egos got involved. President Zelensky wants to have his say. Designed in Wiesbaden, approved by the Ukrainian chief of staff, Valeri Zaloujny, the summer counter-offensive must break into Melitopol and cut the conquered Russian territory. But Zelensky prefers to follow the recommendations of another general, Rival of Zaloujny, Oleksandr Syrsky, who persists in attacking Bakhmout to, he hopes, take Lougansk and Donbass. Zaloujny shades too much in Zelensky and finds himself ambassador in London. More docile, Syrsky takes its place. Zelensky wants a victory, a draft to reassure his allies. Finally, the counter-offensive is exhausted on mine fields. Wagner conquers Bakhmout after eight months of siege. The Ukrainian army comes out decimated. Politics got the better of Wiesbaden’s strategists.
Throughout, the Americans are well aware that their involvement is flirting with cobelligerance, but the Biden administration always ends up yielding. The Americans deploy instructors to kyiv, then on the front. Opposite, Putin threatens nuclear response. At the rear, in the country, the breath of Trump who arrives is felt at the Congress, where help with Ukraine is blocked several times. On the forehead, the long -range missiles eventually arrive. Americans still refuse to Ukrainians the right to use them against Russian territory. “We protect our country while you protect the ghosts from your fears of the Cold War”tackles a Ukrainian officer. In the meantime, kyiv launched his operation in Koursk, and the Americans find themselves involved in a military action directly on the territory of the Russian Federation. Even at the worst hours of the Cold War, it had never happened …
Today, Trump is in power and the master of the Kremlin seems to have the advantage. But the anger of the American president are not without effect, because the fate of weapons on the ground still depends on the main part of the good American will.
