“Putin wants escalation at all costs. The US wants talks by October.” The coming weeks will be crucial for the war in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. He spoke during a conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who made a surprise visit to Kyiv on a day when Russia continued to strike the capital, hitting another bridge.
“Russia has 700 ballistic missiles”
“Russia must not win. The Shahed drones, the missiles and the war must not win. Now they are striking bridges. Do they really think we will not respond? I am frankly astonished by this brutal urge to provoke escalation every single day. Putin is betting on constant escalation; he wants it at any cost. I believe Moscow will increasingly favor higher-quality attacks rather than quantity, reducing the share of conventional Shaheds and raising as much as possible the proportion of more modern ones,” Zelensky said. He added that Moscow still has significant resources: “According to our information, Russia has an arsenal of about 700 ballistic missiles and several thousand other missiles. They produce roughly 130–140 ballistic missiles a month. All of this must be countered, and we are doing so.”
“If you don’t help Ukraine, Putin will come to you”
Zelensky stressed that allied support is essential. “When someone proposes an alternative to helping Ukraine, there is only one: not helping. What is the alternative? Not supporting us. If the alternative is to withhold support, that means Ukraine would be left alone. Had we not received help from our allies, we would have fallen and Russia would now be closer to your borders. The threat would be closer to you. Even now, with Ukraine stronger, drones are already reaching many European countries. Putin would simply become more reckless if we were not here. So when someone says there is an alternative to helping Kyiv, they are simply refusing to accept responsibility for a terrible outcome.”
US working on talks for October
In this context, Zelensky said the United States intends to organize trilateral talks with Russian and Ukrainian representatives at the end of October as part of American diplomatic efforts to seek a way out of the conflict. “The American side is currently in contact with Ukraine and Russia and proposes to organize, in one way or another, a technical-level trilateral meeting by the end of October,” he said. Kyiv is favorable to the timeline and to venues proposed by Washington. Zelensky did not specify where the talks might take place, but said Ukraine is “open to the United Arab Emirates or another country proposed by the US.”
Moscow: “Donetsk is Russia”
Negotiations will have to contend with Moscow’s uncompromising stance. “Donetsk is part of the Russian Federation; there is nothing to discuss,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Pavel Zarubin, the Vesti journalist who often conveys major messages from Putin and his circle. Peskov added—without specifying how much remains to be seized of other Ukrainian regions annexed in September 2022—that Russia will continue to fight for the entire territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic, even for a fraction of a percentage point of territory. “Even if it were 0.5 percent of the territory, or 0.01 percent,” he explained.
Former president and current deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev also raised tensions. He warned that blocking the Russian communications network Rassvet would lead to a “real space war.” Kyiv has reportedly asked Starlink for permission to use Elon Musk’s satellite network also to hit targets in Russia—a request Musk left for the White House to decide. In case of disruptions to Rassvet, “Starlink satellites would fall to the ground like toys from a dry Christmas tree. Space is very crowded. We must show mutual courtesy,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram.