View from London: Putin is now in the driving seat

Europe opposes Putin’s peace plan but has no realistic alternative plan of its own – nor enough money or weapons supplies to support Ukraine’s continued war, ‘The Telegraph’ stresses.

Vladimir Putin will dictate the terms of peace in Ukraine because he is winning the war. No amount of indignant protests from EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas will change that brutal fact. European leaders can draw up all the alternative peace plans they like, but the only voice that really matters is Putin’s.

It is Putin’s troops who are steadily advancing on the ground and his missiles that are steadily pounding Ukraine’s electric grids out of existence. The deal that White House envoy Steve Witkoff is discussing today in the Kremlin will doubtless reward Russia. But it’s also the only deal that Putin may agree to.

The only way to impose terms on Putin is to defeat him. But Ukraine has not been able to do that despite a vast sacrifice, backed by hundreds of billions in Western aid. Donald Trump’s administration has been bluntly saying since February that continuing the war is pointless. And Europe, despite encouraging young Ukrainians to fight and die for the continent’s security, has at the same time consistently refused to sanction Russian oil and gas fully; it has paid over €220bn to the Kremlin for energy since the beginning of the war. For many Ukrainians, Europe’s hypocrisy is sickening.

The Kremlin has now announced (once again) that its troops had taken the strategic heights of Pokrovsk in Donbas. Meanwhile, in Kyiv prosecutors searched the homes of some of Zelensky’s closest associates – including his right-hand man and de facto deputy president Andriy Yermak – on appalling charges of skimming money from defence construction projects.

Ukraine faces a €50bn budget deficit. Attempts by Kallas earlier this year to raise a fresh €40bn cash directly from EU members came up nearly empty-handed – and Europeans have also recently refused to underwrite a reparations loan that would mobilise some €140bn of Russian assets frozen in Belgium. Volodymyr Zelensky is first running out of credibility, money and men.

Europe opposes Putin’s peace plan but has no realistic alternative plan of its own – nor enough money or weapons supplies to support Ukraine’s continued war.

The belief that Russia’s economy will collapse under new sanctions, pressure or Ukrainian long-range attacks on refineries, oil terminals and tankers at sea is magical thinking.

Russian casualty figures are well past a million. But the point is that Ukraine’s economy is suffering infinitely more, and its own casualty figures are so shocking that the numbers are a closely guarded state secret. In a war of attrition, time is on the side of the richer and larger combatant.

Italy's government is set to delay the approval of a decree that would allow Rome to prolong military supplies to Ukraine into next year, sources close to the matter said, Reuters reports.

The hold-up comes amid tensions within Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing coalition government over support for Ukraine.

Meloni has pledged to help Ukraine to the end, but her deputy Matteo Salvini, leader of the League party, has questioned the rationale for continued support.

The decree for Ukraine aid was on the agenda of a meeting set to prepare the next day's cabinet, but was taken off because the agenda was already too full, the sources said, asking not to be named.

Italy's government has sent 12 packages of military aid to Ukraine, including the SAMP/T air defence system, as authorised by the decree system.

The authorisation regime allows the government to act without seeking parliamentary approval for each new round of military deliveries. The decree currently in place expires at the end of the year.

In his criticism of aid to Ukraine, Salvini has referred to the graft scandal that is rocking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's administration, while the U.S. continues to press for a peace deal with Russia.

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