For several months now Kyiv insistently, but unsuccessfully, asks its Western allies for long-range missiles such as Americans ATACMS that reach 300 kilometers so he can hit her innards Russia and nullify what Ukrainian army commander Valery Zaluzny called “the sense of impunity that the Russians have because of the great distances separating them from enemy forces.” Even without Western missiles, however, the Ukrainians took the first step towards achieving their goal last week, using homemade weapons. And what a step!

On Monday and Tuesday, Ukrainian kamikaze drones flew hundreds of kilometers deep into Russia to strike at three Russian bases, killing three soldiers and damaging two fighter jets. Among the targets hit was the Engels base in the Saratov region, in southern Russia, about 600 kilometers from the border with Ukraine. For comparison, it is enough to mention that Moscow is less than 500 kilometers away. The message sent by the Russians was clear: none of you are safe as long as the war continues.

Although the conflict will be decided not by drones, but by clashes on Ukrainian soil, the political blow to Putin and the psychological blow to Russia were painful. In addition, legitimate questions arise about the effectiveness of the advertised (and exported) Russian S-300 and S-400 air defense systems, since they could not detect and destroy enemy ships flying over Russian territory for too long.

From the first weeks of the war, the Ukrainians tried to compensate as much as possible for the strategic advantage of the attackers in long-range bombing (artillery or aviation), striking inside Russian borders. However, they were limited to the border region of Belgorod, at a distance of several kilometers from the border. The first qualitative leap was made in early October, when the strategically important Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea with Russia was bombed. This was followed in the same month by drone bombing of the Russian naval base in Sevastopol. After last week’s attacks, the Ukrainians got down to business, so to speak, in the language of video games.

As for the origin of the weapon that sowed the panic, information is divided. The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that these were Soviet-made drones (probably Tu-141 Strizh with a range of 1,000 kilometers), while Ukrainian sources claimed that new aircraft manufactured by the Ukrainian company Ukroboronprom were used. In any case, the result is important.

Spectacular attacks on Russian bases were Kyiv’s response to massive Russian bombing, as well as Western pressure for negotiations.

Strategically and politically, last week’s Ukrainian attacks were in response to Gen. Sergei Surovykin’s Russian “Shock and Awe,” also known as “Armageddon,” with waves of bombardments of energy and other infrastructure in Kiev and other urban centers. Appointed by Putin on October 8 as the new commander of Russian troops in Ukraine, Surovikin not only has not won a single victory so far, but was forced to drink the bitter cup of leaving Kherson. His response was the bombings, which temporarily left millions of Ukrainians without electricity and heating, and the thermometer has already dropped to -11 degrees Celsius, winter in Kiev is a nightmare, and many residents either seek refuge in special detention centers or move to safer and warm places inside or outside of Ukraine.

The very difficult situation has already caused the first skirmishes within the Ukrainian leadership, as evidenced by the public confrontation between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko over measures to protect the civilian population.

At the same time, the Kremlin’s collusion with the always-Russia-friendly General Winter is exacerbating Europe’s energy crisis and testing the limits of Western cohesion. In his visit to the White House before ten, Emmanuel Macron expressed the strong dissatisfaction of all his partners with respect to America, which benefits at the expense of Europe from the Ukrainian and its accompanying energy crisis. In fact, the French president openly threatened that the European Union would sue the United States at the World Trade Organization for unfair competition, which was temporarily averted.

Having received his messages from Paris, Berlin and other European capitals, Joe Biden took a step back in Ukrainian – although it is too early to say whether it is a verbal correction or a substantive one. If last spring he called Vladimir Putin a “butcher” who “cannot stay in power” (in other words, an all-out war in Ukraine aimed at regime change in Russia), this time he declared: “I am ready to discuss with Mr. Putin, is he really interested in finding a way to end the war.” In the days that followed, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken noted that the goal of the United States regarding the war in Ukraine was to pull Russian troops back to pre-invasion lines, meaning that Washington was not pretending that, like Kiev, it was conditional on Russians. the withdrawal of troops from the Donbass and Crimea, and that he could seek a “sanction territory” compromise with Moscow – the withdrawal of Russians from most of the territory they currently hold in exchange for the lifting of some of the sanctions imposed.

It seems that the meeting between Biden and Macron has accelerated the diplomatic processes. In Berlin, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Europe must return to the “peaceful order” that existed before the Russian invasion (which most likely means Nord Stream) if Vladimir Putin seeks and finds a way to end the war. For his part, Emmanuel Macron argued in a TV interview that, in the context of the final appeasement, the West should give Moscow “security guarantees” on the issues raised by the Russian president (Ukraine does not join NATO, does not deploy nuclear weapons). near the border with Russia, etc.). The road to negotiations and peace looks long now, as both Russians and Ukrainians prepare for a long war. However, for the first time in ten months of the war, a faint ray of light can be discerned.