Will the Russians finally be able to stop Putin’s war?

Vladimir Putin’s spring offensive is another failure. Russian troops – at a monstrous human cost – certainly continue to eat away at Ukraine, but the territorial balance has been reversed, in favor of kyiv. A first since 2023. In the last two months, there have been more liberations than occupations of Ukrainian villages. In May, according to an AFP count, Ukraine regained 282 km². Is it modest? This is exactly the size of the canton of Geneva. Since 2014, Moscow has got its hands on 117,000 km² of Ukrainian land, three times the size of Switzerland.

It’s small, but significant. For Russia, a window of opportunity has closed. The windfall effect produced by the election of Donald Trump will therefore not have allowed the victory of Vladimir Putin. However, it is not for lack of having made his task easier. For eighteen months, the White House has not only tarnished Volodymyr Zelensky’s plan by removing most of his aid, but above all it has supported Moscow’s imperialist designs by validating its territorial claims.