Was talk about the role of drones in the Ukraine war just propaganda? | news

With the escalation of mutual attacks between Russia and Ukraine, reaching deep into both countries, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked his American counterpart, Donald Trump, for defensive support, which analysts see as evidence that missiles are what will resolve this war, not drones, as is said.

In light of the increasing shortage of air defense systems, Zelensky sent a letter last Tuesday to Trump and members of Congress, requesting help, and calling on the United States to listen to Ukraine.

Zelensky’s message came in light of a situation that the Ukrainian president said “calls for quick and effective action.” It coincided with the Ukrainian military leadership discussing plans to carry out additional counter-strikes inside Russia, amid European warnings of sliding towards a direct confrontation with Moscow.

A few days ago, Moscow issued a strong warning to foreign nationals and diplomatic missions of the need to leave the Ukrainian capital as soon as possible, coinciding with its announcement of its intention to launch a “series of systematic and coordinated strikes” under the guidance of President Vladimir Putin.

These strikes are scheduled to target what the Russian Foreign Ministry described as “decision-making centers” and command headquarters, in addition to defense industry facilities that Ukrainian forces depend on in the capital and its environs.

Missile war

Despite the Europeans’ attempt to portray the war as a “drone war,” the Ukrainian request reveals that air defense systems are what will ultimately decide the battle, in the opinion of Russian political and strategic analyst Roland Begamov.

Ukraine – as Begamov said in the “Beyond the News” program – knows that the American Tomahawk missiles “are the only ones capable of dealing with the Russian ballistic missiles that have been used extensively and of various types in recent days. It also confirmed that Europe did not provide sufficient military support to Ukraine during this war.”

As for the former Ukrainian diplomat, Volodymyr Chumakov, he believes that the Ukrainian request came after Moscow launched attacks on the capital, Kiev, in response to what he described as the great losses that Russia suffered due to the Ukrainian marches.

Chumakov does not rule out that Washington will supply the Ukrainians with Tomahawk systems in the near future, despite talk of the shortage that the United States is suffering from in these ammunitions, and his confirmation that “Trump has lost interest in the Ukrainian file due to his drowning in the Iranian quagmire.”

What is currently required, even from European countries, is to provide the Ukrainians with the air defenses and long-range cruise missiles they need, because Russia will soon strike again at the capital, Kiev, according to Shumakov, who said that his country “does not get real American support at the present time because of Washington’s preoccupation with defending its forces and bases in the Gulf region.”

Russia will not stop the war

Political analyst and researcher at the Middle East Institute in Washington, Dr. Hassan Mneimneh, believes that the Ukrainian demand comes in light of Russian threats to strike Kiev on a large scale, but he believes that it clashes with considerations, foremost of which is “the severe shortage that the United States suffers from Tomahawk missiles, to the point that it has withdrawn some of them from advanced locations in a way that changes the nature of the global security balance.”

The Ukrainian request also clashes with Ukraine itself relying on a possible deal with the United States based on its increasing ability to manufacture drones, but this is a consideration that “may not be decisive,” in the opinion of Mneimneh, who believes that Washington believes that the prospects for a solution in Ukraine have declined after its government turned to a war economy, not to mention suspicions of corruption.

This does not mean that America will automatically move to the understandings demanded by the Russians, because the Trump administration is preoccupied with what is happening in Iran, and does not have time to even listen to Moscow, as Mneimneh says.

Even if Europe bears Ukraine’s burden financially and militarily, this does not guarantee victory in the end, and even mutual attrition between Russia and Europe “represents a losing deal from the American point of view,” according to the political analyst, who believes that Russia “does not want to stop the war at the present time because it is making progress despite the losses it is suffering.”

Air defenses are crucial

The United States may accept a scenario of mutual attrition if the Europeans ask it to buy weapons for use in this war. However, Trump should not be treated as the decisive factor in this crisis, according to Mneimneh, “because Russia is heading towards further escalation, and will only accept an agreement that guarantees that the Europeans will not obtain the gains that former US President Joe Biden promised them.”

Trump is also not loyal to Russia, as some say, but “he is looking for his own victory, not Ukraine’s victory, and this is what the Russians are dealing with more intelligently than the Ukrainians,” says Mneimneh, who believes that America is currently preoccupied with Iran, and that when Trump returns to Ukraine, he will “look for immediate victories to compensate for what he lost in Tehran.”

However, Shumakov denies the existence of Russian progress on the ground, and says that the Russian army “forcefully destroyed the Ukrainian drones, and therefore we may witness a freeze in the conflict over the contact points, because the keys to stopping the war are in the hands of Vladimir Putin, who does not want to stop the war.”

On the other hand, Begamov says that Russia “desperately needs to stop the war, but it believes that Europe is seeking a direct clash with it, and therefore it will continue to launch retaliatory strikes with ballistic weapons.”

Partial freezing of the conflict at points of contact occurs when battles are limited to the fronts only, while what is currently happening is that the two countries are “targeting depth,” according to Begamov, who said that the Russians “have the upper hand, and possess the most important factor in the war, which is air defenses.”