The war may not be going as planned for the Ukrainian president, despite his ongoing positive rhetoric. However, a Vatican peace mission may bring some news on the ceasefire front and hopefully get children taken by Russian forces back home.
President Zelensky has been quoted as saying Ukrainian forces are holding their positions, stating that Donetsk and Zaporizhia are presenting “very difficult conditions,” but that forces in Kurks “are holding certain lines” despite the Russians’ efforts to push back.
However, a report from the U.K.’s Telegraph just this past Saturday, presented a very different story in Kursk, with Ukrainian military blogger DeepState saying that Ukrainian forces could be encircled. “We are on the verge of another mess due to the repetition of mistakes,” they wrote.
While Zelensky may have believed the Kursk offensive would distract Russian soldiers from the Donbass frontline, this proved to be a false hope and a political failure in terms of convincing anyone in the West, said former U.K. military attaché John Foreman. “Russian progress actually picked up after Kursk,” he said.
In terms of Ukraine’s approach to any ceasefire deal, Forbes has written that a major concern for Zelensky is being forced to cede occupied territories in return for Ukraine being allowed to join NATO, which could result in a coup against him by ultranationalist parties and Putin taking advantage of growing Western resentment, especially given the delayed and lackluster aid provided to Ukraine during the war.
Meanwhile, last Friday, Pope Francis received Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi at the Vatican for the third time, in part to discuss the fate of Ukrainian adults and children abducted to Russia. The Holy See has been mediating prisoner exchanges for more than a year, with a special focus on helping get Ukrainian children back home.
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Pope Francis’ peace envoy, is in Moscow to discuss peace, prisoner exchanges, and arranging for Ukrainian children to be sent back to their families. Zuppi visited Zelensky in Ukraine this past June, followed by a trip to Russia to meet with various government officials there, as well as Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill.
