Turkey sells missiles to Ukraine as EU transfers Russian assets

Turkey sells missiles to Ukraine and the EU pays with Russian money

Can Ukraine be armed with Turkish missiles, have the bill paid with frozen Russian assets, and at the same time have Trump's envoys sent to Moscow to talk peace? The sequence of headlines from recent hours suggests that escalation and negotiation are not opposing phases, but pieces of the same board.

The European Union has transferred $1.5 billion to Ukraine from immobilized Russian assets. Turkey, for its part, has entered the military game with the sale of missiles. Money and weapons are piling up on the Ukrainian side, but the picture on the ground is not nearly as optimistic.

The front shows no mercy: the Donbas in numbers
Analyses of the Russian troops' position paint an uncomfortable reality: they are 5 kilometers from Kramatorsk and Sloviansk to the east, and 10 to the north. Only 5% of the Donbas remains to be controlled, specifically 10% of Donetsk, since Lugansk was declared liberated almost a year ago. Far from wearing out, the Russian offensive is destroying the ports and factories that sustain Ukraine's income. European and American money that, according to this reading, is evaporating at the front.

The peace that Witkoff and Kushner bring
Meanwhile, the White House has designated Witkoff and Kushner as envoys to Moscow. They are not bringing an offering, but a request. Some argue they are going to beg Russia to stop destroying the industrial machinery that the West has financed. The Russian response, predictably, will be a smile. Historical precedents offer no comfort: Napoleon and Hitler tried something similar and it ended badly.

The current strategy combines missiles, European money and improvised diplomacy. One wonders whether anyone in Washington has looked at the map of the Donbas before sending their men. Seen from the outside, the plan has the logic of a poker game where the EU pays the chips.

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