Conflicts

The United States now allows Kiev to use long-range missiles on Russian territory. According to Dominique Trinquand, this move is intended to put the country in a “position to negotiate”.

Dominique Trinquand, former head of the French military mission to the UN, spoke to Franceinfo on Sunday November 17. "This is a turning point for the United States. We've been asking for this authorization for a long time", he declared. According to him, the aim is to “put Russia in a position to negotiate”.

While Volodymyr Zelensky wants to do everything possible to achieve a “just end to the conflict,” his Russian counterpart “doesn't seem inclined to negotiate,” said the former head of mission. According to him, it is therefore absolutely necessary to make Vladimir Putin understand “that he is not in the position of strength he imagines and that it will be necessary to negotiate”. He must be “weakened”.

Russia, convinced only by force

General Trinquant goes on to stress that since Ukraine has opened diplomatic negotiations, "we now have to convince Russia. And Russia is only convinced by force. So these long-range missiles are part of this deployment of force to convince Russia."

The decision by outgoing US President, Joe Biden, comes at a time when Moscow has been massively hitting Ukraine's energy network. "It's been three winters that the Russians have been hitting Ukrainian energy in this way, with more or less missiles. So this is nothing new. (...) The Ukrainian forces who are fighting bravely are doing what they can on the ground. It's by hitting the logistics, meaning the ammunition, the air bases, the Russian fuel, that you can really weaken the device. And that's what these missiles are most useful for", concluded Dominique Trinquand.

(MH with Manon Pierre - Source : France Info - Picture : Picture by tatarstan.ru via WikiCommons under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license)