Ukraine recap: prospect of renewed US funding a boost for beleaguered Zelensky

• We had just published a piece by two security analysts from the Paris-based research university Sciences Po, who had outlined three possible scenarios for the 12 months ahead.
• The first two options were major military setbacks for Russia or Ukraine, with major losses of troops and territory.
• Months of bitter, attritional fighting resulted in few Ukrainian gains at a significant cost in terms of both manpower and precious materiel.

• But, as Stefan Wolff and Tetyana Malyarenko point out, Syrskyi is also associated with the defence of Bakhmut, a battle that consumed so many lives on either side.
• But fresh supplies of weapons and ammunition from the EU and the US began to dry up in 2023, seriously hamstringing the Ukraine army’s ability to gain the initiative on the battlefield.

• You can also subscribe to our fortnightly recap of expert analysis of the conflict in Ukraine.
• After months of bitter debate the bill finally passed the senate this week.
• Read more:
  Ukraine war: what the US public thinks about giving military and other aid

Friends and enemies

• One of Trump’s greatest allies in the media, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, sat down with Putin for a two-hour interview last week.
• Inderjeet Parmar, an expert in US politics at City, University of London, watched the interview and gives us his verdict.
• He concludes: “Putin’s early history of Ukraine is part of a Russian imperialist story that has been told for centuries.
• He says more than 7,000 criminal cases have been opened accusing Ukrainians of giving aid to the enemy.
• Others are less so: people who continued to do their jobs after their town was occupied: local government officials, garbage collectors and the like.