"Putin will prepare a hellish winter for Ukraine"

"Putin will prepare a hellish winter for Ukraine"

American weapons, U.S. intelligence and the training of Ukrainian elite special forces enabled the penetration of the Ukrainian army through Russian positions. As well as the return of the territories around and south of Kharkiv, explains the success of Kyiv's counter-offensive, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

The successful counter-offensive of the Ukrainian army is followed with great attention in the media in the European Union, although it is cautiously suggested that this does not mean that the war is approaching a turning point and the end, but is now waiting to see if the Russian side can retaliate, which is estimated to be both militarily and politically shaken.

Corriere della Sera writes that since the Russian seizure of Crimea in 2014, the Americans and Kyiv have launched the "Concept of Resistance Operation" plan with the training of thousands of Ukrainian special forces soldiers, with the preparation of psychological operations, strengthening sabotage actions in the Russian background and in Russia itself, false messages through "mole", double agents, with the aim of confusing the Russian military leadership about the real goals of the prepared strikes and counter-offensives.

An official of the US Department of Defense confirmed this, explaining that the special forces of Kyiv, which go by the name "Shaman", were also given training in irregular, guerilla warfare, and US intelligence services taught them how to deceive the enemy and conduct psychological warfare.

Corierre della Sera and other media believe that American training, intelligence and targeting were crucial for the success of the Ukrainian army, especially the American long-range precision missile launchers Himars, with a significant successful deception that the main strikes would be aimed at the Kherson region in the south, so the Russian generals withdrew the main force there and greatly weakened the positions in the north.

The French newspaper "Figaro" evaluates that the Ukrainian counter-offensive "proved to Moscow, the Russian public, and the West that the Ukrainian army is capable of achieving significant victories... so now the claims that the war will last a very long time and that it is necessary immediately start peace negotiations".

The High Representative of the EU, Josep Borrell, confirmed today, after talks in Brussels with the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kuleba, about the new EU financial military aid to Kyiv of two billion and 600 million euros, that the 27 European countries will continue to support the Ukrainian authorities in their efforts to re-conquer the territories occupied by Russian forces.

However, the Dutch economic and financial daily Handelsblad warns that "Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot accept defeat and will have to show all his strength to secure his power." The Dutch daily therefore writes that "Russia will resort to a general military mobilization, and Ukraine will be exposed to a Russian campaign of destruction."

"Putin will prepare a hellish winter for Ukraine," writes Handelsblad and states that "the head of the Kremlin can destroy the electricity grid, gas pipelines and power stations and leave Ukrainians freezing and therefore fleeing to Western Europe, which is itself in the middle of an energy crisis."

"Now the expected escalation of the war for Putin means that everything is on the line," concludes the Dutch newspaper.