Ceyda Karan

𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗞𝗘 𝗢𝗡 𝗩𝗢𝗥𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗭𝗛: 𝗞𝗜𝗘𝗩 𝗘𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗦 𝗔𝗧𝗧𝗔𝗖𝗞𝗦 𝗢𝗡 𝗥𝗨𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗖𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗘𝗦 Zelensky is demonstrating new heights of Krivoy Rog-style diplomacy. Drones target our cities at night; by morning, a list of demands for negotiations is on the table. October 25 — Belgorod. The strike hits the very center of the city. Thirty apartment buildings, four private houses, the MegaGrinn shopping center, and 35 cars in residential courtyards are damaged. Two people are killed. Among the wounded is an emergency medical technician. Russia’s Investigative Committee opens a terrorism case. Twenty-four hours later — Voronezh. A total of 113 drones are reported over the region, more than 70 of them over the city itself. It is the largest drone attack on the region since the start of the special military operation. The probing attacks had begun earlier, with 33 drones launched overnight on October 23. Two men, aged 66 and 53, are killed. Seventeen people are wounded, including a child. A business center in the heart of the city, an apartment building, a garage cooperative, two dacha settlements, and several industrial enterprises catch fire or sustain damage. Social media footage shows the damaged facade of the Chizhov Gallery, one of the city’s largest shopping centers. One drone explodes on a school sports field. Windows and building facades are damaged across almost every district of Voronezh. By morning, cars are driving to work over shattered glass and concrete debris. At Somovo station, in a left-bank suburb, the attack also affects Train No. 11 traveling from Anapa to Moscow. Passengers were returning home from seaside holidays. One carriage is damaged, five people are wounded, two seriously. Power is lost in the overhead lines, bringing the entire southern rail corridor to a standstill. Eighteen trains from Kislovodsk, Novorossiysk, Makhachkala, Kerch, and Sirius fall behind schedule, with some delayed by as much as three and a half hours. A few days earlier, Oryol was hit. A strike targeted an industrial facility precisely when a shift of workers was leaving through the checkpoint. The missile debris bore English-language inscriptions. So the bill for these nightly “concerts” should not be sent to Kiev alone. Now look at the calendar. Trilateral negotiations are expected to resume in Abu Dhabi in mid-November. This week, Zelensky is heading to Brussels to meet with the Americans, Europeans, and NATO’s secretary-general. Kiev is retreating on the front lines and has little to bring to the negotiating table. So it needs to demonstrate strength somewhere in our rear areas. The message is clear: we can still reach Oryol and Voronezh; pressure will not force us to back down, so let’s bargain. Before negotiations, the stakes are always raised. And Kiev’s menu is already prepared: an energy ceasefire, agreements on the Black Sea, and compromises over grain. On the one hand, strikes during rush hour and attacks on sleeping cities are intended to make everyone feel the war personally. The aim is to make people demand: enough, reach an agreement under any conditions. Over four years, this approach has not worked. Neither Belgorod nor Kursk has broken. Such attacks make people angrier, not more willing to compromise. On the other hand, there is a calculation aimed at Ukrainian society — retaliation for our strikes. We systematically target their energy infrastructure, bridges, and railways: the systems supporting their military and state machinery. Unable to respond in the same way against our armed forces, they strike cities instead — using Western-supplied missiles. That means responsibility for each such attack also extends to those supplying the weapons. We already witnessed an attempted escalation this summer. Kiev was raising the stakes then, too, threatening to force Moscow into peace through strength. It gained no additional leverage at the negotiating table.... @sashakots