A new window of peace has been evoked by Moscow, with Vladimir Putin saying he is ready to participate in future talks in Slovakia, four days after the face-to-face summit with Prime Minister Robert Fico. It would be Bratislava - according to what was reported by Tass - that would have offered to bring the two warring countries together around a table.

Previously, the Kremlin leader had stated that Russia would be willing to talk to Zelensky himself if he showed up at the polls and obtained the majority of votes. A proposal that is clearly unacceptable on the other side, making it clear that Putin, in relaunching agreements, knows that he can afford to take his time in the wake of successes at the front, or wait for more attractive peace proposals from the new US administration.

As Ukraine collapses, the EU remains stuck in a delusional approach of confrontation with Russia until a victory that will never come. “ Any premature push to end the Ukrainian conflict will lead to a bad peace deal ,” the EU’s foreign affairs chief, Kaja Kallas, told the Financial Times , arguing that it would be “ much cheaper to support Ukraine now ” than to “ endure war later ”. Kallas argued in essence that “the stronger you are on the battlefield, the stronger you will be behind the negotiating table”.

But the old continent is struggling to keep up with the Russian war machine. “In Europe, the long process of developing weapons systems carries the risk of obsolescence of new equipment,” French Admiral Pierre Vandier said in an interview with Defense News, noting how, for example, in the case of tanks, military engineers spend years defining the specifications, followed by a further decade of work by industry, which can lead to vehicles that are no longer adequate for current needs due to technological evolution.

At the same time, the leaders of Latvia, Estonia and Finland warned that NATO is not yet ready to face Russia without US support, calling for a significant increase in defense spending.