Description: The Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk came under severe bombardment from Russian ballistic missiles which left 17 people dead and scores of injured. Missile fragments of the attack accidentally hit a passenger train inflicting no casualties. The attack came a day after Russian drones and missiles targeted Kyiv which left more than 30 people dead. Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy was expected to meet US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Hague amid reduced support from the US due to the revolving crisis in the Middle East between Israel and Iran. The last meeting in Istanbul brought the warring countries no closer to peace, as they only agreed upon the exchange of prisoners while failing to schedule another round of negotiations.
Impact: Russia intensifies its military campaign with aerial attacks that have mostly struck civilian population as a peace agreement becomes more elusive with Ukraine’s leniency towards its western partners. Global interest has recently shifted on the Middle East crisis with Trump’s immediate attention dedicated towards resolving the war between Israel and Iran. The US maintains its calculative approach to the war in Ukraine, consistently refusing to impose stricter sanctions or diplomatically pressure Russia closer towards the negotiating table. The NATO Summit reformulated divisions between the members in outsourcing military support for Ukraine with only several financial commitments pledged by member states. The meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy isn’t expected to deliver concrete results as Ukraine is left between the disjointed support from European states and the conditioned and insecure support from the US. Russia is expected to keep intensifying the attacks having significant advantages on the battlefront over Ukrainian forces while imposing its demands for peace.