Press review: Kiev’s terrorist acts risk derailing talks as NATO expands Arctic footprint

The Ukrainian authorities have turned to overt terrorism against civilian facilities. Kiev is pressuring Moscow to end peace talks, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik told Izvestia. On June 3, the Ukrainian Security Service reported an operation against the Crimean Bridge. Prior to that, railway bridges in the Bryansk and Kursk regions were blown up.

After the second round of the Istanbul talks with Russia, Ukraine suggested that the next meeting be held between June 20 and 30. However, Kiev’s subversive activities call the effectiveness of the next round into question. "On the one hand, Ukraine is trying to undermine the negotiations, and on the other, it seeks to demonstrate to its allies that it is ready to continue fighting. It’s vital for the Ukrainian leadership to make sure that the conflict goes on," Bogdan Bezpalko, a member of the Russian Presidential Council for Interethnic Relations, said.

The Ukrainian authorities intend to win the White House over to their side in order to increase pressure on Russia and tighten sanctions. However, US President Donald Trump is unlikely to take such a step at this point, political scientist Vladimir Sotnikov observed. In his view, Trump still hopes to carry out his plan to reconcile Russia and Ukraine, and will prefer to urge Vladimir Zelensky to achieve this goal.

However, Alexey Fenenko, professor with Moscow State University’s Faculty of World Politics, believes that the United States is not interested in exerting strong pressure on Kiev. "Intelligence and weapons deliveries to Ukraine have not been suspended," he noted, adding: "Ukraine is too important for Trump for him to abandon it."

Kiev enjoys certain influence in the West, backed by Western globalist forces, Yevgeny Semibratov, deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts at Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, told Nezavisimaya Gazeta. That said, Ukrainian leaders hope to outmaneuver Russia not at the negotiating table but through behind-the-scenes agreements with the Washington administration. According to Semibratov, the problem is that the quick results in the negotiation process that the Trump team is looking for are unlikely in the current situation. It is becoming increasingly challenging for Trump to maintain neutrality, albeit conditional. So Washington may begin to raise the intensity of sanctions on Russia, the analyst elaborated.

NATO’s non-Arctic nations - namely the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and France - are boosting their military presence in the Arctic region, an