Zelensky Accuses America of a "Lack of Will", and the Same Day It Leaks That Kushner and Dmitriev Discussed Nord Stream

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has run out of diplomatic patience with Washington. From Pryluky, the city where a day earlier a Russian strike on an apartment building took 22 lives, he directly accused the United States of having the power to force Putin into negotiations but not the will to do it.

The trigger was a statement by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said from Portugal that the war in Ukraine had reached a "dangerous stalemate". Zelensky rejected that assessment with a memorable line: "You can't negotiate with the Russians on future economic projects on the one hand, and on the other say that we're in some kind of diplomatic dead end."

The recipe he offered is short: "Destroy Putin's entire economy. Silence Russia. Stop feeding them with your sales. Simply impose sanctions on their weapons." He also asked for wider access to the Starlink satellite system - and reminded everyone that America had already done this when responding to Iran. "Where is the truth here, where is the honesty? What dead end? That's called a lack of will," he added.

Pipelines, Kushner and Dmitriev

The criticism didn't come out of nowhere. The same day, Reuters, citing its sources, reported that American and Russian officials are looking at the possibility of US investors getting into the Nord Stream pipelines - the ones through which Russian gas reached Germany before the invasion. According to the same sources, the talks involved Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, and Kirill Dmitriev, a close associate of Putin.

The White House says there have been no such talks on Nord Stream recently. It remains unclear how interested Washington even is in restoring Russian supplies to Germany - a project that would hit a wall of American and European sanctions. But the mere information that the president's son-in-law and Putin's man talked about pipelines, while the secretary of state talks about a "stalemate", is enough to understand why Kyiv sees two different policies under one flag.

78 dead in two days

Zelensky laid out the numbers: Russian attacks killed 78 people in two days and wounded 215. In Kramatorsk at least 30 people were killed, a day earlier 22 in Pryluky. He promised the attacks would not go unanswered.

Still, after all the sharp words, Ukrainian negotiators are leaving for the US on Friday and Saturday for new talks. Rubio, for his part, said Washington is ready to mediate but "will not take part in pointless processes if there is no progress" - and warned that the escalation could spill over into other European countries, NATO members included.

Zelensky is adamant that Europeans can't pressure Putin on their own, and that the Americans can do more. "I believe President Trump can do more and, frankly, should, given the enormous losses," he said. A country under bombs asking a great power to use its leverage while the great power calculates investments - the Balkans know that scene by heart. How many more dead will stand between the American "stalemate" and the Ukrainian "will"?