On the 22nd of this month, according to the Ukrainian side disclosed, the Russian army was attacked by massive missiles and drones in much of Ukraine during the night of the 21st, in which the capital Kiev suffered "all-range" strikes.
Why did Russia launch a large-scale attack on Kiev at this time? The killing on the battlefield and the game outside the field are linked. From information outside the battlefield, especially Putin's latest statement, we can see that the situation in Russia and Ukraine has reversed and a new round of games is underway. All parties are increasing the pressure, depending on who softens first.
A Russian army bombed Kiev in all directions
Since this year, the scale of Russian attacks on Ukraine has grown, repeatedly carrying out large-scale attacks on the entire territory, and in the latest round of attacks on the 22nd, the Russian military not only carried out "multi-blossom" in Kharkov, Odessa and other places, but also the scale of the attacks on Kiev has significantly expanded. According to the disclosure of the mayor of Kiev Klichko, the Russian military used ballistic missiles and drones to strike at least four districts of Kiev, with missiles and drone debris on the streets, several cars parked on fire, some building windows shaken.
The attack came a day after the Ukrainian army used the British-provided Shadow of the Storm missile to carry out air strikes on a chemical plant in Bryansk, Russia. However, due to the limited equipment of the Ukrainian army, it was unable to carry out large-scale attacks like the Russian army. It can be said that the Ukrainian army is fighting asymmetrical operations on the battlefield, and Russia firmly holds the initiative on the battlefield.
In accordance with the pace of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict after Trump came to power, each time to the key node of the negotiations, the Russian-Ukrainian mutual attacks will be abruptly fierce, "Putters" is the case, and the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations in Turkey is the case.
Putin mentioned two things in an interview on the 23rd. The first thing was that Trump canceled the Budapest meeting under negotiation. Putin said he agreed that a hasty meeting would not achieve the expected results; The second thing was Trump's announcement that he would impose sanctions on Russia's two oil giants. In response, he said that the new U.S. sanctions were an "unfriendly move" and would not have a major impact on the Russian economy, but were not conducive to the newly restored U.S. -Russian relations.
From Putin’s words, it can be seen that Trump has changed rumors again, and the situation in Russia has reversed.
In contrast, The Russian Federation Security Council Vice Chairman Dmitry Medvedev made a more direct statement on the same day. He said that Trump and Europe were "colluding" and had embarked on the "road to war against Russia." Russia wanted to achieve victory on the battlefield, rather than reaching a "meaningless agreement" at the negotiating table. By putting the two people's statements together, we can understand the Russian military's large-scale military operations against Kiev.
2 Why did Trump change his mind again
Many people see in the mist, Trump has just "sliped" to the Russian side, and last week also filled 2.5 hours of phone calls with Putin, how did this story reverse for a few days? This is to say that he had contacted Russia in the past few days. According to the current public information, it is Ukraine's initiative to "shake" the U.S. side, launched the White House meeting. Russia got the information, rushed to the "TZ" before inviting Trump and Putin to call.
During the call, Putin even though he talked for more than two hours and also planned a second meeting, from the public information, Russia did not make any concessions, that is, if Ukraine did not make concessions, even if the two meet again, the negotiations will not have any substantial progress.
After that, Trump met Zelensky in the White House. It can be said that this White House meeting was basically a copy of the February meeting. Zelensky was mocked, mocked, and also said to be thrown by Trump maps, various emotional "greetings", but he clearly ticked Trump's temperament, all the unpleasant papers were collected, and in the press conference a tribute to Trump, but not a concession.
He said that joining NATO is very important to Ukraine, but what is more important is that Ukraine needs to obtain practical security guarantees. He also said that a ceasefire must be ceased before negotiations, and local ceasefire negotiations can be accepted. These are all old tune rehashes. It's no wonder that Trump will be furious. This meeting includes pre-arranged topics such as Tomahawk assistance and energy cooperation, which either failed to be negotiated or not discussed at all.
So the question is, since Zelensky has no intention of giving in, how did he persuade Trump to agree to an interview? How can he be sure that he can handle Trump? According to people familiar with the matter, Zelensky's team used evidence of corruption in the Biden family to "provoke" Trump, but Trump was very disappointed after reading the document because there was no valuable information in it. So as the outside world saw, he didn't give Zelensky a good look.
In the meantime, both Russian and Ukrainian sides accepted negotiations, but did not concede, directly kicked the ball to Trump, and he could only continue to pressure both heads. In addition to the tactics, the power generation equipment that Ukraine wanted, as well as LNG, were suspended by the US. This was the pressure on Ukraine.
Three factors in this “reversal” drama
Another point that cannot be ignored is that behind Zelensky is Europe, and the attitude he is taking now is actually the attitude of Europe. Therefore, Trump's highlight is not to deal with Ukraine, which is already on the chopping block, but to play a game with Russia and Europe. Europe has always been quite critical of Trump's unabashed enthusiasm with Putin, and even suspicions. Now, in order to hold Trump back, they are using both hard and soft tactics. On the one hand, they endure his arrogance and give in on tariffs. On the other hand, they distance themselves from the US on the Gaza issue and shout their own tone.
Europe hopes that Trump together will pressure Russia, force it to make concessions, and negotiate first a ceasefire, while Trump does not agree with Russia, but instead puts higher conditions on Europe, asking them to do more, such as imposing tariffs on Chinese and other countries that buy Russian oil, and putting pressure on Russia. Europe has not yet taken this step, but China and India have already taken action.
In the past few days, there have been new moves in Europe against China, such as the forced takeover by the Netherlands of the Chinese-owned enterprise Zhou Tai-Tech in Hoon's Anse Semiconductor, and the EU also plans to implement "forced technology transfer" measures on Chinese enterprises that invest in Europe.In addition, on the same day that Trump announced sanctions on Russia, the EU approved the 19th round of sanctions on Russia, mainly targeting Russia's energy trade, the sanctions list also includes four Chinese enterprises.
It can be seen that in order to hold on to Trump, Europe has used all means, and is still increasing the number. So are the United States and Europe really going to form a group to deal with Russia this time? Don't jump to conclusions yet. There are doubts about whether Europe can do what it says, and whether Trump is making a false shot. At present, the United States has not announced the effective date of sanctions. Maybe Trump will change again in a few days and there will be another Budapest summit. Don't forget he's Trump. So let's keep paying attention.
references
Joint statement released in less than 24 hours, Russia bombed Kiev again, Putin jerked all of Europe
https://mil.sohu.com/a/947131496_122543339
CCTV Network. Russian missile strikes Kiev at night, Ukraine strikes large-scale Russian chemical plants
https://military.cnr.cn/gj/20251022/t20251022_527404232.shtml
Observer.com. Xue Kaihuan | Zelensky: "I have black information about Biden, how about we meet?"
https://www.guancha.cn/XueKaiHuan/2025_10_22_794140.shtml
Southeast Network. The United States and Europe announce new sanctions against Russia, Putin says it will not have a major impact
https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1846825092477293349&wfr=spider&for=pc