Ukraine’s renewed Kursk push flops as talk of negotiation swirls

A so-called Ramstein format meeting – that’s an informal name of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, comprised of Kyiv and allies – will take place in Germany on January 9th. The meeting format addresses Ukraine’s defense needs. Ukrainian President Zelensky will attend and the US side will be headed by outgoing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

In two weeks Donald Trump will be the US president. It isn’t clear if the meeting is designed to undermine Trump and his administration, but it’s a good bet that Austin and Zelensky hope to put in place decisions that will be hard for Trump to reverse.

This is not surprising as the outgoing Biden administration is running a sabotage operation across the board, trying to hobble Trump before he gets into the White House. Thus the administration has dumped new billions into Ukraine, both funding for weapons and cash for the government, and it is likely even more risky decisions may emerge from the meeting.

There are no reports that any representatives of the Trump camp were invited to audit the Ramstein meeting, and it is unlikely they would want to attend.

Zelensky has been getting ready for Ramstein by throwing his reserve into Kursk in an effort to hold onto the territory Ukraine grabbed starting last year on August 4th. The most recent attacks launched by Ukraine failed, although the Russians say they are expecting at least one more big effort ahead of the Ramstein meeting.

According to the Russians, between January 5th and 6th, the Ukrainians tried 10 separate counterattacks and suffered heavy losses. The Russians report that around 480 Ukrainian soldiers were killed or wounded in Kursk. No numbers have been released on Russian losses. Meanwhile reports from the field suggest the