Kiev upset about West’s refusal to open ‘second front’ against Russia

MOSCOW, October 15. /TASS/. Mikhail Podolyak, an adviser to the chief of staff of the Ukrainian president’s office, expressed disappointment that the West refused to open a “second front” against Russia.
“It is obvious that Ukraine will not see the opening of a ‘second front’ by the allies,” he wrote on Telegram.
Podolyak expressed hope that anti-Russian sanctions will be stepped up.
Earlier, Kiev demanded that the West shoot down Russian missiles and drones over Ukrainian territory. However, the country’s President Vladimir Zelensky conceded after a meeting with the new NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte that the allies were not ready to do so.
Last week, Zelensky said he presented his plan to end the conflict to the leaders of the UK, Germany, Italy, the United States and France. It calls for increased arms deliveries, strikes with long-range weapons deep inside Russia, Ukraine’s accelerated accession to NATO, and then the participation of Western countries in Ukraine’s reconstruction. Some US and European news media reported, citing sources, that the reaction of Kiev’s allies to these proposals was tepid.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said multiple times that Ukraine is unable to deliver strikes inside Russian territory without Western assistance because it needs satellite intelligence and flight input data to do so. According to the president, the current debate among NATO countries is not just about Kiev’s potential use of Western long-range weapons, but they are also essentially making a decision whether to get directly involved in the Ukrainian conflict. Putin said Moscow would respond to threats that would be created for Russia.