President Joe Biden, 79, and 45-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymer Zelensky have denied the massive loss of territory since Russian invaded Ukraine Feb. 24. Biden and Zelensky pretend that the landscape in Ukraine has not changed, deceiving the Western press into thinking that nothing has changed over the last five months. But a look at any map, especially the ones created by Washington-Based Institute for the Study of War, shows that Zelensky has lost over 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory, including the entire Black Sea coast and all its ports. Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby warned that Russia could annex Ukraine’s sovereign territory, setting up puppet regimes loyal to the Kremlin. Russia’s 72-year-old Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov admitted that new Russian territory goes beyond Donetsk and Luhansk, independent separatist regions in Southeastern Ukraine.
Lavrov admitted that fighting continues but that Russia controls much more than pro-separatist regions of Denetsk and Luhansk, all in the Donbas region. “Now the geography is different,” Lavrov told Russia state news agency RIA Novosti, the state-owned RT television network. “This is far from being only the DPR [Donetsk Peoples Republic] and LPR [Lunansky Peoples Republic],” Lavron said. “It is also the Kherson region, the Zaproorizhzhia region and a number of other territories.” Lavrov creates dissonance for Biden and Zelensky, who’ve been denying since Feb. 24 that Ukraine has lost significant swaths of territory to the Russian Federation. Zelensky keeps talking about how sophisticated long-range rocket systems like HIMARS, has changed the battlefield but there’s no evidence that Ukraine as won back and lost territory, especially along the Black Sea Coast.
Pentagon officials like spokesman John Kiirby doesn’t know how to respond other that saying that the Kremlin looks to annex more Ukrainian territory. Lavrov expressed displeasure with Biden’s move to supply Ukraine long-range missile systems to attack Russian positions. Lavrov said that Zelensky “or who will replace him to have weapons that will pose a direct threat to our territory and the territory of those republics that have declared their independence, those who want their future decide for yourself,” RIA Novosti reported. Kirby said he’s concerned about the possibility that Putin will annex more Ukrainian territory, something one step beyond just holding seized territory. Asnnexation involves setting up a temporary government, a sign that the territory won’t return to Kiev anytime soon. Biden and Zelensky have boasted how they pushed back the Russian army from seizing Kiev.
Krby, a Pentagon and National Security Council spokesman, said Russia is “laying out the groundwork to annex Ukrainian territory that it controls, in direct violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty.” As long as Zelensky continues to fight, Russia will seize more Ukrainian territory, adding to their formidable acquisition of Ukrainian land. “We’re seeing ample evidence in the intelligence and in the public domain that Russian intend to try to annex additional Ukrainian territory,” Kirby told a White House Press briefing. Kirby sees what happendin the Donbass as similar to what happened in 2014 in Crimea, where Putin annexed the peninsula for the Kremlin. Kirby’s admission about annexation runs counter to the White House and Kiev narrative that the war has gone well for Ukraine. Losing over 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory and losing the entire Black Sea coast shows massive losses.
Lavrov brought up the inconvenient truth that the Ukraine War has gone badly for the U.S. and Kiev. Once Biden declared March 26 in Warsaw, Poland that Putin could no longer stay in power, the Kremlin took the war more seriously. Anytime a U.S. president says he’s trying to topple another sovereign government, the public remarks must be taken seriously. Biden tried to walk the gaffe back but it was too late, especially after 69-year-old Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said April 26 the aim of the U.S. war in Ukraine was to degrade the Russian military to the point it could no longer wage war. If that’s not a declaration of war on the Kremlin, then what is? Austin confirmed that Biden’s gaffe was to be taken seriously about getting rid of Putin. No one at the Kremlin thinks the war is between the Russia and Ukraine. Kremlin officials see a U.S. proxy war against the Russian Federation.
Kirby says Russia is “beginning to roll out a version what you could call an “annexation playbook,” admitting that Ukraine has lost so much territory to the Russian Federation they may never get it back. “The Russian government is reviewing detailed plans to purportedly annex a number of regions in Ukraine, including Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and all of Donetsk and Luhansky,” Kirby said, admitting that Zelensky has lost so much sovereign territory to Russia they may never get it back. Zelensky and Biden have lied to the public since Feb. 24 about what’s really happened on the battlefield, including losing over 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory extending along the entire Black Sea coast and all its ports. Whatever puppet governments Russia sets up, it all means beyond any doubt that Ukraine has lost the war in Donbas but, more importantly, all over Ukraine.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
