Ukrainian President Voldymer Zelensky, 44, told Russian forces to vacate his country because Ukraine has started its counteroffensive to reclaim lost territory in Kherson and other port cities along the Black Sea coast. Zelensky’s nightly video messages have been saying for months that Ukraine’s army has been beating back the Russian offensive in Donbas and the southern coastal region. Supported by British intelligence [MI6], if Zelensky’s message had been factual, Russia would no longer occupy anywhere in Ukraine, now control some 25% of Ukraine’s territory, including the entire Black Sea coast. Whatever Russian gains over the last six months, no Western intel source, including Kiev, have admitted to massive losses sustained by the Ukrainian army, essentially leaving Kiev landlocked from the Black Sea coast. Zelensky’s nightly messages only talk about Kiev’s military successes.
Playing with U.S.-built HIMARS medium-range missile defense systems, Zelensky thinks he has the firepower to push Russian forces back from Kherson and other Black Sea ports. But the proof of the pudding has been Russia’s ability to hold on to territory it captured from Ukraine over the last six months. Zelensky has been told by Pentagon planners that he needs to make progress reclaiming lost Ukrainian sovereign territory. Zelensky said in last night’s video message that no one would know whether Ukraine was making progress because “it’s war,” and he won’t disclose facts on the ground in war-torn areas, especially those encountering a counteroffensive. Ukrainians only hears the good news coming from Kiev, this time around about prospects of a counteroffensive to retake Kherson, one of the first Black Sea ports to fall during first few months of the war.
Western news services tend to report only positive news about Ukraine’s battlefield success. If you listened to British MI6 intel reports, you’d think that Kiev has recaptured all of the lost Black Sea coast territory. Reports coming from U.S.-based publications are similar, always reporting positive developments for Kiev. How many reports have said the Russian military is collapsing, doesn’t have the resources and personnel to continue the war? According to Kiev, Russian forces have abandoned their posts and are rebelling against the Russian army. Zelensky said in his nightly video “won’t hear specifics from any truly responsible person, because this is war,” not explaining plenty of reports about Ukrainian missile strikes destroying Russia supply depots, making the war impossible for Russian forces. So, Zelensky, said whatever he wants and any given time about the war effort.
Listening to British MI6, you’d think Russian has run out of weapons, saying Russian unit around Kherson “are likely under-manned and are reliant upon fragile supply lines,” claiming Kiev forces have hit a major bridge over the Dnieper River, a link between Russia and Crimea. So, despite admitting that Ukraine makes battlefield successes, Russia still controls Kherson and all other Black Sea ports. Ukraine’s independent military analyst Olen. Zhadanov said the only way to prove Ukraine’s battlefield successes is when they retake currently occupied Russian ports and towns. “The most important thing is Ukrainian artillery’s work on the bridges, which the Russian military can no longer use,” said Zhadanov. Assessing any real progress based on Kiev, British or U.S. intel is impossible, since they give an overly optimistic picture of Ukraine’s military advance.
Zelensky has been under increased pressure to show Kiev’s progress against the Russian occupation. Since the war started Feb. 24, if you listened to Zelensky, the Russian army had been broken by Ukraine’s forces, yet Russia steadily captured Ukrainian ports along the Black Sea coast. So, when it comes to assessing Kiev’s progress, it’s been exactly the opposite of what’s reported by MI6 and CIA sources. Most military experts, including the Washington, D.C-based Institute of the Study of War, run by Gen. Jack Keane, show Russia controlling the entire Black Sea coast and all its ports. President Joe Biden who just gave Kiev another $3 billion in military hardware, said the U.S., under his watch, will continue supplying Kiev with all the cash-and-arms needed to beat back the Russian military. Biden’s plans, so far, have been thwarted, with Russian holding on to key Ukrainian territory.
Whatever the real facts on the ground, independent military analyst Olen Zhadanpov said the only way to know if Zelensky makes progress on the ground is to see Russian controlled cities, towns and ports recaptured by Ukraine’s armed forces. All the war propaganda and intel pushed by Kiev, MI6 and CIA mean nothing if Kiev cannot recapture lost ground. Zelensky can’t keep reporting nightly to the Ukrainian public about how much progress he’s making against the Russian Federation, while losing more sovereign territory by the day. As long as Biden supplies Zelensky unlimited case-and-arms, the war will continue, despite called a stalemate at this point. U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] weapons inspectors plan to spend four days assessing Europe’s largest nuclear plant a Zaporizhzhia where shelling might have damaged the plant. Russia’s Rosatom currently controls the plant, something the IAEA wants to inspect for potential damage.
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.
