As 44-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky celebrates Russian forces leaving the Kharkiv region in Northeastern Ukraine, 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin prepares the Kherson port region in the South to vote on independence from Kiev. Zelensky said his counteroffensive would extend to recapture the Kherson port city at the earliest possible time. But instead of any more progress by Kiev’s forces in the Kherson region, the Kremlin prepares independence votes for Kherson and several other separatist regions. Zelensky and his puppet master 79-year-old President Joe Biden, rejects any attempt by Putin to seize more sovereign Ukrainian territory. If you listened to the Western press last week, Zelensky said he was ready to seize back control of the Black Sea coast and all its ports lost to the Kremlin but its not factual, Kherson seeks an independence vote.
Kherson’s Russian appointed administrator Vladimir Saldo said he hoped Kherson would become “a part of Russia, a fully fledged subject of united territory,” raising questions about Zelensky’s counteroffensive. When Russia troops were ordered the leave the Kharkiv region to re-deploy in Donbas and Southern Ukraine, Zelensky told the Western press Kiev had a great victory. All the talk from the Western press was about the imminent collapses of the Russian military. But when it comes to Kherson and other port cities in the Black Sea coast, Russia seems firmly in control of the territory. U.S., U.K. and EU officials said after Russia’s Kharkiv withdrawal that Putin had failed in Ukraine, saying that the Kremlin called for his resignation. Press reports said that Putin was in trouble militarily and politically, then finding the press report came from a dubious source in Latvia.
Saldo hopes to hold the independence vote Sept. 23-27, letting local residents vote on severing ties to Kiev. Zelensky rejects any effort on the part of Russian separatists in Ukraine to join the Russian Federation. But the vote establishes that separatist living in Russian occupied territories want no part of the Kiev government. Putin’s rationale for the Feb. 24 invasion involved liberating the peoples’ republics of Donetsk and Luhansk from Kiev rule. Russian-backed officials in Donetsk and Luhansk also say they will hold independence votes. Salado said Kherson joining Russia would “secure the region” and be a “triumph of historic justice,” infuriating Zelensky. Zelensky once said the mighty Ukrainian army holed up in the Azovstal Steel Works were like Spartans in 380 B.C. fighting the mighty Persian Army. Zlensky never admitted his troops surrendered May 17 to Russian forces.
When it comes to prosecuting the Ukraine War, the U.S., U.K., EU and Kiev only report on victories, never on losses. When Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of State Gen. Mark Miley said last week that Putin had failed in Ukraine, there’s no accounting by the press for Russian gains in the last seven months. Russia controls Ukraine’s entire Black Sea coast and all its ports. How does Miley go public saying Putin has lost the Ukraine war? Under Zelensky’s leadership, Kiev lost 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory, even with the advanced weapons supplied by the U.S. and NATO. Yet Zelensky speaks nightly to the Ukrainian people on video that he’s making one victory after another over the “occupiers.” Zelensky won’t level with the U.S., U.K. or EU that that he’s lost 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory. He promises with enough cash-and-arms to get it back one day.
Holding separatist votes in Russian-controlled territories isn’t recognized as a legal way to annex sovereign territory. Kiev has a solid legal basis for demanding back its territory. But what it doesn’t have in the military might to get its territory back anytime soon. Biden told Scott Pelley on CBS “60 Minutes” that he would commit troops to defends Taiwan from China. How does Zelensky feel that Biden won’t commit U.S. or NATO troops to defend Ukraine? Today’s headline has Russian forces firing a missile dangerously close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plan. Putin warned Kiev in Samakand, Uzbekistan at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization last week that he could ratchet up destruction of Ukraine’s infrastructure. Hitting close to Zaporixhzhia nuclear power plant shows that he means business. Zelensky wants the U.S. and NATO to intervene in the warn.
Russia’s Duma, parliament, fully supports independence votes in Ukraine territory currently occupied by Russian forces. “Today, we need to support the republics with which we have signed mutual assistance agreements,” Russia state Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said. Putin’s promise to the peoples republics of Donetsk and Luhank prompted the Feb. 24 invasion, after discussions on security failed with Biden over months. Voting in Kherson infuriates Zelensky because he lost the territory early in the war ands shows no immediate signs of getting it back. Saldo request for independence of Donetsk and Luhansk mirrored remarks of former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev who encouraged independence votes in Russian occupied territories. Unless Zelensky can mobilize his counteroffensive to Kherson soon, the region could vote soon for independence from Kiev.
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.
