Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky needs to stop lying about his counteroffensive he says will oust Russian forces from Ukraine. Zelensky lied about when the counteroffensive began because he’s scared of losing billions in funding from U.S. taxpayers.. U.S. public opinion has been slow-on-the-uptake realizing the Zelensky’s counteroffensive began months ago but he didn’t want to admit it’s gone nowhere. Whatever weapons Zelensky received from the U.S. and NATO it’s never enough because, in reality, Putin doesn’t have a terminal illness or Alzheimers like Zelensky and his propaganda minister Kyrlyo Budanov says. All the claptrap from the White House, Kiev and U.S. newspapers, Russia knows how to win a war of attrition, something happening in Ukraine. Biden’s strategy of breaking the Russian military is an abysmal failure.
All the Russian hysteria on Capitol Hill has given Biden cover for the worst decision in U.S. history, taking on the Kremilin. If Biden or NATO really thought that 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin were a threat to European democracy, why would the U.S. and NATO refuse to commit troops to Europe? Biden and Zelensky tell the U.S. Congress and EU parliament that the Ukraine War battles Rusia to defend European democracy. Everyone knows that Bankrupt and war-torn Ukraine can’t fight for European democracy, only to reclaim its lost territory. When Zelensky rejected Putin’s offer in March 2022 to settle the conflict, he knew he might lose Ukrainian sovereign territory. After 18-months of fighting, Zelensky has lost about 25% of Ukraine sovereign territory, promising to reclaim the Crimean Peninsula, something taken from Kiev in 2014.
U.S. elected officials, both Democrats and Republicans, must sift through the propaganda and determine whether Zelensky has a coherent plan to oust the Russian Federaiton from Ukraine. After 18 months of war, Zelensky has caused irreparable harm to Ukraine, all because he refused to negotiate in March 2022 with Putin. Putin offered to withdraw his forces if Zelensky recognized independence of Donetsk and Lunhansk and Russian sovereignty over Crimea. Before the Feb. 24 war, Russia occupied Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea. Since taking U.S. and NATO arms, Zelensky has refused to take responsibility for losing Ukraine’s sovereign territory, including the Black Sea coast. “We are getting ready for the counteroffensive so that we can finally end this war,” said a Ukrainian soldier, not knowing whether the counteroffensive would en the war or inflict more damage on Ukraine.
Zelensky refused to say when the counteroffensive would start, admitting only that it started three weeks ago. Most military experts think the counteroffensive started months ago but refused to admit it because there’s been so little progress. Since receiving U.S. M1 tanks, German Leopard tanks and British Challenger 2 tanks, plus U.S. Bradley Personnel Carriers, Ukraine has lost some 20% of its weapons in combat. Reports of Ukraine running out of short and medium range missiles pushed Zelensky to ask Biden for cluster munitions, now that it’s losing more ground on the battlefield. Russian Ka-52 attack helicopters have successfully neutralized at least 20% of Ukraine’s new battlefield weapons, leaving little hope that the current counteroffensive is going to succeed anytime soon. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Miley said the fight was more grinding that expected.
Miley said last year that there’s no military solution to the Ukraine War, yet was silenced by the White House for doubting Ukraine’s progress. “This is a very difficult fight, it is a very violent fight and it will likely take a considerable amount of time and at high cost,” Miley said. Miley doubted Zelensky’s optimistic forecasts that they could beat the Russian army by year’s end. “My view is that defensive warfare has benefited from modern technology like drones, so it’s tough going to take land against eve a semi-motivated enemy, especially without air superiority,” said Ben Friedman of Defense Priorities, a Washington. Zelensky doesn’t know what to do other that ask for F-16 fighter jets, something experts say won’t turn the situation around. Yet if you talk to Zelensky, he wants the press to get off his back, saying the Ukraine war isn’t a Hollywood movie, real people are dying daily.
White House and Kiev officials want the enemy to know that the counteroffensive hasn’t really happened yet because of the lack of progress. ”We knew this would be a tough slog and expected it to take a considerable period of time and not at all like the quick gains Ukraine has last fall in the Kharkiv region,” Zelensky said. Zelensky knows that Russia left the Kharkiv regions because it held no strategic interest to the Russian Federation. Ukraine claimed victory but, in fact, Russia abandoned the mission to take over Kiev or Kharkiv. Without measurable progress with the counteroffensive, Zelensky fears a diminishing interest in supporting the Ukraine War. Zelensky already pushed back victory over Russia from the end of 2023 to July 2024. Where it stands now, both sides look stalemated, a kind of frozen war where neither side wants to incur the losses to claim victory.
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.
