US Creating New Strategy For Ukraine That Deemphasises Retaking Territories

Click to see the full-size image

Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher

US media reported that Washington is creating a new strategy for Ukraine that will deemphasise retaking territory it lost to Russian forces, a silent acknowledgment that the Ukrainian military does not have the capabilities to launch attacks, let alone reach Crimea, as Kiev regime figures boasted before the failure of last year’s counteroffensive. At the same time, Berlin is also realising that Ukraine cannot win the war.

The Biden administration’s new strategy in 2024 will “de-emphasise” the recapture of “lost territories” and will instead focus on supporting the Kiev regime to survive amid Russia’s special military operation, The Washington Post reported, citing anonymous sources.

The sources claimed that the Biden administration is “still smarting” from Kiev’s failed counteroffensive and is “putting together the new strategy,” which includes helping Ukraine strengthen its military and economy in the face of the state’s financing impasse in the US Congress.

“Still smarting from last year’s failed counteroffensive in Ukraine, the Biden administration is putting together a new strategy that will de-emphasise winning back territory and focus instead on helping Ukraine fend off new Russian advances while moving toward a long-term goal of strengthening its fighting force and economy,” the newspaper wrote.

According to the Washington Post, “the emerging plan is a sharp change from last year, when the US and allied militaries rushed training and sophisticated equipment to Kiev in hopes that it could quickly push back Russian forces.”

“It’s pretty clear that it will be difficult for them to try to mount the same kind of major push on all fronts that they tried to do last year,” a senior administration official told the newspaper, adding that “The idea now is to position Ukraine to hold its position on the battlefield for now,” and “put them on a different trajectory to be much stronger by the end of 2024 … and get them on a more sustainable path.”

It is noteworthy that in early January, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Russia would achieve the objectives of the special military operation, adding that in 2023, the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ losses exceeded 215,000 personnel and 28,000 pieces of weaponry. This catastrophic number demonstrates how Zelensky is throwing Ukrainians into the Russian meatgrinder with little regard.

Shoigu’s announcement comes as Ukrainian politicians are asking Zelensky to reveal the number of soldiers killed. According to the leader of the Ukrainian Servant of the People party, Davyd Arakhamia, Zelensky must reassure the public with data, but the Ukrainian Armed Forces argue that publishing this would help Russia.

“When you go out and ask people about the losses, I’ve never heard of less than 100,000,” Arakhamia said during a panel discussion. “[But] our losses are much smaller.”

He said he had suggested that the Ukrainian president declassify the number to reassure the public, but the latter had not yet decided.

“The disclosure of Ukraine’s real losses in the war will show that they are not as great as they themselves imagine,” Arakhamia predicted, who is either in denial about the true number or is peddling misinformation.

Rather, it is more telling that the Ukrainian military claim that revealing the true number of fatalities in the conflict would allow Russia to “draw many conclusions from this data and use this information for analysis and planning,” meaning it would reveal the catastrophic losses.

Although the Washington Post reveals that the US, as the largest donor and most important ally of Ukraine, silently acknowledges that lost territories cannot be captured from Russia, the Kiev regime remains insistent on continuing the futile war effort. Alarmingly for Kiev, Berlin, the most important European ally, is arriving at the same conclusion as their American counterparts.

The leftist German party Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht, led by Sahra Wagenknecht, asked Olaf Scholz’s government to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine because it considered that this strategy does not benefit any party, not even Zelensky’s own troops, and to restore relations with Moscow.

“We are delivering weapons to Ukraine for a victory that, unfortunately, even the Ukrainian generals no longer believe in. This war must be put to an end, and very quickly, through negotiations,” the politician said during her party’s first congress in Berlin.

Although Wagenknecht’s party is only a few weeks old, she is one of Germany’s most recognised and popular politicians, and her voice holds weight. Given the fact that the right-wing AfD share Wagenknecht’s opinion and is now Germany’s most popular party, pressure is mounting against Scholz’s reckless policies towards Ukraine and Russia, especially since, as she highlighted, not even the Ukrainian military leaders believe in victory anymore.

Although there are strong opposition voices to end support for Ukraine in the US and Germany, the leaders of both countries want the war to continue, but with a begrudging acknowledgement that territory cannot be recaptured. Rather, they hope they can support Ukraine enough to create a stalemate situation, but this scenario is unlikely, especially once Russia launches its offensive.

MORE ON THE TOPIC:

• Ukraine’s Arms Barons: Who Is Behind Ongoing Weapons Trafficking In Ukraine?
• Faced With Looming Defeat In Ukraine, NATO Wants WW3 To Prevent It
• Washington Creates Colonial Administration In Kiev, Blackmailing Zelensky