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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
Retired German general Roland Kather, on the TV channel Die Welt, called for examining possible scenarios for exiting the Ukrainian conflict. On the same day as Kather’s comments, retired colonel and former Swiss intelligence officer Jacques Baud said that US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin could not define what would be considered a victory in Ukraine.
“Ukraine is gradually running out of blood. It does not have enough personnel to create an appropriate reserve,” Kather noted, adding that Ukrainian soldiers are “tired, weak,” and their morale has fallen.
The presenter asked Kather if it is necessary to start “at least thinking” now about what the exit scenarios for this “war of attrition” might be.
“For months, we can say, since the beginning of this terrible war of attrition, I have always advocated that behind the scenes – at least not publicly, not in the media – think about, as you said, what exit scenarios are possible,” said the general.
However, Kather acknowledged that this would be “very difficult” if one side or the other saw military opportunities for progress.
It is recalled that in an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that negotiations with Ukraine in 2022 were almost completed. However, after the withdrawal of Russian troops from Kiev, the Ukrainian side “threw away” all agreements, and later, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky legislatively banned any negotiations with Russia.
Kather’s comments come as Baud said in an interview with the YouTube channel Dialogue Works that US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has failed to define what victory over Russia in Ukraine means to him.
During the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin was asked to determine what would be considered a victory in Ukraine, and he was unable to answer the question, the expert noted.
Baud stressed that if the West does not know why it is fighting in Eastern Europe, it will not be able to conduct combat operations and prevail. According to him, without a strategy, tactics are just noise before defeat. The former military officer said this is exactly what we are witnessing in Ukraine with the North American and Ukrainian approaches.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on May 13 that Moscow is ready if the West wants to resolve the Ukrainian crisis on the battlefield. Russia’s top diplomat also highlighted that the conference on Ukraine in Switzerland, scheduled for mid-June and to which Russia was not invited, is only for drawing up an ultimatum for Moscow.
Although Switzerland has not invited Russia to the conference, China, Brazil, and other major Global South countries have been pushing to involve Moscow in the process. Russia said it is not against peace negotiations, but even if invited, it would not participate because it does not consider Switzerland a neutral actor since the country joined US-led sanctions against Moscow, discrediting its role as a mediator to the conflict.
Effectively, Switzerland’s neutrality is a sham, and the peace conference will achieve nothing in ending the war since Russia was obviously not invited despite being in control of the situation on the ground and continuing to liberate territory. Therefore, while Switzerland and the West will pretend to work for peace in Ukraine and give self-adulation, Ukraine will continue “running out of blood,” as Kather highlighted.
Last month, former Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu revealed that Ukraine had suffered half a million personnel losses since Moscow launched its special military operation in February 2022. 215,000 Ukrainian soldiers were lost in 2023 alone. This is a calamitous loss of life or permanent injury for survivors.
Despite self-adulation and promises of never-ending support for Ukraine, the US and Europe will not be able to continue providing endless cash flow to Ukraine since they are already struggling with economic crises, growing unemployment, and multiple social issues. This reality once again raises questions about the purpose of the Swiss peace conference since Russia is not participating.
Yet, with the Ukrainian military “running out of blood,” President Volodymyr Zelensky is refusing to accept reality. Instead, according to The Guardian, the Kiev regime believes they can win the war. The British newspaper said, “Nonetheless, it is true that the prospect of some decisive breakthrough routing Russian troops from Ukrainian soil looks more remote than ever.” Essentially, the longer Zelensky and the West allow the war to go on, the culling of young Ukrainians will continue at a catastrophic rate.
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bleeding to death is what biden,macron,scholz,sunak,erdogan and zelenski/entire nato wants.so let the beat goes on and on.
swiss army??? 😂 what a joke. they could not beat a gang of refuges. should have kept his stupid mouth shut. opened the mouth and he comes out as a complete clueless idiot.
nato fighting to the last drop of ukrainian blood. fine fellows, those nato-ites.
asteptam sa crape treptat, si claunul o data cu ea!
“russia said it is not against peace negotiations, but even if invited, it would not participate because it does not consider switzerland a neutral actor”
the swiss never were “neutral actors”. to sf readers that need some encouragement, feel free to wake up anytime now, study real history…
the swiss were very efficient nazi war booty money launderers. they’re now the premier ukraine money launderers. no tickee, no washee.
stinking ukrainians deserve to all die like flies while russians live like gods!!! it is wonderful news when so many millions of ukrainians die for nato, and russians can fuck all the ukrainian women!!!
that’s a bit crude but everything’s fair in love and war i guess.
shouldn’t the west be sending them tourniquets instead of touring guitar pickers?
ukraine is willing to pay any price to defend its land and usa will always support its ally…heheheh
the ukrainians are bailing out of that flaming shitbox like the proverbial rats leaving the sinking ship. i live 8000km from lwow and yet i encounter many military-age ukrainian men every time i go shopping. if the us was supporting the ukrainians, they wouldn’t be losing ground and getting killed at the rate they are. i suppose that is kind of funny in a morbid way, laughing boy.
that’s reassuring but unfortunately, it’s we in the west that will end up paying the ‘ultimate price’ for that mental patient you call ukraine. if you think we’re crazy enough to go down that route for you before throwing our own bums out and changing course, then think again.
the only ally the united states has in the entire world is israel. everyone else is merely a vassal and the majority hates this fascist dictatorship that forces it’s views onto the rest of the world.
nato knows what they want. they just can’t say it without losing all public support. destroy the russian fleet in the black sea, cripple russia’s economy. create justifications for appointing more generals. and of course keep inflating weapons spending.
nothing that would justify sending tens of thousands of ukrainian to their certain death.
and so blinken stays vague.
and even more – to separate russia in “50 small cozy switzerland” (wish of navalnyi), rob and incite against china for endless hegemony over the world. megalomaniacs at its best, mad adolf would be proud.
they’ll try to do it now with the central asian republics, probably through bribery as any genuine economic interests the central asian states have are clearly anchored to china and the brics.
what in god’s name does the us or eu have to offer to central asia, other than bribes, threats and color revolutions?
promote of animal nationalism, false feeling of proud, lies about the most ancient history (adam was hohol, or kazah, or kirgiz, or put anybody else) and “safe haven” for stolen money in the west which is not safe at all. while corrupt officials are robbing from the top, brainwashed by soros’ and ned programs low-life radical liberals and nationalists are ruining life from the bottom of social pyramide. that’s how nazism is growing up, and then denazification comes.
there was such public organization in russia, now prohibited – “movement against illegal migration”. seems like the fair goal, but in reality it was another pro-western ngo, but for nationalists, almost nazis by their views, big fans of swastica and swastons, false neo-paganism and another crap in hohol-style. they were allied with liberals. squeezed out from russia, but didn’t stop anti-russian activity. their traces were spotted in coup attempt in kazahstan in the beginning of 2022.
nato (and more specifically, the neocon agenda) has had only one goal for the past two decades, to control crimea and finish turning the black sea into a nato lake. all other so-called goals it has expressed have simply been insincere means to that end. full stop.
arguably accurate in pursuit of putting russia in a strategic cauldron.
so what’s ‘the exiting strategy”? looks like they can’t find any to save their reputation. don’t worry, you don’t have a face to lose it. you can’t hide your face of vampire under mask — bloody fangs are too visible.