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Written by Uriel Araujo, researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts
According to Pulitzer winner journalist Seymour Hersh, General Valery Zaluzhny of Ukraine is directly negotiating a peace deal with Russian general Valery Gerasimov, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky remaining the “wild card”. As I wrote, James Stavridis, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, has recently argued that a “land for peace conclusion to combat” is the best scenario for Ukraine. Yesterday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the West should be prepared to hear “bad news” from its Ukrainian ally – but added that “we have to support Ukraine in both good and bad times.” Meanwhile, the next European round of ammo support for Kyiv (1 million rounds of ammunition) remains stalled. What is going on? Let us consider the following latest developments:
On Friday, Moscow stated its troops were advancing in each and every section of the front in Ukraine. Russia’s Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu said Russians were “effectively and firmly inflicting fire damage on the Ukrainian armed forces, significantly reducing their combat capabilities.” On Wednesday, Moscow took control of Khromovo, a village in the fringe of Bakhmut (Donetsk region), Extra 170,000 soldiers are expected to join the Army after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decree on Friday, which will increase troop numbers by 15 percent.
An Ukrainian soldier quoted by the BBC describes the front-line as “hell”, with lack of supplies and food:
“The entire river crossing is under constant fire. I’ve seen boats with my comrades on board just disappear into the water after being hit, lost forever to the Dnipro river. We must carry everything with us – generators, fuel and food. When you’re setting up a bridgehead you need a lot of everything, but supplies weren’t planned for this area. We thought after we made it there the enemy would flee and then we could calmly transport everything we needed, but it didn’t turn out that way. When we arrived on the [eastern] bank, the enemy were waiting. We paid for a lot of our own kit – buying generators, power banks and warm clothes ourselves.” Significantly, he is quoted as saying: “No-one knows the goals. Many believe that the command simply abandoned us. The guys believe that our presence had more political than military significance.”
Things could get much worse for Ukrainian soldiers, though. European Union (EU) member states are currently divided over the bloc’s common budget. Brussels has requested additional funding for Kyiv (a total of extra €50bn) and member states thus far have failed to reach an agreement, amid calls for an extended approval timeline or even a reduction. Germany and the Netherlands are leading the resistance to the package – which is not surprising, considering the shape of the German economy, with interest rates and contraction. Far from being merely a budget discussion, this is a test for European political will pertaining to funding a prolonged US proxy attrition war at the continent’s door. An unnamed EU senior official is quoted by the Financial Times as saying that reaching any budget agreement now would be “very, very difficult.” In fact, European leaders seem to be more worried about debt interest costs and about increasing their salaries. A senior EU diplomat has said about this: “Frankly, ‘Brussels needs our money to increase Commission salaries in line with inflation’ is not a great domestic political platform for a national leader to take.”
EU officials are certainly not the only ones worried about inflation. With costs of living soaring in post-Nord Stream Europe, and with sanctions against Russia having largely backfired, and Ukraine basically blackmailing Europe (by refusing to renew gas shipments, for instance) it is no wonder the far-right and the so-called “populist” wave is on the rise on the continent.
All of this is of course bad news for Kyiv. On November 10, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Olha Stefanishyna had already told the Financial Times, quite frankly, that “We need money in January to keep running… The timing is pressing, and we really need to have the clarity of what happens from January 1 . . . to lead to a lack of disruption in the financial and macro-financial stability in Ukraine.”
This is part of the general context we are looking at here – a context which also explains why the West is pushing for elections in Ukraine. In the aforementioned Hersh’s piece, an American official quoted as saying: “The two generals may continue to talk and Putin may indeed be interested in a settlement that gives him permanent control of Crimea and the four provinces he has claimed, but Zelensky remains the wild card. The American official said that Zelensky has been told that “this is a military-to-military problem to solve and the talks will go on with or without you.” If necessary. the American official told me, “We can finance his voyage to the Caribbean’.”
According to one of Hersh’s sources, one of the greatest issues currently faced by Zelensky is this: “How do you operate a country with no GNP?” This is not the only problem, though. Even if the West gets rid of “wild card” Zelensky (be it by electoral defeat or coup d’etat), the Ukrainian issue will be far from being”solved”, from anyone’s point of view. As I wrote, the US-led West has funded, supported and white-washed far-right violence and even neo-Nazism in Ukraine for too long. Anyone ruling that country will have to deal with a radicalized and armed ultranationalist faction that won’t accept any compromise for peace. And yet such compromise is the only alternative left.
peace cannot take place without at least 3/4 of ukraine becoming russia
at least odessa and kharkov
no.
russia dont need the western brainwashed nazi and bandera lovers west and north of the dnepr.
this would be always a revolt, insurgent and partisan infected zone, wasting many russian resources, money and troops for occupation, supression and control.
whole donbas, whole southwestcoast with odessa and landlink to transnistria ist enough.
but also with the total destruction of all ukro military infrastructure, factorys and hardware.
“brussels has requested additional funding for kyiv (a total of extra €50bn) and member states thus far have failed to reach an agreement,”
that’s right, leave your own borders and transport corridors unsecured and sacrifice your own people to throw away more billions into the ukronazi vacuum.
noe you see that containing, or at least hindering russia has always been more important to the lapdogs of the us. oh, i mean the eu.
saluzhny is an insect who doesn’t and will never have any power. the structure works as it does in the us, you see the public figures but the decisions and policies are taken sowewhere else.
power struggle? come on…it’s the westeen consortium not a freaking insect
peace is better than war, but only when the just negotiation result comes around like: whole donbas and whole southwest coast including odessa to russia, with landlink transnistria.
if not, the same result will be forced on the battlefield, with again many senseless dead and wounded on both sides.
some years back, the bbc was reporting on these same nazi groups. at the time the bbc showed these groups for what they were, until nato came calling. then these groups became hero’s to the bbc and everyone who works there. it’s funny how these bbc ‘journalists’ and ‘reporters’ can flap in the wind like a nazi flag. they wouldn’t have a backbone if it wasn’t for the bbc post they were strapped to.
president putin should tell nato to pound sand until kiev is taken. too many people of the donbass, ukraine, along with russian soldiers, have lost their lives for there to be any other course of action.
the usa will ditch zelensky in the next rigged election. nato will then prepare a defensive line like russia’s and try to bait russia into a costly offensive .