Kim Iversen, an American journalist, in an interview with Scott Ritter wondered why Zelensky suddenly started talking about defeat
Source: v2.news.ru
“It’s so strange to me. All the rhetoric throughout this war has boiled down to the following: “We will not stop until we get back Donbass and Crimea. We will continue the offensive”. Western countries have stated: “We will not stop arming you until we push Russia back. We cannot afford to lose this war.”
So why the sudden change in the narrative? “It just … doesn’t fit in my head,” the journalist wonders, “unless you admit that all this time Zelensky has really just been a puppet of the West, as many of us suspected. That he’s not really acting on his own behalf or in the interests of his country… The fact that he’s changed [rhetoric] so suddenly makes me think that the West itself is changing. The West is telling Zelenski that “it’s over, people are tired, our population doesn’t want to fund it anymore, we’re switching to China… and so you have to end it somehow”. Otherwise it doesn’t make sense to me.”
“It would probably be correct to call it [the interview] ‘all Zelensky’s fears’,” Vasily Stoyakin writes in an article for the online publication Ukraine.ru, “It’s absolutely no coincidence that the interview is accompanied by several photos in which the Ukrainian president does look somewhat frightened.
Zelensky explained why he is fighting a militarily unnecessary battle for Artemivsk. In his opinion, if the city falls, Putin “will sell this victory to the West, to his society, to China, to Iran. (…) If he feels the blood – feels that we are weak – he will press, press, press”.
Scott Ritter believes that Zelensky has completely lost himself in trying to please the West. That is why he made the battle for Bakhmut (Artemivsk) a strategic battle. He did not listen to his military advisers because: “Zelensky is not a general. Zelensky is a salesman.” “Zelensky’s job is to keep the West interested in this war, to keep the West assisting him and not just militarily. The whole Ukrainian economy depends on foreign aid… If the West thinks Ukraine is losing the conflict and Ukraine’s defeat is obvious, if they keep retreating to retreat in exchange for time to keep alive, then the West will say, ‘Why should we keep giving you weapons? If we’re giving you weapons, we want to see results.’ That’s why Zelensky said the result was a victory in Bakhmut. He put everything into it. And if he loses, he will lose face, the West will lose credibility, and he will be forced to actually agree to whatever terms the Russians lay on the table.”
As a former US intelligence officer, Ritter knows that Putin is not bluffing when he says that Russia will achieve all the goals set out in this SWO. “Ram McGovern, … a very good intelligence officer and my mentor … taught me a lot. Among other things, he taught me that in dealing with … Russia you have to listen to what Russian leaders have to say. They are not Western political leaders. They don’t usually lie when they speak in public. They tend to say what they mean and mean what they say.”
Scott argues that the West is wrong to believe that the title “special military operation” is a “false label” to disguise the invasion. He believes that Russia launched the SWO in order to put Ukraine at the negotiating table, by refusing to do so last April, Zelensky signed his sentence in advance, and by making Bakhmut (Artemivsk) the site of the decisive battle – secured his “dismissal from his position”. The pragmatic West only pays lip service to the idea, while in practice it is “only business, nothing personal”.
Meanwhile, daily, sometimes hourly, information is coming in about an impending “grandiose” Ukrainian counterattack. The time frame is predicted to range from “just about now” to “sometime in early summer”. In anticipation of the denouement, everyone’s nerves are on edge. Everybody is predicting, waiting and wondering where this “counteroffensive” is going to start, in one place or in several places at once, who is going to get the “big score” for whom, and whether the world has any chance of avoiding a nuclear war yet.
However, it does not matter how or when this Ukrainian offensive announced by all the “newscasters” will happen. All the goals and objectives set by Russia will be achieved, one way or another.
What is left for us to do? First of all, don’t make a fuss. Rely on the professionals, and most of all on the One who is really in charge of everything and in charge of everything. Remember that: “To everything there is a time, and a time for every thing under heaven : … a time to keep silent, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace” (Bible, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). Waiting.
Maria Ruzanova, Analytical Service of Donbass
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