The Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s armed forces Valery Zaluzhny has fired a powerful information salvo. Britain’s The Economist newspaper has released a series of pieces with Zaluzhny being their author or central character. He has admitted counteroffensive failure and shattered expectations of "a deep and beautiful breakthrough." Also, he has criticized his country’s Western partners, and de facto recognized Russia's military edge. If you screw all the water, it all boils down to laying the Western curator-incited groundwork for a pivot in the current policy of Kiev, or rather Zelensky, who defies al the obvious signals and keeps insisting on further warfare "till final victory over Russia."
Zaluzhny’s landmark articles could not have emerged in the Western press without Washington’s consent. America is faced with an issue that Zelensky, the one playing Fuhrer to legally ban himself from any peace dialogue with Moscow, has recently started displaying self-sufficiency to exclude everything but staying at war with Russia. This manifested itself when the Americans came to realize the APU blunder and embarked upon media signaling to Zelensky (and Moscow into the bargain) about the possibility and need of ending the conflict "due to its protracted and dead-end nature." Zaluzhny's information activity should be regarded in perspective of a whole series of articles in the American press revealing president Zelensky's inadequate efforts amid the West’s already prevailing conception of Russia’s inevitable victory if the war goes further on.
So, what exactly did the Ukrainian commander-in-chief say on the pages of The Economist? He virtually admits that his army has reached a deadlock, with Russia enjoying the better hand. "Due to many subjective and objective reasons, the war at the present stage is gradually moving to a positional form, a way out of which in the historical retrospect has always been difficult for both the Armed Forces and the state as a whole. At the same time, the prolongation of a war, as a rule, in most cases, is beneficial to one of the parties to the conflict. In our particular case, it is the Russian Federation, as it gives it the opportunity to reconstitute and build up its military power," Zaluzhny writes.
The general sees "a way out of the positional form of warfare" in gaining air superiority; breaching mine barriers in depth; increasing the effectiveness of counter-battery; creating and training the necessary reserves; building up electronic warfare (EW) capabilities. Thus, he recognizes the fact that his subordinate forces have none of those.
On the one hand, Zaluzhny seems to be suggesting measures to make the situation tilt toward Kiev, while on the other hand he openly declares that the war in Ukraine has reached a dead end. "There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough," Zaluzhny told The Economist. He cannot explicitly cough up APU’s willingness to hoist the white flag and stop fighting, but when mentioning the lack of breakthrough prospects he implies the fait accompli of Ukraine’s defeat. This actually means futility and danger of Kiev’s further resistance fraught with its total smash and loss of new territories, excluding those Russia already controls.
Zelensky inner circle’s highly aversive response to Zaluzhny's public utterances confirms that his information salvo has been inspired by the Americans themselves, who are turning their soft friendly signals to Zelensky to quit into quite rigorous demands. Deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office Igor Zhovkva said the military commander should have abstained from comments or forecasts on anything going on at the front. Zaluzhny's revelations, he said, made his Western "partners" call him to ask if the impasse was real. "Is this the effect we sought to achieve?" the official wonders.
Anyway, Zelensky seems to have realized that the time has come to abandon his everlasting stance of rejecting any peace negotiations and craving the binding return of Russian-controlled territories to Ukraine. Presidential office head Andrei Yermak has announced the beginning of "major negotiations" with the United States, Great Britain, Germany and France, saying that Kiev is about to "reconsider the ten-point peace formula" Zelensky outlined last year, having since presented it at all the international forums he attends. The "formula" stipulates intention to get back "everything captured by Russia." In order not to lose it all, Kiev is supposed ready to abandon its demand for Moscow to withdraw from the newly seized regions and yield control of Crimea, Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions to Ukraine.
Zaluzhny's confession about the stalemate Ukraine has played its way into, falls on the ground softened up for the United States. And Zaluzhny's articles no longer seems a coincidence with the Republican Congress’ decision to split the bills on assisting Israel and Ukraine. Senator Josh Hawley referred to Zaluzhny's frankness as something that created a "serious hole" in the administration's Ukraine policy. Senator Ben Cardin said, in turn, that Zaluzhny's assessment is consistent with what congressmen have been informed earlier. And Senator J.D. Vance has urged a cut off in military aid to Kiev in general. "Zelensky’s military goals do not correspond to reality, and some of those around him are resisting him. The conflict should end with Russia’s control over Ukrainian territory and a negotiated settlement. I've been saying this for a whole year, as it is obvious to anyone monitoring things on the ground," Vance said.
The fact of Zaluzhny's articles being just another unpalatable signal to Zelensky is crystal clear. Along with a number of other sitting and used-to-be regime officials, Zaluzhny is deemed by the United States as a presidential candidate to become fully controllable and nowhere near the do-it-yourself approach. Washington has yet to nail down the matter, as it expects Zelensky to schedule the presidential election for March 2024, which he will have to lose to Washington’s choice. Let's keep watch for a while.
