Washington Post: Slow counteroffensive darkens mood in Ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine — This nation is worn out.
For nearly 18 months, Ukraine has stood against its Russian invaders — rallying support for its troops by embracing last year’s battlefield victories in the Kyiv, Kharkiv and Kherson regions.
Those wins carried beleaguered Ukrainians through a winter of airstrikes on civilian infrastructure and a brutal and symbolic battle for Bakhmut, the eastern city that fell to the Russians in May.
Throughout, Ukrainian officials and their western partners hyped up a coming counteroffensive — one that, buoyed by a flood of new weapons and training, they hoped would turn the tide of the war.
But two months after Ukraine went on the attack, with little visible progress on the front and a relentless, bloody summer across the country, the narrative of unity and endless perseverance has begun to fray.
The number of dead — untold thousands — increases daily. Millions are displaced and see no chance of returning home. In every corner of the country, civilians are exhausted from a spate of recent Russian attacks — including strikes on a historic cathedral in Odessa, a residential building in Kryvyi Rih and a blood transfusion center in the Kharkiv region.
This week, two Russian missiles hit a single block in the eastern town of Pokrovsk — where an evacuation train regularly picks up people fleeing front-line areas nearby — killing civilians and emergency workers who rushed there to save them. Ukrainians, much in need of good news, are simply not getting any.
Read more ....
Update: Ukrainians Begin To Despair As Bloody Counteroffensive Yields Small Gains (Kyle Anzalone, Libertarian Institute)
WNU Editor: Last Christmas I mentioned to my family members and friends in Ukraine that my analysis of the conflict told me the war was going to go into 2024 and Kyiv will capitulate to Moscow's demands.
Everyone disagreed with me. They were all horrified with the though that the war would not end in 2023, and not on Ukraine's terms.
In the past week I have changed my prediction of the war ending to 2025 and beyond, and on even harsher Moscow terms. No one is disagreeing with me.
A good portion of the people that I know in Ukraine are now looking for a way to get out, and the rest are asking for my help to continue delivering money and goods to them so that they can weather the war for the next three to four years.
Everyone also knows someone who has been killed or crippled in this conflict. The casualty numbers are mind numbing, and those who have been reported missing even more shocking. In my own case I know of two who have been killed, one has been missing since April, and three wounded.
I have also noticed that no one I know in Ukraine is believing what their media is saying about the war, nor what their leaders and officials are announcing.
The mood is definitely darkening.
On a personal note. My mood is also darkening. The Ukraine that I know will never be the same when this war is over.
13 comments:
Sashko, 12, heard the words every Ukrainian dreads – 'you will go to filtration', a pathway to deportation, imprisonment or even DEATH: The heartrending story of one of the 19,000 victims of Putin's Child Snatchers
Of course it is darkening.
Russia kidnapped 19,000 children.
WNU is to blame. he supports Russia with his propaganda.
Psychotic comment above mine. Guy wants Russian children to stay in a hellhole and be human shields for his drugged up conscript army. Fuck him and everything he supports. May those kids finally have a normal summer for the first time in 8 years.
WNU:
I am sorry about what is happening with your people…. I don’t have a dog in this fight I just want this young man to stop killing each other is very sad .
From all reports this was going on for a while , but, of course no one was listening.
This is why I reported that information is coming out that many in Ukraine hate zelinski. He is being blamed now for all the death and hardship without any victory or economic gain. The assassination attempts, may not be all Russian
evidence. and Russians adore putin
Mr. Nobody is a known Russian troll.
Until the Second Battle of El Alamein (23 October – 11 November 1942) the British citizenry had death and hardship without any victory or economic gain.
So should they have given up?
Mr. Nobody, the Russian Troll, would try to convince you to give up. I hope Mr. Nobody chooses a nice wood rasp for a significant other.
You're comparing far off losses consisting largely of colonial forces in WW2 to losses 200 miles away consisting of their own sons and fathers conscripted by Galicians who are more foreign to them than the Russians are.
Easy for you to say keep bleeding for us with cheeto dust on your fingertips.
The west can continue with its material and intelligence support in pursuit of its current black hole proxy position in Ukraine, but the supply of Ukrainian soldiers will likely get to the point of being insufficient and ineffectual for even a basic defensive strategy with even the best conventional western weapons and intel by 2025-2027. I dont think the impactful presence foreign legion or contractors arrangement would be in the cards here against a country like Russia. Either the push to get the US and NATO involved recoups and manages Ukraines position at high risk of a full fledged kinetic conflict between Russia and the West (this US administration is currently stupid enough to play the game for almost no net benefit and at incredibly high risk), or the Ukraine govt (whoever would be in charge by this time) would need to renege and come to the table and give most if not everything up. Another Iron curtain likely to come; either in this bout or the next. Russia puts a high strategic importance on its soviet era satellite states as a buffer, and the western encroachment in this arena has long been an well understood red line for Russia and the US. We have the luxury of fundamentally dealing with the same adversary between Russia and the previous soviet union, and everyone knows how to calculate and ratio tit for tats when dicking around with each other... and the red lines are/were explicit on both sides and largely have been for decades. China is an entirely different civilization who plays a totally different game, and thus a dangerous one in this same soon to come context as well. The West is short sighted and impatient, fickle and prone to emotional, easily manipulated public sway on what should be a coherent, functional and relatively consistent policy. A philosophically and logically consistent military and foreign policy from administration to administration is an nightmare in the current scheme of things. 2nd and 3rd world adversaries like Russia and China play the long game better than we do and they could end up winning because of this. The US is not an ancient civilization, but it could have been centuries from now. I like to hope otherwise though, and still stand behind the US. We got work to do here at home first, before some shit in Ukraine. A Taiwan scenario is quite a bit different though.
1:55
Your logic is deeply flawed. The comparison of El Alamein is vastly different and buy that time, the US had entered the war and the tide had started to turn.
To compare that to the current Ukrainian, Russian war is nuts.
The losses and economic and social deviation to the Ukraine is incomprehensible.
And never have I suggested they give up. They can fight as long as they wish and good luck to them.
But to think that people , being what they are are not going to blame someone for thier loss is unreasonable.
To say that Zelinski and his government's actions and leadership have not been steller, is a great understatement.
So the blame they receive is warranted.
If you do not like that, 1:55, well too bad
And I am a known Russian troll along with the other 300 people you call trolls in your esteemed opinion. Which is nonsense.
I report what is fact and let the chips fall where they may.
The the analogy was good. Britain went over 2 years without battlefield success. Yet the persevered.
Britain went over a year in Ww2 without the US as an ally. They could have been effectively blockaded. If not for lend lease, there might have been famine in Britain.
Churchill was so popular that he lost the election in July 1945, while still at war.
that's all well and good... but back to the main point. zelinski and his merry band of cut throats are screwing this up and it really does not look good for the Ukrainians right now.
deny it all you want. the magical "game changing" equipment and training did one thing for sure. It helped kill more Ukrainians .
Because once they got that stuff, Nato told them they were now superstars.......... they got super alright,.... Super hammered on a god forsaken defensive line in the middle of hells fire no where.
That's what happens when you believe arrogant idiots. You think it is going to be a cake walk like 73 easting and instead you get the Kasserine pass.
The real problem is ...all those guys in the MILGRP who helped plan this and advised this....nothing will happen to them. They will all probably be promoted . Just like Afghanistan.
The truth is only the president is a theater actor, country in corruption, without resources and unemployment, we still have everything similar to Russia, mainly the ethnicity of the population is of Russian origin, it becomes crazy to hate a country that is by your side and was your brother in the past, history seems like Abel and Cain, like North and South Korea...
1:29
You are correct. Things were not that Bad up to 2014. But what happened then?
A certain country dumped abut 5 billion dollars. (and that does not count NGO money) into the Ukraine before 2014. They slowly corrupted the elites and population with lying bullshit. they also conspired and successfully overture the government.
Then they funded a anti russian culture campaign to stir up even more hate in the country.
It all goes down hill from there. They split the country in two. And a civil war broke out. At the same time, they provoked thier much larger nieghbor. To the point the neighbor had enough, got to the point that said , I am going to punch this SOB and decided it was time to fight
It did not have to happen
What happened is the school yard bully told his minion to go pick a fight. the minion did exactly that, The minion is now getting his butt kicked.
Post a Comment