Kiev’s Commander in Chief General Zaluzhny Admits Ukraine Has Lost
by Karsten Riise, Global Research [7-3-2023 published].
Ukraine’s general Zaluzhny admits that Ukraine’s “counteroffensive” essentially is over – even before it really got started.
Zaluzhny admits that Ukraine has got no chances now, and Zaluzhny knows that NATO can never supply Ukraine with whatever it is that Zaluzhny says Ukraine needs.
What Zaluzhny in reality is saying is that Ukraine has lost.
It’s that simple.
“Without being fully supplied, these plans are not feasible at all,” he added. “But they are being carried out. Yes, maybe not as fast as the participants in the show, the observers, would like, but that is their problem.”
“we didn’t get Leopards to ride in parades or have politicians or celebrities take pictures with them. They came here for the war. And a Leopard on the battlefield is not a Leopard but a target.”
But Zaluzhny also pointed to NATO forces’ own doctrine — which parallels Russia’s, he said — that calls for air superiority before launching ground-based deep-reaching operations.
READ MORE: Apocalypse Now for Ukraine
“And Ukraine, moving to offensive operations, should follow which doctrine?” Zaluzhny said. “NATO’s? The Russian Federation’s? Or is that none of your business? ‘You have your own doctrine. You have tanks, you have some cannons, you have some [fighting vehicles]. You can do it.’ What is that?”
Russia’s more modern fleet of Su-35s have a far superior radar and missile range, Ukraine’s older jets cannot compete. Troops on the ground are easily targeted as a result. It’s like we’d go on the offensive with bows and arrows now, and everyone would say, ‘Are you crazy?’
Prigozhin’s Wagner forces had already exited the front line, after claiming the eastern city of Bakhmut a month ago, Zaluzhny said, so there was no noticeable change on the battlefield as the rebellion took place. “We didn’t feel that their defense got weaker somewhere or anything,” he said.
“I have a lot of fears, and Wagner is among them‚” Zaluzhny said. “And they’re not the only ones. If we start talking about it now, my head will spin. … “
And Zaluzhny doesn’t even mention the fact, that Ukraine has run out of manpower fit for war. Ukraine’s remaining capable fighters are being lost at staggering rates of over 500 dead per day – plus wounded. Ukraine can never replace these losses in capable manpower – for two reasons. First, the amount of training and experience cannot be replaced. Three months of basic training doesn’t make a capable fighter – or an NCO or officer. Especially not in the age of technically advanced combined arms warfare, where adequate education can take a year or two. Ukraine just hasn’t got that time. But next, Ukraine simply doesn’t have enough able-bodied men left to draft. Recently, Ukraine is starting a last desperate “total mobilization” in cities like Kiev, Lviv, Ivano Frankivsk and elsewhere. Scraping together the last poor males from the elderly homes and the kindergartens. It’s like Hitler’s last “Volkssturm” in the closing days of WW II.
NATO knows this but presses Ukraine to go on killing countless thousands of its own men in hopes of gaining at least a little ground, before trying to talk for ceasefire. The US just sent a signal to Russia via the Washington Post.
The signal is that the US has recognized that Ukraine’s “counteroffensive” has failed – Ukraine will never retake Crimea or Donbas – and that the US now aims for marginal gains before a negotiated settlement with Russia. The US wants a pause to rearm Ukraine and start the war again in 2-3 years. That is a losing game for the West too. Ukraine is getting nowhere anywhere and Russia has completely got the upper hand both short-term and longer-term. Why should Russia compromise with a NATO which wants to destroy Russia and which has doubled-crossed Russia before, incl. at the Minsk II “agreement”.
Russia will retake the initiative and destroy what is left of Ukraine as it has been known for a few decades since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This is the Russian intention as communicated through key top-level Russians like Medvedev and Patrushev.
Karsten Riise is a Master of Science (Econ) from Copenhagen Business School and has a university degree in Spanish Culture and Languages from Copenhagen University. He is the former Senior Vice President Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image: Zaluzhnyi with Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi (left) during the Battle of Kyiv, March 2022 (Licensed under CC BY 4.0)