This new article from TIME about Zelensky’s struggle to maintain Western support and about Ukraine’s eroding military capacity is one of the most damning, depressing things I’ve read about the war for some time.
https://time.com/6329188/ukraine-volodymyr-zelensky-interview/
Some key points: Zelensky’s own aides say he’s “deluded” about the prospects for victory. His confidence “verges on messianic.” The public is still with him, but perhaps (this is my observation) that’s partly because he’s failed to prepare them for more realistic outcomes.
Meanwhile, some front-line commanders have started refusing direct presidential orders to advance — partly due to equipment shortages (ie, “the West is to blame”), but a personnel shortage has become even more dire. The average Ukrainian soldier is now 43 years old. Good Lord.
Corruption in the govt & military cripples the war effort and scares off Western aid (or gives allies an excuse to disengage, according to an increasingly resentful Zelensky). With these stakes, corruption isn’t declining at all. “People are stealing like there’s no tomorrow.”
To cap it all off, Israel’s invasion of Gaza only diverts Western attention further. The whole story paints a very, very grim picture of Ukraine’s prospects.
I find the ideas that it's pushing kinda weird – "one issue has remained taboo: the possibility of negotiating a peace deal with the Russians". Author seems eager to implicitly suggest "temporary truce" as a viable option without noting that you can't negotiate with a country's leadership that seeks the destruction of your livelihood, peace, existence. Ideas about negotiations etc favour the Kremlin. This article doesn't acknowledge that.
@aliide The war will end with a settlement of some kind. Given the military situation, what Shuster describes seems only logical. Ze’s own aides are apparently talking about it behind his back.
@kevinrothrock @aliide The article is not "pushing" any ideas, as far as I can see. It looks very much like an honest description of what is going on behind the scenes. Of course, the people interviewed can be pushing their own agendas, but that is always to be expected.
@kallekn @kevinrothrock it just seems odd to me to seem vaguely critical of the reluctance to reach a "settlement" without immediately acknowledging the torture, rape, and mass murder that civilians have suffered. it's too soon to forget that.
@kevinrothrock @kallekn the framing here – not immediately mentioning the scale of Ukrainian suffering but rather presenting this as stubbornness. We're moving more towards framing Ukraine as a geopolitical conflict instead of underscoring the heinous massacre that was Bucha (to mention only one)
@aliide
Geopolitics has always been central to western interest in the war, you can ask the people of Myanmar or Tigray how well they have been served by their suffering being the only cause for western interest.
@kevinrothrock @kallekn
