“Morale among troops is grim, ground down by relentless bombardment, a lack of advanced weapons, and losses on the battlefield,” laments a new piece in tabloid news outlet Politico that tugs on Washington lawmakers’ heartstrings in an attempt to finally dislodge a $60 billion support package from Congress.
Author Jamie Dettmer, a veteran of US state-run propaganda outlet Voice of America, confirms the sour mood within the Ukrainian military as reports suggest the country’s military frontlines may be days away from disintegrating.
“Even as President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine is trying to find a way not to retreat, military officers privately accept that more losses are inevitable this summer,” he writes. “The only question is how bad they will be.”
“The mood in the senior ranks of the military is even darker… Several senior officers talked to POLITICO only on the understanding they would not be named so they could talk freely. They painted a grim forecast of frontlines potentially collapsing this summer when Russia, with greater weight of numbers… launches its expected offensive,” the article read.
Dettmer engages in all the familiar tropes about a purportedly deranged US enemy bent on inflicting death and destruction apparently for his own amusement, the same picture painted of Hussein, Assad, Gaddafi, Maduro, Noriega, and countless others. The journalist composes scarcely a paragraph without a snarling reference to “Putin” as a stand-in for Russia as a whole.
“Vladimir Putin has arguably never been closer to his goal,” he writes. “Putin will claim victory at home, and, emboldened by exposing Western weaknesses, he may reinvigorate his wider imperial ambitions abroad… Putin literally wants to scratch [Ukraine] from the map.”
But the consequential Russian president’s first several years as leader were defined by repeated overtures of friendship and goodwill to the West. Putin continued to engage in good faith even as NATO troops marched closer and closer to Russia’s border, a clear violation of the United States’ previous assurances.
Even as European leaders cynically played for time with their apparent support for the Minsk agreements, Putin took the effort seriously. After war broke out he continued to attempt to negotiate a truce, with at least two efforts foiled by US intervention. When Western officials gloat about the Donbass conflict as a way to effectively wear down Russia, one can only consider their confident boasts for so long without concluding this was the plan all along.
“[Putin] would completely destroy everything. Everything,” the article quotes Zelensky as warning when asked what would happen if the US Congress doesn’t finally pass another aid package.
But Moscow’s efforts in Ukraine have been noted for their restraint. Russia deliberately eschewed US-style “shock and awe” tactics when the special military operation was launched. Within one month the Israeli military had already killed more civilians in Gaza than had fallen in nearly two years of fighting in the Donbass. Yet mainstream media has yet to vilify Western ally Netanyahu in the way it has Russia’s president.