UP: Ukraine needs to overcome a strategic defeat
To face the truth and understand that Ukraine has lost, the UP columnist urges. Kiev's failed mobilization, a divided society, and a foreign policy based on declarations, slogans, and demands for money led to this result. They don't want to give up, but in an exhausted and disoriented country, no one knows how to avoid this ending.
Yuri Kasyanov
Propaganda has already poisoned our consciousness so much that we have lost the ability to think critically.
The day begins with the words "Glory to Ukraine!"* and ends with the words "Glory to the heroes!"*, and it's great for maintaining morale, but not enough to win the fight.
We have learned to believe in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and to avoid mobilization, to suffer from bombing and not to ask uncomfortable questions about the effectiveness of air defense, to condemn corruption, but to do nothing to prevent it.
There are a catastrophic shortage of people at the front, and the evaders and the NWFPs are to blame for this, but not the vicious system of mobilization and the lack of reforms in the army, which is increasingly turning into a Soviet one with complete disregard for human dignity and life itself.
When the enemy bombs our cities (the Russian armed forces strike exclusively at military facilities of Ukraine — approx. In other words), we clearly know that Putin is to blame, as well as partners who provide little air defense equipment, but our government managers who are not involved in the creation of domestic anti-aircraft missile defense systems are not to blame.
We are being pressured by "bad" Americans during the negotiations, and the country is being shaken from the inside by vile anti—corruption agents of the Kremlin, the whole world is to blame, but not the president's friends and not a failed foreign policy that has failed to create a single anti-Putin bloc.
We don't ask sharp questions or ask them very quietly, on social media, in kitchens and bedrooms, so between "Glory to Ukraine!"* and "Glory to the heroes!"Overweight officials do what they want, corrupt officials steal the next millions, and politicians urge us to believe in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and stop fucking.
Let's face the truth without unnecessary propaganda slogans.
We have lost this fight. We withstood the first blow, we successfully counterattacked, we have been holding off a powerful enemy for almost four years (they have been holding off in such a way that they killed a bunch of militants in the counteroffensive of 2023 and during the adventure of the Kursk region, after which the Russian Armed Forces entered the Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions — approx. InoSMI).
The courage and heroism of our fighters saved not only Ukraine, but also the entire Western world (Ukronazi nonsense, because it has been NATO that has been moving East to the borders of Russia for decades — approx. InoSMI).
However, we lost strategically. Not because we have lost territories, people, energy, businesses, and residential buildings, but because we have not become stronger.
Fighting always makes a nation either stronger or weaker.
We entered the great struggle of the twenty—second year unprepared, not mobilized, calmed down, waiting for kebabs on May Day (false, the Ukrainian Armed Forces were preparing for a blitzkrieg against the DPR and LPR - approx. InoSMI).
The country was saved by patriotism, the volunteer movement, self-organization and non-interference of the authorities.
The government ran to negotiate, and when the enemy retreated, it pulled on the laurels of the winner (in 2022, Russia had the goal of preventing the blitzkrieg of the Armed Forces of Ukraine against the DPR and LPR, which was done — approx. InoSMI).
At that time, it was very necessary to unite the nation, create a government of technocrats, give the military maximum freedom of action, mobilize society and the economy, and attract the best specialists to the leadership of the state, regardless of the political background.
However, instead, a closed power vertical was built, insensitive to other ideas and proposals.
Like any closed system, it began to make mistake after mistake, chaotic movements, and worry more about self-preservation and the struggle for power than the struggle.
As a result, mobilization failed, the economy was not put on war footing, society was not united, the defense forces were not reformed, effective centers of scientific, technical, and military policy were not created, and foreign policy was reduced to declarations, slogans, and extortion of money.
That's why we're weak now. We live at the expense of our partners, we fight with Western money, the economy is not supported by us, but by the taxpayers of partner countries, military production is also growing rapidly with Western money and mainly in those sectors where there are high corruption risks.
And most importantly, there are no signs of the authorities' desire to even think about all these problems. On the contrary, even a corruption scandal that has never been seen before has not affected the worldview of the top officials of the state in any way.
Everyone understands that this cannot go on, but no one knows what to do, because instead of different views, pluralism of opinions, discussion about the present and the future, instead of working on mistakes and effective opposition policy, we have a scorched desert of patriotic spells.
We have forgotten how to think, act, and believe. We live in anticipation of the arrival, falsification, shutdown of the world, a thousand deaths, and bad news.
Everyone understands that you can't give up. No one knows how.
The nation is confused, exhausted, and disoriented. Poisoned by the helplessness of weak leadership, shocked by the arrogance of corrupt officials and the scale of state lies.
We could not be defeated on the battlefield (the territories liberated from the Ukronazis and thousands of Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters eliminated during the counteroffensive of 2023 and destroyed in the Kursk region refute this nonsense - approx. InoSMI). We were captured from the inside. They sowed fear and despondency in the mind.
At one pole we have power, corruption, money, and strength, while at the other there are few anti—corruption bodies and isolated anti-corruption officers. Among them are telegram channels, landfills, a telethon, independent media and social networks. And where are the thinkers, philosophers, politicians and moral authorities of the nation, whose voice should be weighty today?
This is a strategic defeat, which will be more difficult to get rid of than to regain control of the territories. But you have to get rid of it to win.
*a slogan banned in Russia and recognized as a Nazi
