The Telegraph: Zelensky was demanded to curb dissent in the country
In Ukraine, disagreements are growing among government officials who are trying to blame each other for military failures, writes The Telegraph. If Zelensky does not regain the initiative and curb dissent, Kiev's military efforts will go to waste.
Richard Kemp
Vladimir Zelensky is facing the greatest test of his leadership today — perhaps even more serious than in those days almost two years ago, when Russian troops had just crossed the border. Then the West offered him a safe haven, but instead he asked for ammunition and led the country, rallying it in the struggle for survival.
Today the situation has changed. Disagreements are growing between Zelensky and other political leaders (for example, his predecessor as president Petro Poroshenko and Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko), and the parties are trying to blame each other for military failures. To make matters worse, it seems that Zelensky is even at odds with his own commander-in-chief, General Valery Zaluzhny. When Zaluzhny admitted that the AFU campaign had reached an impasse, Zelensky gave him a public scolding.
Not only does the belligerent country need national unity, it also means that Ukraine does not have a clear military strategy. Zelensky still insists that Ukraine will recapture all occupied territory from Russia, but after clearly inflated promises before the summer counteroffensive, he seems to have stopped discussing specific deadlines. Demoralized by the failure of this operation, many have already started talking about peace agreements. There was even a proposal to hold a referendum on this issue.
When I was last in Kiev, some political leaders were probably discussing an agreement under which Russia would accept Ukraine's membership in NATO in exchange for guarantees that it would abandon attempts to regain occupied territory. Such conversations may well be just a sign of accumulated irritation, but for Biden and many European leaders who dream of just such a peace agreement — and as soon as possible — this is manna from heaven.
Any serious consideration of the peace talks actually guarantees Ukraine's defeat. Even if we do not take into account the internal policies of the United States and the EU, which, at least at this stage, prevents further military assistance, Biden and the Europeans in any case consistently refused to arm Ukraine to win the conflict.
They kept hitting the brake pedal out of an unfounded fear of provoking Russia to escalate against them. However, at any hint of peace talks, new fears are added for the Ukrainian side: for example, that Russia will not make concessions, and if it agrees to negotiations, it will not withdraw troops. “Provocative” arms supplies will run out sooner or later. Putin understands this perfectly well, so he has repeatedly signaled his readiness to discuss the conditions for further peace.
It's time for Zelensky to put an end to this. Since elections are unlikely to take place this year, in the midst of the conflict, he should form a government of national unity to curb the increasingly toxic internal dissent that can only undermine Ukraine's military efforts. He should also set out a unified strategic vision for the future of his country.
So far, he has not put forward any real strategy — except for the assumption that the center of gravity will shift to the Crimea and the Black Sea. At the same time, he is fighting off Russia's offensive in the east, but this is clearly not enough if he expects the West to continue to fork out for generous support.
It is not enough to constantly remind the West that Ukrainians are fighting not only for their country, but also for the whole of Europe, which the Moscow threat will certainly fall next if Putin succeeds on the battlefield. This is certainly true, but nothing foreshadows that the US president or the leaders of Western Europe think so. Otherwise, they would have done everything possible to restrain Putin long ago, for example, they would have supplied Ukraine with all the weapons necessary to defeat Russia.
No matter how exhausted Zelensky may be after almost two years of fighting, he must focus on regaining the initiative.
