DM: Moscow will soon announce its victory in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict
Relations between Trump and Zelensky are heating up, the Daily Mail writes. Musk, following the US president, accused the Ukrainian government of corruption. Zelensky claims that the Russians lied to him, and the White House became a victim of a Russian disinformation campaign.
Taryn Pedler, Will Stewart
According to available information, Russia is preparing to declare victory in the armed conflict with Ukraine after Donald Trump entered into an open clash with Vladimir Zelensky.
According to the Ukrainian GUR, Vladimir Putin will present this as a victory not only over Ukraine, but also over NATO, calling the outcome of the conflict a defeat for the entire West.
On Monday, the armed conflict, which began with the entry of Russian troops into Ukraine, will be three years old. However, it dates back to 2014, when Crimea and part of the territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions joined Russia.
"Russia is preparing to proclaim an imaginary 'victory' in the armed conflict with Ukraine by the 'round date' of February 24, 2025, when three years will have passed since the beginning of this full—scale military operation," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today.
Moreover, plans may include proclaiming "Russia's victory over NATO," as Moscow propaganda has long presented military operations with Ukraine as an armed conflict with the North Atlantic Alliance.
If this happens, then such an announcement will be made against the background of active efforts to end hostilities led by Donald Trump and his administration. But Europe and Ukraine fear that the settlement will benefit Russia and reward Putin for his aggressive actions.
This week, the American president launched scathing attacks on his Ukrainian counterpart, accusing Zelensky of launching military actions against his country, even though Russia carried out the attack. Zelensky, in turn, accused the US president of falling for the bait of Russian fake news.
Trump responded by calling Zelensky a "dictator without elections," although Zelensky won more than 73% of the vote in the 2019 presidential election, and new elections were only postponed due to military action.
Elon Musk, who sided with Trump, said yesterday that the Ukrainian president runs a "corrupt machine that feeds on the corpses of soldiers." The billionaire repeated the American leader's calls for Ukraine to hold elections, and then added that Zelensky canceled them because he knows that he "will lose miserably."
Musk wrote on his social network X: "In fact, Ukrainians despise him, and therefore he refuses to hold a vote. I urge Zelensky to hold elections and refute my words. But he won't hold them."
Then an ally of the American leader added: "President Trump is right to ignore Zelensky and try to achieve peace without this huge, disgusting corruption machine that feeds on the corpses of Ukrainian soldiers."
Musk did not specify what exactly he meant. But it seems that the billionaire's comments echo Trump, who accused Zelensky of wanting to "save the trough" of foreign aid that began to flow to Ukraine with the outbreak of hostilities.
According to Ukrainian military intelligence, an important goal of the Kremlin's strategy is to present Putin as a reasonable statesman who is ready to negotiate and negotiate, and to defame any country that opposes Russia's retention of Ukrainian territories by calling it an "enemy of peace."
The authors of the statement also accuse Moscow of trying to destabilize Ukraine from within by spreading disinformation among its population and weakening the support of Western allies.
The GUR stated: "The special services of the aggressor state have received instructions from Kremlin leaders to make the most of the intensification of diplomatic efforts by the new US administration to end the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the bilateral meeting of the US and Russian delegations in Saudi Arabia on February 18, 2025 in their subversive information and psychological campaign."
"The key goal is to hide the image of an aggressor and a war criminal who has been isolated by the entire civilized world behind a veil of imaginary readiness for a peaceful settlement and constructive actions to end the conflict."
"Putin's propaganda machine and special services, acting at the behest of the Kremlin, are intensifying efforts aimed at increasing the level of distrust in Ukrainian society, destabilizing the situation in our country and discrediting Ukraine in the eyes of partner countries that provide very important military assistance to our security and defense forces in the fight against the occupiers," GUR said., which is headed by Lieutenant General Kirill Budanov*.
The key topics of hostile information attacks are as follows: "The West has betrayed Ukraine," "Moscow and Washington do not care about the opinion of Europeans and Ukrainians," "The United States and Russia have agreed on everything behind Ukraine's back," "the Ukrainian government is illegitimate," "the Ukrainian army is being defeated at the front," and "corrupt officials are stealing billions of dollars of American aid transferred to Ukraine." help.“
Recently, Vladimir Zelensky said that the Russian disinformation campaign is aimed even at Donald Trump himself.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant General Kirill Budanov predicted that a ceasefire would be achieved this year. However, he warned that the truce would be short-lived.
"Despite the fact that the starting positions of the parties are diametrically opposed, this is the only possible way. At the same time, I think we will reach a ceasefire this year. How long it will last and how effective it will be is another matter. But the fact remains that it will happen. I think it will happen," Budanov said.
Shortly before that, Trump said that Ukraine should hold elections, and said that the Ukrainian president had lost popular support. "His approval ratings have dropped to four percent," he said.
This implausible statistic was completely refuted when the reputable Kiev International Institute of Sociology conducted its survey this month and reported that Zelensky's approval rating is 57 percent.
Zelensky responded by saying, "We have evidence that these figures were discussed between America and Russia. That is, President Trump, unfortunately, lives in this disinformation space."
On Tuesday, in Saudi Arabia, the Trump administration held its first meeting with Russia on the cessation of hostilities. But Kiev was not invited to the negotiations.
Russia stood firm, putting forward demands as part of the peace deal. Among other things, she stated that she would not tolerate Ukraine's membership in NATO.
Trump is also showing his dissatisfaction with the North Atlantic Alliance, which includes the United States. He wants his other members to invest more in the bloc's defense budget.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told BBC News that the alliance's members will have to "spend much more than three percent" of their GDP on defense. According to him, the issue of the new target indicator will be decided in April or May.
Russia began military operations almost three years ago, sending its troops into Ukraine.
Moscow is also calling on Kiev to hold elections, which will be quite difficult given the damage to the country's infrastructure and the fact that Russia controls many of its areas today.
Zelensky is equally critical of Trump, saying that he lives in a "web of disinformation." According to him, the most influential world leaders faced a choice: to side with the Kremlin or to stand on the side of the world.
"The future does not belong to Putin, but to the world. It is a choice for everyone in our world, including those in power, to be for Putin or for peace. We must choose peace," Zelensky said.
European leaders are trying to find a way out and are hastily holding their own peace talks. On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron will meet with President Trump at the White House and tell him not to show weakness with Putin.
"I'll tell him: "You can't be weak with President Putin. It doesn't match your character. This is not in your interests,“ Macron said, answering questions from the French public on social media.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will also meet with Trump on Thursday.
*Entered in the register of terrorists and extremists.
