Biden believes Kiev has “a long” road ahead as the Pentagon awaits Moscow’s next move and the course of Putin’s political crisis
“Russian industry is in tatters.” A “decimated” country. “With courage and solidarity, Putin will fail and Europe will triumph.” “The European Union has regained its inner strength.” “Wars are won with weapons.” Adrenaline is a hormone that speeds up the heart rate. And the victory of Ukrainian troops in Kharkov last weekend has turned into a veritable hormonal overdose at the heart of the EU. An injection of euphoria that could unleash epic statements, especially from Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and Head of Diplomacy, Josep Borrell, about a hypothetical change of course in the invasion that contrasts, however, with the caution of the United States.
“This is the time for us to show determination, not to keep calm,” von der Leyen emphasized Wednesday in the debate on the state of the Union in the Strasbourg Chamber, where he blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for promoting the “spiral of destruction and death” shaking Ukraine. The leader mainly addressed those in the community space who are beginning to doubt the prolongation of the war and the consolidation of a scenario where arms exports are more than diplomatic channels.
Von der Leyen assured that Moscow will not hesitate to exploit the differences of opinion between Europeans. Not your fears. Especially the energy bill – an economic crisis that weighed on the Italian government’s break-up – and the warning of a winter more like an ice age that the far right is already planning to use by, for example, calling for mass citizen marches against the German executive. “It is a battle between autocracy and democracy” and a challenge from which “Europeans do not hide or hesitate”, the EU leader reminded the doubters. The session was attended by the wife of Ukrainian President Volodímir Zelensky. Olena Zelenska thanked the community’s support to the commissioners, all dressed in the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag. Olena preferred a white suit. Her husband, meanwhile, met in the city of Izum the soldiers who were the protagonists of the Russian withdrawal in Kharkiv .
US strategists maintain a more moderate tone. They leave Zelensky with the responsibility of assessing whether or not the conflict has reached a turning point, and are waiting for the Moscow army’s next steps to find out whether it is really “regrouping”. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby has limited himself to confirming the existence of a “sense of momentum on the part of the Ukrainian armed forces”. The president, Joe Biden, has been even more concise. Ukraine still has “a long way to go,” he says.
As his army fled in disarray on Saturday, Vladimir Putin opened the program of celebrations in the middle of a park to commemorate Moscow’s re-foundation. There was a Ferris wheel. Putin described it as “the largest in Europe” and presented it as the central attraction. The Ferris wheel broke down a few hours later and tickets had to be returned to the public.
His cabinet is now trying to do something similar to weather the political crisis and save the president, who has never been criticized by a growing number of parliamentarians, senators, councilors, editors, ex-military members and propagandists associated with his regime for the nefarious conduct of the war. The Kremlin wants to show that it is not the war strategy itself that is failing, but that the wheel that moves it has broken; that is, the military chain of command, where, according to the American War Institute, he is already looking for culprits to fire them.
This kind of maneuver has served the Kremlin twice before. At the beginning of the invasion, when the occupation showed signs that it was not as easy as expected, the Russian government arrested several Moscow intelligence chiefs from their homes for failing to correctly assess the enemy’s forces. In April, the Defense Ministry carried out a reshuffle of the military leadership, weeks after the withdrawal from Kiev. The difference with the present moment is that Putin and his ministers enjoyed the public flourishing then.
Today is different. Russians woke up this Wednesday more restless to voices demanding the Kremlin mobilize the population to bolster the battlefield with thousands of soldiers, not only from opinion leaders and ultra-nationalist political figures, but also from the views of the two parties leading the charge. Putin (United Russia and the Communist Party). On the contrary, more than a hundred mayors from 35 municipalities have already demanded the Chief Executive’s resignation for the damage the war has done to the country; the demonstration that society is becoming increasingly ambivalent between those advocating for the hardening of the struggle and those advocating an end to it. “Opinions are polarizing. Over time, polarized opinions radicalize. All of this points to a growing conflict within Russian society,” a social analysis expert told The Washington Post yesterday.
Another Kremlin maneuver to exonerate its boss blames the Kharkov defeat on Western governments for sending weapons, conducting intelligence work and training the local army. “The West urged Ukraine to do something. They need visible results from their military aid and training,” says influential military-political journalist Boris Rzhin. “If you fight in the mode of a voluntary army and the enemy carries out a total mobilization (of his population), then it is clear that he is superior,” Rzhin added, applying for compulsory enlistment.
Putin has never been more questioned than in two decades of mandate. He hasn’t backtracked on his decisions either, so whatever happens, the only certainty is that he won’t declare Russia’s surrender. The problem is, he’s not alone. The hard core has been encouraged to speak out, but it remains to be seen what the military thinks about the causes of a stalled invasion, Putin’s leadership as a strategist and the future of the war itself. The government is showing more sensitivity now than it was a few months ago in its quest for commanders to fire, because it knows you should never step on a scorpion.
Kiev Security Pact. This is the name of the document that opened a new confrontation between Ukraine and Russia, in which the Zelensky administration proposes to NATO that, as long as its country does not join the Atlantic Alliance, its allies commit to provide it with weapons and millionaires have to invest in setting up and maintaining their defenses. All this, according to the report, to ensure that Ukraine will not be invaded again. Former Russian President Dimitry Medvedev replied that Kiev’s demands constitute “the prologue to World War III”.
Source: La Verdad
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