Zelensky’s Bad Moment, by Seymour Hersh

Zelensky has gone from belle of the ball to wallflower. He’s not taking it well. From Seymour Hersh at seymourhersh.substack.com:

The Ukrainian leader resorts to lies and threats at the tail end of a failing counteroffensive

BAND OF BROTHERS: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba, US Climate Envoy John Kerry, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken listen as President Joe Biden addresses the 78th United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Tuesday. / Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images.

Next Tuesday will be the anniversary of the Biden administration’s destruction of three of the four pipelines of Nord Stream 1 and 2. There is more I have to say about it, but it will have to wait. Why? Because the war between Russia and Ukraine, with the White House continuing to reject any talk of a ceasefire, is at a turning point.

There are significant elements in the American intelligence community, relying on field reports and technical intelligence, who believe that the demoralized Ukraine army has given up on the possibility of overcoming the heavily mined three-tier Russian defense lines and taking the war to Crimea and the four oblasts seized and annexed by Russia. The reality is that Volodymyr Zelensky’s battered army no longer has any chance of a victory.

The war continues, I have been told by an official with access to current intelligence, because Zelensky insists that it must. There is no discussion in his headquarters or in the Biden White House of a ceasefire and no interest in talks that could lead to an end to the slaughter. “It’s all lies,” the official said, speaking of the Ukrainian claims of incremental progress in the offensive that has suffered staggering losses, while gaining ground in a few scattered areas that the Ukrainian military measures in meters per week.

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