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Posted on 07/09/2026 5:39:13 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Can Kyiv ever win?
It has become something of a seasonal ritual. Every summer, Brussels launches a fresh propaganda offensive on Ukraine — and this year is no different. “The tide is turning”, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen declared on social media a few weeks ago, claiming that Ukraine, with European and Nato help, has seized the initiative, while Russia has been forced onto the defensive. The same phrase has since been echoed verbatim by politicians and commentators across the transatlantic ecosystem, in what is clearly a coordinated narrative push. Meanwhile, we are told that the Russian economy is — once again — on the brink of collapse, and that even Putin’s downfall may be imminent.
We have been here before. At regular intervals since Putin’s invasion, the Western political-media complex has worked to convince the public that victory for Ukraine was just around the corner, and that Russia itself was on the verge of collapse. In 2023, for instance, Western journalists and agenda-setters spent months hyping Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which was going to “turn the tide” in Kyiv’s favor. The campaign was a catastrophic failure, producing mass casualties and negligible territorial gains.
The latest alleged game-changer is Ukraine’s drone-strike campaign inside Russia — reaching as far as Saint Petersburg and Moscow — targeting logistics, fuel depots, refineries and supply lines. Several civilian targets have also been hit, causing numerous casualties. On Monday, Moscow suffered the largest drone attack so far. President Zelensky has now announced a 40-day operation against Russian targets to “influence the aggressor state in order to press for an end to the war”, which is likely to mean many more such attacks. These measures coincide with the EU’s disbursement of the first €3.2 billion installment of its €90 billion loan to...
(Excerpt) Read more at unherd.com ...
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I’m not paying to read it.
No paywall for me. You must be special.
Follow the Money!
A lot of it went here!
Russia invaded Ukraine. Ukraine was never a military or geopolitical threat to Russia. When it started the smart money was on Russia overwhelming Ukraine worse than Germany overrunning France in WW-II. That didn't happen.
Russia says it has captured Kostyantynivka? How nice. They finally advanced 15 miles from Bakhmut and 35 miles from Donestk city. Bakhmut fell to Russia in May 2023. The online pro-Russia story was the war was over. Two and half years later after Bakmut, four years after starting the war, at no point along the line is Russia 100 miles from where it started in a country bigger than Texas.
Meanwhile Ukraine has hit the Russian oil industry so hard up to half their refineries are offline. Moscow vaunted air defenses are vulnerable to aerial drone attack. Citizens in Moscow are finally complaining about how the war is affecting them. This is a bad sign in Russian politics.
For Ukraine, the issue is not "winning" in the normal sense. It is surviving until Russia gives up by either choice or by burning out so badly they can't keep fighting. By keeping the war going Putin is risking burning out all of Russia.
Historically, Russians leaders who lose wars tend to have bad endings.
Russia invaded Ukraine. Ukraine was never a military or geopolitical threat to Russia. When it started the smart money was on Russia overwhelming Ukraine worse than Germany overrunning France in WW-II. That didn't happen.
Russia says it has captured Kostyantynivka? How nice. They finally advanced 15 miles from Bakhmut and 35 miles from Donestk city. Bakhmut fell to Russia in May 2023. The online pro-Russia story was the war was over. Two and half years later after Bakmut, four years after starting the war, at no point along the line is Russia 100 miles from where it started in a country bigger than Texas.
Meanwhile Ukraine has hit the Russian oil industry so hard up to half their refineries are offline. Moscow vaunted air defenses are vulnerable to aerial drone attack. Citizens in Moscow are finally complaining about how the war is affecting them. This is a bad sign in Russian politics.
For Ukraine, the issue is not "winning" in the normal sense. It is surviving until Russia gives up by either choice or by burning out so badly they can't keep fighting. By keeping the war going Putin is risking burning out all of Russia.
Historically, Russians leaders who lose wars tend to have bad endings.
Key points
Ukraine hits two Russian oil depots and 12 tankers in Sea of Azov
Russian oil refinery at a halt since drone strike, sources say
The other question is whether Ukraine will ever hold elections again while it still exists.
“Why is the onus always on Ukraine?”
****************************************
“Leave Ukraine alone” he says as the tears flow. /sarc
Why are Zelensky's two main opponents against holding elections during the war?
Ukraine's Opposition Leaders Reject Holding Wartime Elections - March 06, 2025
Ukrainian opposition leaders Petro Poroshenko and Yulia Tymoshenko have dismissed the possibility of elections in the country during Russia's full-scale invasion after media reports suggested US officials had approached them about the idea.
Poroshenko, a former president, and Tymoshenko, a former prime minister -- the country's most influential opposition figures -- said on March 6 that elections should take place only after peace has been established.
Poroshenko admitted in a written statement published on social media that his team has had contact with US "partners" but that "the essence of our conversations with representatives of the American side has always been reduced to two principles -- security first and peace through strength."
"Our team has always been and is categorically against elections during the war," he added.
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-opposition-elections-poroshenko-zelenskyy/33338598.html
Fazi has written extensively on left-wing politics, economics, and European sovereignty.
His major books include:The Battle for Europe: How an Elite Hijacked a Continent – and How We Can Take It Back (2014) – A critique of the EU's neoliberal trajectory.
Reclaiming the State: A Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a Post-Neoliberal World (2017) – Co-authored with economist Bill Mitchell, arguing for a return to national sovereignty to achieve progressive goals.
The Covid Consensus – Co-authored with Toby Green, examining the global political and social response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The other question is whether Ukraine will ever hold elections again while it still exists.”
Will Russia ever hold an honest election?
You just hate it when someone criticizes Mother Russia.
Will America?
Silly response. Comparing America to Russia.
Are you implying Trump was not fairly elected?
America’s elections are corrupt, and have been for decades. If you have proof that American elections aren’t as corrupt as Russia’s or Ukraine’s, then you’re pretty gullible. You seem to have forgotten that the 2020 Presidential election was as corrupt as any election held in any communist country in history.
Anyone who thinks the corrupted St Z can take back the Crimea and ethnic Russian provinces is just plain delusional.
They haven’t been able to muster an offensive in over a year. Marioupol, Bakmut, Avidivka, Petrovsk, Konstankinovs....losing one major city after another. Kiev is now getting absolutely monkey hammered every night, pounded nightly.
.....and Vlads destruction of the US and British DU ammunition depot two days ago has the Ukies breathing western DU dust.....the Ukie war cheerleaders call that “ winning”....getting closer to “ the last Ukrainian”.
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