General Zaluzhny, Ukraine at a fork in the road

The Duran ^ | December 16, 2022 | The Duran

[Cathi]

Alexander: I think the most important news is in fact this interview in the Economist. Three people involved; Zelensky himself; he gave his own version of the events which is exactly the same as he always gives...and then the two military leaders, Zaluzhny, the overall military commander and Syrskyi who is the commander of the Ukrainian army. You read these things and it all looks like on that one hand on the surface that they have had a triumphant autumn. They have won a whole load of victories. They've regained territory, but it doesn't take much reading below the surface to see that these people; at least the military people are very worried about the situation they are in, indeed.

First of all he says that he's got 700,000 men in uniform, but only 200,000 of those have combat training. That's exactly what Douglas MacGregor said a short time ago....the actual part of it that can fight is down to 190,000 men. Zaluzhny has just confirmed it. Zaluzhny also confirms that he is running short of ammunition, running short of equipment. He says that he needs 300 tanks, 500 or 800 or so infantry fighting vehicles, 500 fresh guns. That he can't carry out an offensive towards Melitopol with the two brigades, which is all that he's got in the area. He's talking about his army bleeding and that was an actual word he used.

He said that the Russian mobilization had been successful. He said straight forwardly it had been a success. He said that the Russian military is building up its strength purposefully and effectively. He says that the people who have been mobilized in Russia will undoubtedly fight. He says that the Russians can mobilize 1 1/2 million men more if they need to. That's what he says. He also says that he expects a big Russian winter offensive. He thinks apparently that it will happen in February. Reznikov, the defense minister who is a civilian talks about January. Zaluzhny admits he doesn't know where this offensive might come from; but he seems to think the most likely place will be Belarus and that it will be focused toward Kiev. But, he accepts it might be in all sorts of other places including what he calls the "southern direction."

And then he says what I thought was the most interesting thing of all. He says that his forces are still fighting. It's not the moment YET to make to the Ukrainian soldiers the kind of address that General Minihan, the commander of the Finnish military, made to the Finnish troops in March, 1940 after Finland was defeated by the Soviet Union in the Winter War. Now, if you read that speech by Minihan the text is actually quite interesting because Minihan said that Finland had been overwhelmed by the armies of a great power and they weren't able to keep up with the fact that the Russians were outgunning them, out numbering them, all of those things and Minihan also said...and this was back in March, 1940...that Finland was unable to resist because it wasn't getting the help from the West that it had been promised.

So one wonders what exactly is Zaluzhny thinking when he mentions these things. But, the very fact that he is talking about Minihan's speech addressed to his soldiers back in March, 1940 conceding defeat to Russia, to the Soviet Union as it then was...well that it seems to me is the first instance when a Ukrainian leader, and in this case we are talking about the commander of the military is in effect saying that it might eventually come to a situation where he is forced to do the same as Minihan did and admit to the soldiers that all their sacrifices have been for nothing and Ukraine is losing the war, or has lost the war.

[Widget Jr]

As if the general leading Ukraine’s armed forces in cleaning Russia’s clocks cares what a disbarred lawyer and RT thinks.