Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the Ukrainian military needs more time before launching its long-awaited counteroffensive, warning that doing it too early would result in a lot of casualties.
“We can advance with what we’ve got and I think we can be successful but we will lose a lot of people, I think that is unacceptable,” Zelensky told BBC. “We need to wait, we need a bit more time.”
Zelensky said Ukraine was still awaiting the delivery of some Western weapons. “They will reinforce our counteroffensive and most importantly they will protect our people. We are expecting armored vehicles, they arrive in batches,” he said.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian mercenary force Wagner Group, accused Zelensky of “lying” and claimed a Ukrainian offensive was in “full swing.” According to RT, a Russian war correspondent also said Ukraine’s counteroffensive has begun, citing attacks near the eastern Donbas city of Bakhmut and operations elsewhere on the front.
According to SouthFront, which publishes daily map updates of the battlefield, Ukrainian forces did make some more gains on the outskirts of Bakhmut. However, the battle of Bakhmut has been raging for months, and the assaults do not necessarily mean Kyiv has launched a wider counteroffensive. SouthFront also reported that Russian forces made small gains in the city streets of Bakhmut.
For their part, the Russian Defense Ministry denied reports that Ukraine had broken through its defenses in several locations and said the only heavy fighting was around Bakhmut. “Reports by certain Telegram channels of ‘breaches of defenses’ in several places along the line of contact are not accurate,” the ministry said.
Leaked documents and US assessments have indicated Washington doesn’t believe Ukraine can regain significant territory in its counteroffensive, and Ukrainian officials have been trying to lower expectations. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his British counterpart, James Cleverly, expressed on Tuesday that the Western powers would provide indefinite support regardless of the outcome.
While in our cities we run major offensives on thousands of people living in tent cities. Where are those homeless going? People cannot just disappear. How about opening up some military facilities, providing military barracks with proper sanitation. These are refugees living in our own country, living without home or hope.
Why not sort out this problem “as long as it takes”? Or problems with dumbing down schools, appointing incompetent administrators to run schools into ground. And cause those that can afford to escape hell and go to private schools. Children are allowed to run wild, teachers’s hands tied, children disturbingly sexualized, destructive, cold,
As long as it takes? How about having some pitty on our deteriorating infrastructure, health care, standard of living and even longevity expectations. Quo vadis, beloved land?
As I learned, indelibly, nothing can be done in America except it return a private profit. We must first rid ourselves of the hateful ascendancy of Capitalism.
What would you recommend to replace (rid) the current system of “capitalism”?….. Other non capitalistic countries have wars, don’t they?……………………
Thanks for asking. When the crisis (i.e., the Big One) hits, and the Fed & Pentagon are helpless to retrieve wealth, the whole thing will have to start again from the beginning, Washington abolished, each state or county assuming sovereignty and expropriating local banks and publicly traded fixed capital (“mom & pop” undisturbed), a hybrid of local level state socialism and small capitalism. All in a process out of the western tradition of Hellenic Christianity (goodness, truth and beauty) with a polity of social justice working toward utopian communism.
Lots of my own personal opinions here.
Eventually, automation will allow producers to make almost everything with little need to hire workers. Ironically, if nobody has a job, nobody will have money to buy anything. The easiest way out of this dilemma is to put money into the pockets of the unemployed, just as we did when COVID hit. That will eventually push both parties towards the kind of welfare state that a some people call socialism.
But the incentive to take wealth from other countries will likely be just a strong under socialism as it is under capitalism. If we want Chile’s lithium, we’ll take it. If we want rare minerals from Africa, we’ll take them. But Russia, China, and other countries aren’t going to make it easy. So, the wars will continue without regard for the “ism” we embrace.
While I’m not a fan of “Universal Basic Income” schemes, for various reasons, I suspect we’re headed in that direction. And that will likely entail some drastic changes in economic relations.
The worry USED to be that automation would get rid of “blue collar” jobs. Historically the effect tended to be the opposite, as automation would bring down prices, spurring more demand, resulting in more production, and creating more jobs doing other things than were eliminated by the automation.
But robotics is getting a lot better at doing a lot more things … and artificial intelligence is now looking like a replacement for many “white collar” jobs.
If things keep going as they’re going (not a safe assumption, but if), it looks to me like we’ll see lots of former e.g. lawyers, accountants, etc. living on UBI, and the few remaining jobs that absolutely require physical human labor making huge bank.
I fully agree.
We ARE headed that way. Everything is being “Amazoned”. Major stores, iconic ones like Sears, JC Penney, getting gutted. The idea is no overhead due to no buildings, with most citizens getting their UBI, purchasing what little they can online (if they can afford internet, or anything else). Also, firms are buying up houses, not to resell, but to rent. The money stream to the 1% will be constant and substantial. AI will kill off the rest. I read an article by the “godfather” of AI. He said it would be a good idea to take a step back, because the ideas are becoming so dangerous. Even Musk has said for there to be a “breather” from the race to AI. Beyond Owellian. I have children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. I am so afraid for them.
I suspect any UBI scheme will fold in “free” phone and Internet service, if for no other reason than that those services provide great surveillance and propaganda value to the regime. And the COVID-19 response already provided a template for doing away with rent and mortgage payments.
There aren’t going to be any “breathers” in the race to AI.
Even assuming that a government could find a way to impose such a “breather” domestically (by turning off Internet access and confiscating all computers — I’m sure THAT would go over really well), the only result would be that researchers in other countries (and the governments they live under) would get further ahead.
To the extent that AI has government applications, and it has plenty of them, that would effectively be like Stalin imposing a “breather” on Soviet weapons development … in 1942.
If you want to see the down side to socialism take a long look at Britain , it is bringing the country to it`s knees , back in the day people stood on their own two feet , today everyone needs support or or handouts , these people never ask the question who will pay for it all.
Not from those I talked to when I visited there.
And then you have people like Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellin, when she was working in the Fed, writing a memo to Greenspan in 1996, suggesting that it is good to have workers “insecure” so as to take lower wages just to have a job. Ergo, corporations make more profits. D*mn her to H*ll!
Correctomundo. Christian Fascist Predatory Capitalism. We are fraught with it. It is not going away, despite the warnings of Goldwater (the “preachers”) and Eisenhower (of the MIC, and his Iron Cross speech). The MIC/CIA team will never be beat. Politicians know where their money for campaigning comes from. Quite so. Depressing. Isn’t it interesting that two Republicans warned us? Of course the current crop of GOP members would refer them as being RINOs. There are “moderate” Democrats who sing the same tune as the GOP, men such as Manchin.
Bianca, what are the root causes of homelessness in America?
Here’s a theory. Before the Federal Reserve dropped interest rates, if you could afford to pay $1100 a month, at 6% interest you could buy a house worth $183,000. At 3% you could $1100 a month could buy a house worth $261,000. Sellers knew they could get more, and it’s one of the reasons the prices of houses increased so rapidly.
But a 5% down payment on a house that costs $261,000 is $13,000. The down payment on the same house 10 years ago would have been 5% of $183,000, or $9,100. It could be that the additional $4,000 down payment was too much for some families.
I’m sure there are additional factors.
It’s more a last stand than a counter offensive.
“Leaked documents and US assessments have indicated Washington doesn’t believe Ukraine can regain significant territory in its counteroffensive, and Ukrainian officials have been trying to lower expectations. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his British counterpart, James Cleverly, expressed on Tuesday that the Western powers would provide indefinite support regardless of the outcome.”
In other words, go ahead Ukraine, the Brits and the US will continue to use you as fodder regardless of the outcome of the counteroffensive.
And the Russians will continue their prison reform program.
And what would be your point? Does that mean you’re ok with the west using Ukraine as fodder since Russia is using their prisoners in the same way? That somehow makes what I said wrong?
You’ve been using the Ukrainian losses to sell your point. He is selling his in the same manner.
My point is the US has stated they won’t supply Ukraine with weapons that will draw the US into a hot war with Russia. So, they don’t care if the counteroffensive is successful or not. Hence, the “fodder” remark. He can’t make that same point.
I think they do care. There are individual official statements and there are policy end states that you and i dont get to read or hear about.
I would think the part about staying out of a direct war with Russia is a real policy. The only concern about the counteroffensive failing is that it will make the continued support for the war a tough sell to the American public. Ukrainian and US officials(McCaul for one)both said as much.
It wont be a tough sell. The counteroffensive will tear Putin’s frontline a big new one.
Better start getting worry about the Russian cannon fodders than the Ukrainian ones.
I guess others don’t agree with you Don.
“The expectation from our counteroffensive campaign is overestimated in the world,” said Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov. “Most people are … waiting for something huge.”
One of the Pentagon documents that appeared online as part of the Discord leaks was a US assessment from February that showed the US did not believe Ukraine could regain significant territory.
We have allowed the British to supply Kiev with long range rockets. Don’t kid yourself, we are knee deep in the war.
Didn’t say we weren’t. Doesn’t mean we have pushed Russia far enough to get ourselves into a hot war with them.
What you are missing is that the Ukrainians are fighting for freedom and self determination.
I’m not missing anything since that wasn’t relevant to what I said. That doesn’t change the fact that the US/NATO/West is using Ukraine as fodder to weaken Russia. The stated goal.
And Ukraine is using US NATO aid to resist Russian aggression. Do you have a problem with that? If you were Zelensky, would you refuse aid to defeat the imperialist invader of your country?
Of course NATO has nefarious motives. But Ukraine’s resistance to aggression is righteous. And Ukraine will win. In the long run, it is all about hearts and minds. The NATO aid will hasten the Ukrainian victory.
If they aren’t giving them enough to win, then yes, I do have a problem with that. If I were Zelensky I wouldn’t let my people die when the West openly admits they will only go so far with their support. The US/NATO aid will prolong the killing and make the final negotiated settlement that much worse for the Ukrainians. The other option is WW3 of course.
The Ukrainians are taking whatever they can get. Same as the Viet Cong, the Mujahideen, the Palestinains, or the Chinese Communists in the 1940’s. Should the Palestinians give up because the Iranians don’t give them the advanced weapons they give to Hezbollah or to the Houthi? That is a question only the Palestinians can decide.
As for winning, Russia lost the moment the Russian army crossed the border into Ukraine. The war will end when the Russians withdraw.It may take a few months, a few years, a few decades or a few generations. But the Ukrainian hearts and minds decided the war long ago. Eventually there will be a political crisis in Russia that will force Russia to withdraw. The NATO aid gives Ukraine the possibility of winning soon, thereby saving lives. If NATO cuts all aid, the Ukrainians will still win, but it will take a long time and a lot more people will die. And Russian revanchism has to be stopped. Revanchists never stop on their own.
Ellsberg, Chomsky and the most insightful antiwar activists of my generation understand this. They also understand that we can’t let Putin’s threat of nuclear suicide stop us from supporting a fight for freedom. Mao taught the world that it is possible to stand up to a superpower when Chinese troops without an airforce pushed the US army on the longest retreat in its history in Korea. And the Vietnames stood up to the threat of nuclear war with second hand weapons supplied by the Soviets.
Only the Ukrainians can decide when the time has come for peace. In the meantime we should recognize that they are fighting a defensive war for freedom and self determination against an imperialist aggressor.
So, you’re good with more Ukrainians dying in a counteroffensive that the Ukrainian DM and the Pentagon both agree won’t be successful? Got it. But nice history lesson again. Regardless of its irrelevance.
It is up to the Ukrainians whether or not they will fight for their freedom and self determination. Same with the Vietnamese, the Palestinians, or Algerians, the Angolans, the Cubans, the Houthi, the people of Mozambique and Guinea-Bisseu. Unfortunately people die in wars of national resistance. The Russians have no chance of winning. The only question is how long it will take the Ukrainian resistance to stimulate an effective antiwar movement in Russia. NATO aid could shorten the war. My sympathies are with the Ukrainians.
Yes, dying for a counteroffensive that both Ukraine and the US admit has little chance of succeeding is worth it in your eyes. And NATO aid that won’t allow Ukraine to be victorious is going to shorten the war? Maybe. But probably not the way you are thinking. And I too have sympathy for the Ukrainians. But my sympathy is based on them dying needlessly while you seem ok with that.
You are too confident of a Russian victory. Looks like the Russians have serious morale problems in the high command and are getting their asses kicked on the ground. The US believed that the Russians would take Kyiv in a few days 15 months ago. They even offered to evacuate Zelenskyy and his government. The Ukrainian resistance continues to exceed everyone’s expectations, including their own. The Ukrainians wisely understate their intentions in public – kinda like Scotty on Star Trek. Then it looks better when they succeed.
But even if US/NATO stop aiding Ukraine and the Russians defeat the Ukrainian army, the Russians will never be able to defeat the Ukrainian resistance. I’ve seen this play before. The Russians will have to leave Ukraine in defeat before it ends.
The best and quickest way to end the war will be for the Ukrainian army to win. A protracted guerrilla war will take longer.
The Chinese understand and will explain the facts of life to Putin or whoever replaces him. I expect the Chinese to start adiplomatic offensive by the Fall.
I’m confident that Russia isn’t walking away from this without some objectives met unless the US/NATO are willing to do WW3. If a complete Russian withdrawal of ALL Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, is the definition a Ukrainian “win”, then we will indeed have WW3.
Russia is no more confident that the US in Vietnam, the French in Algeria, the Zionists in Palestine or the Boers in South Africa. Russia never had a chance of conquering and dismembering Ukraine . Russia had legitimate security interests. But legitimate interests generally don’t justify preemptive war. Ironically, Putin’s war damaged the very security interests he used to justify it. NATO is stronger. Russia is weaker. Ukraine is closer to the west. And many more people have died than died in the civil disorders in Donbas from 2014 to 2022.
“Russia had legitimate security interests. But legitimate interests generally don’t justify preemptive war.”
But once the war started you changed your tune. It wasn’t Putin just making a bad decision, it was him trying to conquer all of Ukraine and his only motive was imperialistic in nature. Yes, Putin took 30+ years of bait and did exactly what the west hoped he’d do. So, while I think war is never the answer, I see nothing that tells me this wasn’t inevitable even if it took 30 more years of putting out bait.
This reminds me when Putin told the world for months up until late February 2022 that he would not invade Ukraine and that it was all a Western Hype/propaganda.
Perhaps a touché moment by Zelensky. This could be An in your face small counteroffensive while you were busy waiting for the big one that comes later and catches you with your pants down.
However, we all know that At any minute now Russia will unleash its secret 1 million strong Army with unlimited weapons, ammunitions, supplies and many other never heard before weapon systems to finally take the entire Ukraine and collapse NATO
Putin has only committed 20% of his forces , when he should have gone in with SHOCK & AWE , never allowing the NATO US LACKEYS to send tons of weapons .
It started in 2014. Putin trusted Ukraine to honor the Minsk agreements. Instead, Kyev used US military aid to build up an army large enough to defeat the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk. One way to describe what is happening is that the US sided with Kyev in their civil war, while Russia sided with the Independent Republics.
(DPR forces continue to fight side by side with Wagner forces in Bakhmut as I write this.)
Yes, 20%, can you imagine if Putin throws another 20% at the problem?
It would be lights out for Ukraine. I think he is just waiting for the right moment to do so and right now he is just killing thousands of Ukrainians daily thus demilitarizing Ukraine. This is just purely genius. Lol.
Are you accusing Father Vlad of treason? He really doesn’t want to win? Or are you just saying the infallible Putin is stupid?
The Russians are fighting with the courage, conviction and motivation of men working on a chain gang. The Ukrainian army is fighting with the motivation of men and women fighting for freedom and self determination. It is all about hearts and minds and Russia decisively lost the war on that front over a year ago.
The rest of the world has had quite enough of the USA and Israel. The Belt and Road Initiative and BRICS will eventually dump the petrodollar and force us to default on our $32 trillion debt. The end of an empire is never a pretty sight. This can’t happen soon enough.
I’m already packed! 🇷🇺
Yep it happens slowly then sudenly .
The day Saudi’s announce their BRICS membership and alternative currency use in addition to the dollar, a tsunami of dollar will be washed ashore. China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and UK will be stuck with worthless treasury notes.
He looks like crap:
https://twitter.com/freedomrideblog/status/1656826153393430529
As usual Zelenskyy is lying. The duplicitious Ukrainian President falsely claimed that his troops aren’t prepared to launch an offensive. But the Russian MoD exposed the truth about what is happening on the ground today. The MoD flatly contradicted Zelenskyy’s pessimistic lies. According to Moscow the sneaky Ukrainians attacked Bakhmut today with over 1,000 troops and almost 40 tanks in Ukraine’s biggest offensive since November. While Prizoghin describes today’s strategic redeployment away from Bakhmut as a “rout” the truth is the Russians deliberately opened up a previously blocked road into Bakhmut to give the Ukrainians an extra supply route. This means Ukraine can more easily move soldiers into the battle where they will be cut down by the Russians after the Russians return to Bakhmut from their “temporary” redeployment. What a brilliant plan! As usual, Putin knows best and everything always proceeds according to his plan.
Don’t trust Zelenskyy. He will say anything, even tell lies, to win the war.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/12/russian-troops-fall-back-to-regroup-north-of-ukraines-bakhmut
Zelenskyy is not supposed to give away what they intend to do and most certainly not to give away when they might start their offensive – so calling it lying is applying a special filter to this. Also launching a limited offensive with a 1,000 troops and almost 40 tanks is not the start of the ‘counter offensive’, it might be, but by itself it is not.
I think Michael was being sarcastic with the lying comment or may not.
The small counter offensive could be the beginning used to disrupt the Russian defensive plans then hit them with the big one. .
Could be – I think the Bakhmut initiative is to prevent the Russians from redeploying forces too much, but perhaps it is to encircle the Russians in Bakhmut as Prigozhin has suggested.
An encirclement would be a huge propaganda defeat to the Kremlin so they would throw everything they had and dispatch all forces to that spot to prevent such embarrassment then Ukraine would just walk right into the areas it needs to.
According to Prigozhin the Ukrainians have at least 60,000 fresh and newly NATO trained troops, if the Ukrainians can manage to get the Russians to send a lot of forced to avert a potential encirclement of Bakhmut then they may achieve the same as they did in the Kharkiv offensive where they announcing the Kherson initiative got the Russians to denude the Kharkiv area so much that when the Ukrainians attacked there it was a near walkover.
Don’t forget the nearly 150-200K troops Ukraine had protecting their northern border with Belarus. I believe that could be the big surprise. A chunk of that could be quietly sent to open up an entire different front.
You can’t move an army “quietly” in the 21st century. The days when Napoleon and Wellington had to guess where Blucher’s Prussians were are long gone.
I think you can against Russia.
The Kharkiv take over proved it.
There were Bradley(s?) at the Bakhmut attack so… maybe it is part of the NATO trained forces, I would have thought that they would use the reserves not trained abroad for diversions or holding/fixing actions as I would think Bakhmut would be, but then I’m not military trained so I could easily be wrong.
Russia has 300,000 troops idling in Russia. If Russia has wanted to last year, Russia could have gone full “shock and awe”, just leveled everything.
You are very wrong. Russia has 3,000,000 highly trained troops on idling with unlimited ammo and supplies. They are just waiting for the right moment to completely take all of it.
I was being sarcastic. But the Ukrainians have a tremendous advantage in having a motivated army opposing prisoners fighting with all the dedication of convicts working on a chain gang. In the end it is all about hearts and minds. The fact that the Ukrainians are still fighting is proof that the Russians have irretrievably lost the hearts and minds of the Ukrainian people.
English not being my mother tongue I make wrong assumptions from time to time – happy to have been wrong though.
It’s still rainy season, and those tanks will be deep in the mud going nowhere. July or August will be opening, unless Russia acts first.
There are two things going on here: 1) Russia is acting weak, 2) Kiev is acting like they have not started their Spring offensive. If any of the long range rockets UK is giving Kiev is used and hits deep into Russia, the measured war by Russia will be over.
If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard “If [X], Russia will take the gloves off” over the last year, I’d be able to buy a new car.
Russia never had the gloves on.
While it’s not safe to assume that 15 months of failure and fiasco will never come to an end, “oh, they WEREN’T REALLY TRYING” wasn’t very convincing for very long, and passed its sell-by date a long time ago.