Even though the US and its NATO allies have provided a massive amount of arms to Ukraine, the country’s commander-in-chief has said more is needed for Ukrainian forces to advance more rapidly in their counteroffensive.
In an interview with The Washington Post published Saturday, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny said he was frustrated because Ukraine’s Western backers would never launch a major counteroffensive without air superiority and complained about that lack of modern fighter jets.
Zaluzhny also said Ukrainian forces should be able to fire as many artillery rounds as their enemy on the battlefield. But in some cases, Russia has fired 10 times as much artillery as Ukraine. He said because of these reasons, Western comments about the counteroffensive being off to a slow start “pisses me off.”
Western officials recently told CNN that the counteroffensive was “not meeting expectations,” and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the assault was going “slower than desired.”
“This is not a show,” Zaluzhny said. “It’s not a show the whole world is watching and betting on or anything. Every day, every meter is given by blood.”
“Without being fully supplied, these plans are not feasible at all,” he added. “But they are being carried out. Yes, maybe not as fast as the participants in the show, the observers, would like, but that is their problem.”
Zaluzhny said that he has been expressing his concerns to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley. “We have an agreement: 24/7, we’re in touch. So, sometimes I can call up and say, ‘If I don’t get 100,000 shells in a week, 1,000 people will die. Step into my shoes,’” Zaluchny said of his conversations with Milley.
Ukraine’s main demand is for more ammunition and F-16 fighter jets, which aren’t expected to be delivered from European countries until at least the end of the year. Ukrainian pilots need to be trained on F-16s, and Kyiv has still not received a concrete pledge from any countries that say they’re willing to provide the US-made jets.
Regarding ammunition, it’s not clear if the US and NATO policy of providing Ukraine with artillery rounds is sustainable. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said earlier this year that Ukraine is using significantly more rounds than the entire alliance can produce.
Zaluzhny also discussed Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s short-lived uprising in Russia, saying the Wagner fighters withdrew from Bakhmut months ago, so it didn’t impact the counteroffensive. “We didn’t feel that their defense got weaker somewhere or anything,” he said.
In the months leading up to Ukraine’s counteroffensive, the Discord leaks and media reports showed that the Biden administration did not expect Ukraine to be able to regain significant territory. But the administration still pushed for the assault as it explicitly opposes the idea of a ceasefire, a position Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlined in a speech last month.
I read a year ago that Russia was running out of munitions so how are they able to send artillery shells at 10 – 1 against NATO supplies when NATO says they have more capacity than Russia? I think somebody has been telling porkies. I also read a year ago how some of these weapons were being diverted to international black markets. The number of fighting age Ukrainian men who are dead or worse is staggering compared to population size. I don’t think they have the manpower to conduct successful offensive operations along so many points along the line that they are currently engaged in. There is no way they can stop the RA much less retake Russian occupied former Ukraine territory so WHY are they still in this?
So why are they still in this?
Because if i go and take half your house and kill have your family, YOU, I suppose, will fight back to protect the rest of your family and will try to retake the other half of your house. You will also ask for help because if you dont fight, you will lose everything.
If you lob grenades over my back fence for a period of time. killing my dog, wrecking my house, do you think I might have a desire to do the same. To protect what is left. Kiev shelled Donbas for 8 years. Eight years! Killing 14,000 Ukraine citizens (most Russian speaking) in the provinces of Donbas.
“Kiev, Moscow, and separatist forces shelled Donbas for eight years. … Killing thousands of Ukrainian troops, separatist troops, and civilians, and hundreds of Russian troops.”
Fixed, no charge.
There was no “province of Donbas.” Prior to 2014, there were two Ukrainian oblasts in the Donbas region, Donetsk and Luhansk. In 2014, those two oblasts seceded from Ukraine and become the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. In 2022, Russia annexed the two independent republics (after eight years of requests that they do so, and after holding show “referendums” on the subject). So at no time during the shelling have the inhabitants of the Donbas been “Ukraine citizens.”
“So at no time during the shelling have the inhabitants of the Donbas been “Ukraine citizens.”
That makes it OK then.
No, it doesn’t. It makes it war. War is bad. And if you’re looking for “the good guys” in a war, you’re not likely to find them.
Did the U.S. puppet government in Kiev regard Donetsk and Luhansk as no longer part of Ukraine from 2014 on forward during the time frame of the unimplemented Minsk Accords?
In the Presidential election and the Parliamentary elections held prior to the Euromaidan Coup, Yanukovych and his Party of Regions sought to allow Donetsk and Luhansk a high level of autonomy. That commitment, along with the signing of a trade agreement with Russia, were the things the US sponsored nationalists were determined to destroy. The eradication of all things Russian continues to be a signature policy of the nationalists in Kiev.
In my opinion, the puppet government in Kiev would probably have been pleased to rid themselves of the ethnic Russians of the independent republics… had it not been for the wealth these regions held and contributed.
Hell , Mary, they still think Crimea is theirs! 😂
In 2014, Ukrainian dissidents in Donbas instigated and aided by Russian agents claimed they seceded from Ukraine and proclaimed the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.
Fixed, no charge.
If the 14,000 people killed in the Donbas civil war from 2014 to 2022 about 8,000 were combatants and 3,000 civilians with about 95% of the civilian casualties occurring in 2014 and 2015. In the three years before Russia invaded Ukraine fewer than 100 civilians were killed annually in sectarian violence in Donbas
If it’s not “fixed”, then does that mean you owe us?
Your remarks are a long ways from fixing anything.
Ukraine is still shelling civilians in the city of Donetsk every day.
Poroshenko was proud of it.
The regime in Kiev has, at all times, claimed those persons as Ukrainian citizens.
Kind of reminds of the Vietnam War. The USA maintained that South Vietnam was an independent country that was separate from North Vietnam. Yet the South Vietnamese regime itself claimed that the entire country was one, and it was styled the “Republic of Vietnam.” Just like North Vietnam was officially the “Democratic Republic of Vietman.” Along the same lines, the government on Taiwan, for quite some time, claimed that it was the “Republic of China.”
“The regime in Kiev has, at all times, claimed those persons as Ukrainian citizens.”
And those persons have claimed otherwise.
Who has the better case? My position from the beginning, as with all secessions, has been that the people who live in Place X should decide which, if any, government they affiliate with.
The point is, that from their own POV, on the basis their own professed beliefs, the Kiev regime is indeed “killing its own people” when it kills people in the Donbas. Your “position,” whether “from the beginnning,” or not, is of little to no importance.
Hi Mr. T
Our friend David Stockman, in a recent article on AW, maintained that most of the 14000 killed were civilians.
Who’s right or wrong, I don’t know.
And when those who you ask for help flat out say they will not give you enough help to win because of their fear of a direct war with Russia, maybe you should think twice before agreeing to sacrifice your county. Now tell me how Ukrainians were going to lose their homes preinvasion.
That’s what eastern Ukraine did when the installed Regime started taking their houses and killing their family in that area. In other words, “He was killing his own people”.
Read your own words, and think “Palestinians.”
Very simplistic analogy to a very complex situation. Why did you take half my house in the first place and kill half my family? Surely there must be a reason. Let’s change it around. The country of Ukraine was built by Russians to be a duplex house with two families; one Ukrainian speaking and the other Russian speaking. The Ukrainian speaking half keeps attacking the Russian speaking half and abuses them by cutting services and lobbing artillery and missiles into it. During this time, 2014-2022 the Russian speaking side did not attack the Ukrainian speaking side but only tried to defend themselves againt a real army as best it could with no help. 14,000 people living in the Russian speaking side died from this before a good-hearted relative in Russia sent some troops to protect them from losing more Russian speaking family.
Because Russia planned ahead. Rejection by the West of the desire of Russia to be an equal partner, be a member of the Western Alliance, the constant accumulation of countries to encircle Russia, could have sparked preparation for the inevitable. In 31 years, Russia could have accumulated a lot of materials of war.
From RMX (.) News: The Federation of Employers of Ukraine says corruption among government officials and judges has reached unprecedented levels during the war, hurting business. They engage in extortion, seize businesses and facilities, and the bribed judges ignore the cases.
Normal activities in one of the most corrupt countries.
My guess is the only way out of Ukraine is a seamless Afghanistan style exit to war with China using Japan and Korea as proxies, for the upcoming budget cycle and election extravaganza.
At this point, in DC the issue is salvaging Biden’s re-election from this self inflicted damage.
What happens to Ukraine no longer matters to them, that is a sunk cost in a lost war.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2775e9e1f4f24070c8ebfdd23abd6fa2109d8e1096f2ff70492ef27107b6b228.jpg
Now we know what you look like……………..
More weapons mean only more deaths, more destructions and more lost territories. Ukrainian/NATO army can’t win this war.
…..and more weapons exports FROM Ukraine to make more $$$.
Biden may still think that a protracted war will drain Russia’s resources until they are forced to yield. But, if things continue as they have, it’s more likely that the war will drain US resources until forced to yield.
Russian resources were draining before 2022. Now, because Russian big business can’t transfer money to The West, all those money are invested into Russian economy. This war is beneficial for Russian economy.
I think it’s more complicated than that. But I agree, especially in retail businesses that took over when western business (such as McDonalds) abandoned the country.
Russian resources were draining before 2022. Now, because Russian big business can’t transfer money to The West, all those money are invested into Russian economy. This war is beneficial for Russian economy.
Ukraine asks for more weapons, and in other news, water is wet…
“This is not a show,” … oh, it is. Just a bloody, pointless, and depressing one.
It is a beautiful racket for the American MIC. Just beautiful. And, it avoids the bad press of American men and women returning in body bags. Let’s other people be killed, maimed. I say to Mr. Biden: Let peace be.
“In an interview with The Washington Post published Saturday, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny said he was frustrated because Ukraine’s Western backers would never launch a major counteroffensive without air superiority and complained about that lack of modern fighter jets.”
Once more it just doesn’t sink in. Of course, the west wouldn’t do a counteroffensive without being properly weaponized. No one would. What does that tell you general numbnuts?
The man has two arms. Where does he want the additional arms planted?
It’s time to create an updated production of “The Wizard of Oz”, featuring Zelensky as both the Tin Man (who needed a heart) and the Scarecrow (who needed a brain).
Good one Duane, but I’d cast ByeDone as the latter 😉
Maybe ZelBoy could take the part of the guy who needed a johnson.
lol
Here is a list of the armaments that the Banderite/Nazi top General has already lost;
445 Aircraft, 240 helicopters, 4859 UAV’s, 426 Anti Aircraft systems, 10472 tanks inc. APC’s, 1134 multiple rocket launchers, 5300 rocket launchers and 11365 military automotive equipment.
This is estimated to be worth US $1 Trillion. And they are asking for more. Arrest Obama/Biden et al. for their many many crimes against humanity.
What? Two isn’t enough?
Ukraine as of yesterday said that Russia is advancing in few directions. Not much info about this anywhere.
One of the largest traits of the Ukrainian Regime is being “pissed off” when other nations don’t fork over more of their wealth to them for insertion in the rat hole.
“But the administration still pushed for the assault as it explicitly opposes the idea of a ceasefire, a position Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlined in a speech last month.”
Ah, those Straussian neocons are always on the move toward a catastrophic war with Russia that will be the end of the USA as we know it. That has been their real intention all along.
Lets hope they use their cyanide capsules before that.
We suck but it’s your fault…….
What correctly upsets him is that he can’t possibly win this war.
He’s being pushed to fight in the most aggressive way possible, which is the worst tactic possible given the balance of forces now and likely.
His best tactic would never be allowed even by his own leadership, a “turtle up” defensive hunker down mode that seeks not to lose everything until Russia tires of this and offers some terms. Whether that might work or not, it would be his best shot, but nobody will arm him nor pay for him to do that. So it is Banzai charges until everyone what can go “over the top” (WW1 trench warfare term for it) is dead.
Why don’t they mention they need more recruits to use the weapons they do have?
“This is not a show,” Uke General Zaluzhny said. “It’s not a show the whole world is watching and betting on or anything.”
10 bucks says it is
” ‘If I don’t get 100,000 shells in a week, 1,000 people will die. Step into my shoes,’” Zaluzhny said.
how many will die if you do get 100,000 shells in a week
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said earlier this year that “Ukraine is using significantly more rounds than the entire alliance can produce.”
maybe the entire alliance needs their allowance raised
Right. What else is it? If not a show for the outside world’s various interests, what is really happening? A slow national suicide “assisted” by outsiders?
The basic approach is: kill more Russians. If the Russians can’t handle it, leave. Ukraine is advancing on many fronts (see: Robotyne).
The Russians can end this today. Until then, the Ukes will use whatever means to kill Russians. You tankies seem to be confused by that basic premise…
Without the fresh weapons and training they lost 70,000 men and still lost Bakhmut and Soladar. With the equipment and training they have taken back eight small towns and a decent amount of land on other fronts, it’s cost them another 25,000 men. Which is the more successful operation, the Defense of Bakhmut or this offensive?
Now imagine that they still had those 70,000 men and their equipment to throw at the front line?
Perhaps this offensive would be going better if they hadn’t lost half of their combat hardened soldiers on that stupid defense and were using them too? But they got rid of Wagner right? OK, they killed twenty thousand prisoners and another ten thousand mercenaries, and Putin no longer has to worry about Prig. Was that a good exchange? Doubt it.
Zaluzhny said earlier that he hoped his troops would forgive him for throwing away so many lives in Bachmut and that he was counting on this offensive to go well thanks to the newly trained men and their equipment. But If I had to bet, I’d bet he wishes he had those 70,000 men and their equipment back right about now.
Those men were Combat hardened, many of them had seen fierce fighting on more than one front before being sent to that meat grinder. That WAS their most powerful weapon, not NATO training that doesn’t work without air support, not magical tanks that blow up like any other tank. And yes some of the Ukrainian losses at the end were just cannon fodder, like Wagner’s prisoners, but I watched the different sites that list which Ukrainian units are moving around and they moved a ton of their best men into Bakhmut and in my opinion their lives were wasted and so was Ukraine’s most capable weapon.
The presumptive reasons for the Ukrainians holding on to Bakhmut so tightly were two:
1) Playing for time. The longer the war drags on, the more disadvantageous the Russian position in terms of supply/logistics versus opponents with many times their production capacity, and Bakhmut delayed the Russian conquest of Donetsk by eight months.
2) Inflicting, likely, 2-3 times as many casualties as they took. While the Ukrainians are in the same position as the Confederacy on that count — they just don’t have as many troops TO lose as the Russians — high casualty counts and the possibility of forcing expanded mobilization/conscription on the Russians aren’t good for Russian morale.
Too bad, the US is no longer the Arsenal of
DemocracyFascism . . .hereAmerikkka’s homeless say “they need” shelter from the elements.
Amerikkka’s hungry say “they need” food for their children.
Amerikkka’s sick say “they need” affordable health care.
Amerikkka’s working poor say “they need” a livable wage.
Sorry, folks, you’re on the back burner. Ol’ Mush-Brain has bigger fish to fry….oh, the glory of battle!
That pisses ME off.
Ukraine’s Top General Says He Needs More Western Arms for Sale at the Black Market