“AFTER 970 days of war,” said Lloyd Austin, America’s defence secretary, visiting Kyiv on October 21st, “Putin has not achieved one single strategic objective.” In public, Mr Austin offered certitude, confidence and clarity: “Moscow will never prevail in Ukraine.” In private, his colleagues in the Pentagon, Western officials and many Ukrainian commanders are increasingly concerned about the direction of the war and Ukraine’s ability to hold back Russian advances over the next six months.
The Economist can fuck alllllll the way off with their right-wing agenda
It’s not an agenda, it’s the reality. According to Reuters, Russia captured 196 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory in one week yesterday. To give you an idea of what that means in the scale of the conflict, Ukraine currently control 570 square kilometres of Kursk, and controlled a maximum of 1000 square kilometres at the peak of the incursion. This was touted as their massive offensive into Russian territory. In other words, Russia captured the equivalent of over a third of the Russian territory Ukraine holds in Kursk, in one week in Ukraine. Ukraine has lost multiple “fortress cities” over the past month, which has crippled their ability to defend their territory.
The fact that even the Economist, a source which is usually pro US foreign policy and pro Ukraine, is admitting that things are going bad in Ukraine should be very concerning.
seems a strange conclusion. ukraine seized twice that in the first week of its offensive.