The reality of Putin’s victories in the Ukraine war is hard for the MSM to swallow.
All over the relentless news cycle, the once all-powerful Mainstream Media is doing endless rounds to warm up the unsuspecting public to the seemingly inevitable fact of the upcoming Russian victory in the Ukraine war.
The most painful (for them) exercises have to deal with the fact that the Russian President is personally on the cusp of a major military and geopolitical victory.
That’s the bitterest pill for the mockingbirds.
It’s interesting to take a look at an opinion piece by Daniel Hannan for the Daily Telegraph – which incidentally is a politically conservative paper that has endorsed the Conservative Party at every UK general election since 1945.
Much like the Tories in the last decades, there is a heavy Globalist streak tainting the British ‘conservative’ coverage of this war.
I highlight this piece not for the profundity of the insight or for any appreciation of the tired geopolitical takes – but, on the contrary, as a shining early example of how the MSM is being dragged – and will continue to be dragged – kicking and screaming, into admitting the defeat of their Ukrainian wishful-thinking.
He begins conceding that “Ukraine’s counteroffensive has failed – or, in Volodymyr Zelensky’s words, ‘did not achieve the desired results’.”
As the initiative is swinging to the Russian Federation forces and international aid begins to run out, Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, went on the BBC to warn that her country is in ‘mortal danger’.
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Hannan highlights the Russian big demographic advantage, the industrial drive to war, and says they ‘may now have the edge when it comes to drones’ – which is a cope by the writer, since the superiority by now is clear and undisputed.
He dares utter the feared words: “Russia has made it through to winter without a Ukrainian breakthrough.”
He is ready to admit to have been deluded as ‘one of those who expected Ukraine to break through to the Sea of Azov, a move that might well have ended the war’.
“Why did I get it wrong? I had been talking not only to Ukrainians, but to British military observers with direct knowledge of the battlefield. They had watched the extraordinary Ukrainian gains in Kharkiv and Kherson in 2022 – gains that had emboldened the West to offer the kinds of matériel that they had previously held back from sending, lest it fall into enemy hands.”
This is hardly the forum for that discussion, but while Ukrainians did re-conquer Kharkov, in Kherson Russian forces – who in fact are very averse to troop losses – retreated across the Dnieper fearing that Ukraine would explode the Dam and flood the region – which ended up happening later in the war.
But the author is right that the often-sung victories – they have to forget they lost Bakhmut since that period, but oh, well – gave impetus to backers, and Ukraine now had long-range missiles, mine-clearing kit and modern tanks for their troops.
“But the invaders had learnt from their earlier mistakes. While Ukraine rushed to train its men in how to operate their new weapons last spring, Russia seeded mile after mile of landmines, built fortifications, dug trenches and amassed drones.”
He reaches a painful admission that ‘Putin needs only to hang on for another 12 months’ – which is another cope, because Russians are not ‘hanging in’, they are advancing in many parts of the front.
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Allow me to skip his detestable takes about Donald Trump and the republicans – his feelings are hurt.
He goes on to say that ‘You can’t have missed the spring in Putin’s step‘ – which is a keen observation – as he visits UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Putin’s victory will signal to the world that NATO could not succeed in ‘rescuing’ a country that the US and the UK promised to protect.
Next Hannan has an almost mea-culpa over the reality of Ukraine’s increasingly authoritarian political system.
“The case for intervention in Ukraine is not that it is a liberal democracy. […] Russophile parties have been banned, and there is a worry that the crackdown might extend to pro-Western opposition politicians, too. This week, I was at a meeting of global Centre-Right parties at which Petro Poroshenko, the former president, was meant to speak. At the last minute, he and two of his MPs were banned from leaving Ukraine – and though Poroshenko patriotically declined to make a fuss, it left me wondering, not for the first time, why Zelensky refuses to draw other parties into a wartime coalition.”
He may be wondering, but we know for sure.
His final take is also worth sharing.
“While we are not ourselves at war this time, we are so invested in the Ukrainian cause that a Russian victory – and absorbing conquered territory is a Russian victory, present it how you will – would mean a catastrophic loss of prestige for the West and the ideas associated with it: personal freedom, democracy and human rights.”
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