Ukraine blogger Oleksii Arestovych, who has announced his intention to run for the Presidency—should President Zelenskyy ever allow such an election—and who presently poses as Kiev’s voice of “realism,” posted on Telegram over the weekend that Ukraine has to “face reality” and admit that it cannot defeat Russia on the battlefield. Rather, Kiev should strive for peace with Moscow in exchange for NATO guarantees. The belief in a “swift and beautiful victory”—his allusion to Gen. Valery Zaluzhny’s critical comments last week—by Ukraine over Russia is nothing but an “illusion.... The enemy is stronger in the economic, military, mobilizational and organizational sense.” The Western nations that support Ukraine have no interest in seeing Russia defeated. “Under the current circumstances, a military victory over Russia does not seem possible,” Arestovych maintained.
Arestovych had worked as a “Strategic Communications Adviser” in the Office of the President up until January 2023, when he was dumped for throwing cold water on some of the regime’s preposterous claims. In more postings over this last weekend, he added that a simple “belief in victory”—alluding to Zelenskyy’s language—is not enough. Ukrainians need to “get sober and face reality.” Ukraine should demand NATO accession in exchange for a commitment not to try to win back territory controlled by Russia through military means. “All the talk about returning to the 1991 borders through military actions under the current circumstances can only be lip service.”
Earlier, on Oct. 14, he had proclaimed that Ukraine’s counteroffensive had failed, that its troops had built no defensive lines, and that Zelenskyy has allowed corruption and incompetence to flourish. Ukraine was not going to retake Crimea nor restore the 1991 borders, despite the “blood, sweat, and tears” of the Ukrainian people. While Russia is building war production and building partnership throughout the Global South, Ukraine “suppresses business, civil liberties and political competitors, quarrels with neighbors and key partners, and encourages corruption…. Our leadership, in my assessment, exhausted the limits of its competence a long time ago.” His message: Ukraine was at a dead end and new elections are the only way out of the impasse.
