The brawl over what to do with Ukraine may have escalated with the arrival in Kiev today of Britain’s newly-appointed Foreign Secretary David Cameron.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has doubled down on the necessity of fighting Russia to the bloody end. He told foreign journalists yesterday that a stalemate, as recently mentioned by Kiev’s UAF Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny, was unthinkable. “If there is a stalemate and a frozen conflict, we have to honestly say that our children, or our grandchildren, will have to fight.” Even though they’ve “already lost too many people,” Ukraine can’t afford to even think about freezing the conflict, “however hard it may be…. If we want to end the war, we must end it.” Russia must be “put in its place” to keep from attacking Ukraine again.
Zaluzhny’s more realistic appraisal, including a possible negotiated solution, was given some support when Kiev’s Andriy Yermak, the Head of the Office of the President, came away from his Nov. 13 meeting in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken with help for getting through the winter. The customary “money and guns” announcement was not heard. Further, reports have circulated—Asia Times, Moon Over Alabama, Simplicius, Military Review—that CIA Director William Burns was about to deliver the hard news to Zelenskyy, on a Nov. 15 secret trip to Kiev, that it might be time for Zelenskyy to go. The presidential election that Zelenskyy had canceled, in which Zaluzhny had odds to win over Zelenskyy, needed to be conducted no later than the spring.
A day afterwards, it is not clear whether the Burns trip actually took place yesterday, but it is very clear that Cameron hurried into Kiev on his unannounced visit, where he backed Zelenskyy 110%. According to the Kyiv Post, Zelenskyy’s office reported today Cameron’s assurance: “We will continue to give you the moral support, diplomatic support, the economic support, but above all, the military support, that you need not just this year, and next year, but for however long it takes.” While this was much needed support for Zelenskyy, it is not clear how solid it is nor how long it could last.