Ukrainian commander in chief Valery Zaluzhny’s Nov. 1 interview with British weekly The Economist, in which he admitted that the war has entered a “stalemate” putting Ukraine and some of their allies into hot water. The deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, Igor Zhovkva, came out on national TV on Nov. 3 to calm the nerves of a growing hysteria. Zhovkva admitted that panic has hit some of Ukraine’s Western supporters. “I received a call from one of the heads of the offices of the leaders [of our allies], and they asked in a panic: ‘What should I report to my leader? Are you really at a dead end?’ Is this what we wanted to achieve with this article?” he reported.
In another comment almost threatening to throw Zaluzhny under the bus, Zhovkva said that “the last thing I would do is comment for the press … about what is happening at the front [and] what could happen at the front.” This kind of thing plays right into Russia’s hands, he remarked.