In an interview with Time magazine released Oct. 30, the truth about the death of the cause of Ukraine’s war is becoming more and politically acceptable to discuss. Time reporter Simon Shuster apparently gets to follow Volodymyr Zelenskyy and some of his top aides around as part of the interview. What comes across immediately is the frustration with Ukraine’s Western partners for having war fatigue, especially after the onset of the Israeli-Palestine war.
“Exhaustion with the war rolls along like a wave. You see it in the United States, in Europe. And we see that as soon as they start to get a little tired, it becomes like a show to them,” Zelenskyy said. Later in the interview, he admitted that if U.S. arm sales dry up to Ukraine, Ukraine will lose.
In a telling part of the report, Shuster writes: “Despite the recent setbacks on the battlefield, he does not intend to give up fighting or to sue for any kind of peace. On the contrary, his belief in Ukraine’s ultimate victory over Russia has hardened into a form that worries some of his advisers. It is immovable, verging on the messianic. ‘He deludes himself,’ one of his closest aides tells me in frustration. ‘We’re out of options. We’re not winning. But try telling him that….’ Zelenskyy’s stubbornness, some of his aides say, has hurt their team’s efforts to come up with a new strategy, a new message. As they have debated the future of the war, one issue has remained taboo: the possibility of negotiating a peace deal with the Russians.”
In a discussion on the battlefield situation, one of Zelenskyy’s close aides conceded: “We’re not moving forward,” adding that some commanders refuse orders to advance, “even when they came directly from the office of the President.” He also said that “even if the U.S. and its allies come through with all the weapons they have pledged, ‘we don’t have the men to use them.’” The average age of a soldier in Ukraine is now 43 years old.
On the subject of corruption and bribery charges, the interviewer paraphrases what a “top presidential advisor” told him in private when he raised the question: “Simon, you’re mistaken. People are stealing like there’s no tomorrow.”
