Lord David Richards, former chief of the U.K. defense staff—recently awarded the rank of field marshal—told the Independent in an interview that Ukraine can’t defeat Russia. “Even with the right resources?” the interviewer asked. “No, they haven’t got the manpower,” Richards replied.
Richards is not optimistic about Ukraine’s outlook. “Unless we were to go in with them—which we won’t do because Ukraine is not an existential issue for us. It clearly is for the Russians, by the way,” he said. “We’ve decided because it’s not an existential issue, we will not go to war. We are, you can argue—and I absolutely accept it—in some sort of hybrid war [with Russia]. But that’s not the same as a shooting war in which our soldiers are dying in large numbers.
“Despite our attraction for all they’ve achieved and our genuine affections for so many Ukrainians, I’m just still in this school that says this is not in our vital national interests,” he concluded. “My instinct is that the best Ukraine can do, and you already see President Zelenskyy, who’s an inspirational leader … the best they can do is a sort of a score draw.”
Try telling that to Zelenskyy.
UNN reported in the morning of Oct. 20 that Zelenskyy told reporters that the Kiev regime is working on contracts for the supply of 25 Patriot air defense systems to be paid for with frozen Russian assets. “In coordination with the relevant U.S. services, we have held talks with defense companies regarding air defense, and are preparing a contract for 25 Patriot systems,” he said. “A team came to the United States: Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, Head of the Office Andrii Yermak, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov. They prepared these meetings of ours, then my meetings with them took place, then my meetings at the White House. And before that, there were phone calls with President Trump.”
The problem, Zelenskyy said, is that there’s a long queue of customers ahead of Ukraine, but he claimed that can be solved if a political decision is one to do so.
“The second story is with long-range weapons, namely with ‘Tomahawks,’ Zelenskyy went on. “President Trump publicly said that America needs them. In my opinion, he does not want escalation with the ‘Russkies’ until he meets with them. We have said both publicly and non-publicly that we are ready to meet in any format that works. Of course, I believe that the main thing is the result.”
