2023-11-01 00:50:26
Zelensky warns that part of the world has now become accustomed to the war in Ukraine, considering it almost a repetitive spectacle. Public support for aid to Ukraine is waning in the United States, with a significant decline in interest in the conflict:
Yes Time: “No one believes in our victory like me.” Inside Volodymyr Zelensky’s fight to keep Ukraine in the fight – October 30, 2023
Every day it gets harder. Twenty months after the start of the war, about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory remains under Russian occupation. Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed, and Zelensky senses in his travels that global interest in the war has cooled. The same goes for the level of international support. “The scariest thing is that part of the world has gotten used to the war in Ukraine,” he says. “The exhaustion caused by war flows 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 for them: “I can’t watch this rerun for the tenth time.”
Public support for aid to Ukraine has been declining in the United States for months, and Zelensky’s visit has done nothing to revive it. According to a Reuters poll conducted shortly after Zelensky’s departure, about 41% of Americans want Congress to provide more weapons to Kiev, down from 65% in June, when Ukraine began a major counteroffensive. That offensive has progressed at an excruciating pace and with huge casualties, making it increasingly difficult for Zelensky to convince partners that victory is just around the corner. With the outbreak of war in Israel, keeping the world’s attention on Ukraine has also become a major challenge.
After his visit to Washington, TIME followed the president and his team to Kiev, hoping to understand how they would react to the signals they had received, particularly the insistent calls for Zelensky to fight corruption within his own government, and to the fading enthusiasm for a war with no end in sight. On my first day in Kiev, I asked a member of his circle how the president felt. The answer came without a second’s hesitation: “Angry.”
The usual spark of his optimism, his sense of humor, his tendency to liven up a meeting in the war room with a bit of banter or an obscene joke, none of this has survived into the second year of total war. “Now he comes in, gets the updates, gives the orders and leaves,” says a longtime member of his team. Another tells me that, above all, Zelensky feels betrayed by his Western allies. They left him without the means to win the war, but only with the means to survive.
But his beliefs have not changed. Despite recent defeats on the battlefield, he does not intend to give up fighting or ask for any kind of peace. On the contrary, his confidence in Ukraine’s eventual victory over Russia has consolidated in a form that worries some of his advisors. He is immobile, verging on the messianic. “He’s deluding himself,” one of his closest collaborators tells me in frustration. “We’ve run out of options. We’re not winning. But he tries to tell her.”
Full TIME article here: (
Considerations
It is crucial that European countries do not allow Russia to undermine regional security and prevail in Ukraine, underlined by the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola. However, a significant problem arises: the European Union faces this challenge in an essentially isolated manner, as the collective Western world has deeply divergent views regarding the Ukrainian conflict.
Furthermore, the offensive continued to advance at a harrowing pace and with considerable casualties, making it increasingly difficult for Zelensky to persuade his partners that victory was close. The emergence of the conflict in Israel has also amplified the difficulty of keeping global attention focused on Ukraine, posing a challenge of considerable magnitude.
Although Brussels claims that the support has not worn out its welcome, the actual attitude in the region, as demonstrated by elections in Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Switzerland, where conservative-leaning parties achieved a significant increase in support, suggests otherwise. This is not necessarily a manifestation of a still noticeable change in support for Kiev, but rather a testimony to the fact that Europeans are becoming prisoners of a complex and difficult to manage situation by idiotically aiming for the destruction of Russia, while the conflict it was easily avoidable.
The situation well expressed by Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico: I was not at all surprised when I saw that Zelensky’s video message to the European Council was received without any interest. Times are truly changing. Until recently he was greeted with applause everywhere, but now he is not allowed to speak in some chambers of lawmakers, as was the case recently in the United States. The war has reached a stalemate. I am increasingly convinced that it is not about Ukraine, but about a policy aimed at economically weakening Russia. The European Union should act as a mediator and promoter of negotiations between Russia and the United States, which have effectively clashed in a military conflict on the territory of Ukraine. If the EU is interested in this, this is the best time to do it. The basis of all this should be the immediate cessation of all hostilities. I must note with regret that peace was not discussed at all at the European Council in Brussels.
#TIME #ZELENSKY #DELUDED #Talking #prohibited