Tensions in Kiev

‘Tensions in Kiev: Mounting Frustration over the Lack of Military Successes Leads a Former Advisor to President Zelensky to Speak of a “System Question”‘ – by Reinhard Lauterbach, Junge Welt, 1 November 2023

Original German-language article here. Translation mine – MZ

Waiting in the trenches: Ukrainian soldiers on the front line in Donbass, 7 October 2023

It is highly unusual that senior officials of a country at war publicly accuse their own head of state of being out of touch with reality. What’s even more extraordinary is that they make such allegations to a foreign media outlet. The fact that this media source is based in the US implies that a game is being played, with the global press serving as the last means to apply pressure on the country’s own leadership.

It is quite obvious who might have an interest in this intrigue: in the short term, those elements within the establishment from whose circles Volodymyr Zelensky, according to Monday’s Time report, wants to choose a minister and a general as scapegoats in the next few weeks and sack them. Ukrainian media have long reported disagreements regarding the future strategy. It has been suggested that the military commander-in-chief, Valery Salushny, has been unsuccessful in persuading the president of the necessity to halt the offensive in the southern part of the country and switch to a defensive stance.

“The dumbest government in Europe”: Sahra Wagenknecht’s speech of 8 September 2022.

We live in troubled times, and much of Europe is bracing for a ‘hot autumn,’ and a potentially harsh winter. As Putin’s and Zelensky’s forces continue to slaughter each other in Ukraine – a war of attrition to the last Ukrainian and, it would increasingly seem, to the last Russian too – people are beginning to wonder whether Europe’s self-embargo for the sake of Ukraine’s ‘territorial integrity’, and the interest the US holds in the region, was really such a great idea. IIn Bulgaria, mass demonstrations and a vote of no confidence have already led to the removal of a pro-Western government, which has been replaced by a cabinet willing to negotiate with Gazprom. Similarly, tens of thousands are protesting in Prague, calling for the resignation of the Czech government. In Turin, people are openly burning their energy bills, and across Germany, Monday demonstrations against the impoverishment policies of the liberal ‘traffic-light coalition’ (SPD, FDP, and Greens) are gaining momentum. The liberals are reacting in the only way they know: they warn that far-right groups are also attending the protests, and therefore nobody else should. Better to freeze and starve!