President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that Ukraine’s partners “are afraid of Russia losing the war” and would like Kyiv “to win in such a way that Russia does not lose,” Zelensky said in a meeting with journalists attended by the Kyiv Independent.

Kyiv’s allies “fear” Russia’s loss in the war against Ukraine because it would involve “unpredictable geopolitics,” according to Zelensky. “I don’t think it works that way. For Ukraine to win, we need to be given everything with which one can win,” he said.

His statement came on May 16 amid Russia’s large-scale offensive in Kharkiv Oblast and ongoing heavy battles further east. In a week, Russian troops managed to advance as far as 10 kilometers in the northern part of Kharkiv Oblast, according to Zelensky.

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  • rusticus@lemm.ee
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    1 month ago

    This is and always has been a proxy war and a siege meant to exhaust Russian resources slowly and without rapidly escalating to more destructive methods.

    • retrospectology@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Unfortunately this is a big part of why the first big summer counter-offensive by Ukraine stalled; NATO delayed aid by just enough that it guarunteed the war would drag out.

      Personally I think it’s about money for the industrial military complex. If the war had ended quickly while Ukraine had men, momentum and the initiative it would mean less money for industrialists.

      Even US generals like Patreaus were predicting the delay by the Biden admin on F-16s etc. would lead to a massively protracted conflict.

      It makes one ashamed that when our country finally does have a righteous cause for our massive military complex our leaders are still playing grab ass trying to make a buck while Ukrainians are fighting to exist. It’s one of Biden’s (and NATOs) biggest failures.

      • abracaDavid@lemmy.today
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        1 month ago

        The insane amount of power that US military industrial complex has over our country and therefore the world is completely fucked.

        Eisenhower was right.

    • Gsus4@mander.xyz
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      1 month ago

      Siege of whom? Normally, a siege ends when the sieger goes home. If russia wants to stop bleeding, go home.

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Ukraine is currently under siege. That’s who is being sieged. The proxy war is because no one in the West wants a direct conflict between two nuclear powers. Russia is being bled by a thousand cuts here. They’ve lost over 70% of their stockpiles, probably more like 80-90% at this point, so far and every day that Putler continues his war, it adds more years of Russia ceasing to be a global power at any level.

      • StrawberryPigtails@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 month ago

        I don’t think it started as a proxy war. Russia just decided to be stupid, but at this point it may very well be a proxy war in fact.

        It’s to pretty much everyone’s benefit (except Ukraine’s) for this to drag out for a nice long time. The more manpower and material Russia and their allies burns up in this stupidity, the longer the rest of Europe can breath freely. It gives them time to rebuild the armies that they have allowed to atrophy. There’s probably more to it and it’s callus as fuck, but that’s the math I see.

        • leviathan3k@sh.itjust.works
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          1 month ago

          It is very much to Ukraine’s benefit to drag out this war if the alternative is Russian subjucation.

          If on the other hand the alternative you are seeking is flooding Ukraine with Western-provided weapons to the point that they annihilate the invaders and win quickly… yeah, that would be better for Ukraine than a drawn-out war.

      • Killing_Spark@feddit.de
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        1 month ago

        It’s a kind of mix of a proxy war. Russia is involved itself but Ukraine is used as a proxy by the west I guess?

      • rusticus@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        Yes and in return Ukraine eliminated all nuclear weapons. This will be an example used for the future for why countries will NEVER agree to denuclearize regardless of the language in a “treaty”.