With Europeans ultimately deciding not to touch Russian assets and instead allocate €90 billion from the EU budget to support Ukraine, they sent a clear message: that they fear Russia and its power.
With the Americans making it clear that they will not provide further aid to Kyiv unless they are paid for it, the main burden falls on the Europeans, who, however, as it turns out, cannot support “until the last Ukrainian”.
At the same time, the news is extremely worrying for Zelensky.
Many Ukrainian cities have been left without electricity for more than 20 hours in the middle of winter, while intense protests, reaching the brink of an uprising, are being recorded in Odessa, which is suffering from extensive blackouts.
Analysts estimate that under these conditions, Ukraine is heading with mathematical certainty toward a civil conflict.
All this comes at a time when the Russian army is advancing along all front lines, capturing more and more territory and settlements.
The Russians are approaching the city of Zaporizhia. The latest information says they are less than 20 kilometers away and, as Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned, Russia will take all its historical lands by military means if deemed necessary.
Shock
About a month and a half ago, a video began circulating on social media in which an alleged Ukrainian soldier who had abandoned his position warns: “I left without a weapon.
Now they are leaving in armored vehicles.
Do you understand what that means?
I spoke with a friend, he tells me: ‘I will come to Kyiv only to kill, rob and rape.’”
The video was most likely created with the help of Artificial Intelligence and was not published by serious media outlets, so such frightening stories could have been ignored.
If it were not for the “but”.
With a similar warning on a forum addressing problems faced by veterans of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, it was not a random individual who appeared, but the former Chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valery Zaluzhny.
“We must understand that under conditions such as a sharp drop in income, lack of work, lack of housing and the inability to realize one’s ambitions in society and family, people with combat experience become vulnerable to various challenges and the temptation of easy profit,” Zaluzhny said, adding that “this could pose a serious threat to the security of the country, even a civil war.”
Defector general
It is important to note that for some Ukrainian soldiers and even MPs, Zaluzhny is seen as something of a coward who, due to tense relations with Zelensky, resigned and went to London as ambassador instead of continuing to command the army.
There, the general and diplomat managed to be photographed in a fashionable photoshoot for Vogue magazine.
In Ukraine, this photoshoot became the subject of memes and was generally received with humor, sometimes dark humor.
“For some it’s Vogue, for others severed legs in Rabotino,” wrote Ukrainian MP Marianna Bezuhlaya, recalling the failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the summer of 2023 under Zaluzhny’s command.
Overall, now, instead of an AI-created deserter soldier, Ukrainians are being frightened by the return of a deserter general.
And these warnings are not unfounded.
Zaluzhny understands well how soldiers think and how they are perceived by those who were luckier.
Moreover, he fully understands that there will be no coffee on the Yalta waterfront, nor the borders of 1991, none of that.
Fear surrounding Ukrainian soldiers
These soldiers will return from a lost war.
They will not be welcomed as victors.
Will anyone welcome them at all?
Many of them no longer have families waiting for them; their wives have left for Europe.
They will not be invited to schools to talk about how they lost the war.
They will not have a victory day. It will not come.
They will not be heroes to their fellow citizens. They will be blamed for the defeat.
What is most striking is that Ukraine has already gone through all this.
Just in a much milder form.
Where will they go?
Since 2016, the media there spoke about the “ATO syndrome” (ATO was the term used by Ukrainians to describe Kyiv’s military operations in eastern Ukraine and Donbass in 2014).
There were reports of a veteran arrested with an entire weapons cache, radicals destroying a market after a dispute with a “soldier”, a former soldier trying to organize fireworks for celebrations, Ukrainian soldiers organizing an assassination attempt on a politician and killing his three-year-old child.
These are just a few examples; in reality there are many more.
Notably, both the ATO and the “Joint Forces Operation” were conducted under much milder conditions compared to the current stage of the conflict.
This time the consequences will be far more noticeable for society.
And to which country will they return?
To a Ukraine that has been decimated by at least one third and simply abused by the West?
No one will care
After the war, Ukraine will interest no one; all resources for confrontation with Russia will have been exhausted.
They will return to a Ukraine trying to maintain a wartime army in peacetime, but lacking the means to fill the budget and pay not only veterans, but also teachers, doctors and pensioners.
They will return to a society that will look at them as failures who lost the war.
They will be greeted by the luckier ones: some were fortunate enough to be children of the right people and never know the draft office, some paid to avoid conscription, others simply had the endurance to avoid it.
Civil war
Under such conditions, the likelihood of civil war is far from negligible.
Zaluzhny fully understands this.
But why, on an ordinary forum, did he not limit himself to formal words and instead make a bold statement?
The answer is simple.
He understands that soldiers can be an important political factor.
On the one hand, as an electoral base.
His talent as a communicator is easy to explain: in his statements, Zaluzhny highlights the mistakes of the current military and political leadership and rehabilitates his own.
The entire essence of his texts is not analysis, but the creation of a simple and understandable image: “servant of the king, servant of the people, father of the soldiers.”
On the other hand, this is a frightening story he uses to scare the civilian population.
In essence, he is already frightening them.
And as if guiding potential voters who did not go to the front: “I know how to deal with them.”
Election campaign
The election campaign in Ukraine has begun.
Zelensky started with a video from the Kupyansk area, which did not inspire confidence even among Ukrainians.
Zaluzhny with concern for veterans.
It is striking that on the morning of Wednesday, 18/12, the Kyiv Institute of Sociology published poll data according to which the general outperformed the comedian Zelensky by almost double, while in the afternoon it refuted its own results.
Their battle.
And of course, Zaluzhny understands that ideological Ukrainian soldiers, of whom he has many in the army, will try to influence politics in Ukraine, as happened during the ATO period.
And he understands that this military force may prove useful to him as a political force.
Unrest in Odessa
Odessa is once again facing unrest, attributed to the prolonged state of emergency imposed on the city.
These are not only attacks against soldiers and recruiters, but mass clashes.
After a prolonged power outage, lack of heating and water, for the eighth consecutive day Odessa experienced popular unrest.
People took to the streets, with protests gradually turning into mass clashes.
Corresponding footage is being published by Ukrainian channels.
Attacks on energy infrastructure continue.
For the eighth day, the state of emergency remains in force in Odessa.
Without power for 20 hours
A similar situation is observed in many Ukrainian cities.
In some places there is no electricity for up to 20 hours.
Even local officials admit that the Ukrainian power system can withstand only a few more strikes on infrastructure.
According to Russian retired lieutenant colonel Aslan Nakhushev, only one strong strike on the ORU nuclear power plant and 750 kV substations would be enough for Zelensky to sign Ukraine’s surrender.
Ukrainian MP Goncharenko accused Zelensky from the parliamentary rostrum, reminding him of his words about a blackout in Moscow: “Yesterday, unfortunately, from this rostrum I did not hear the word Odessa, which in recent days has been plunged into darkness.
It is not only the Black Sea, it is also a black city, where there is neither light nor water, but there is a blackout.
They promised a blackout in Moscow, but we got it in Chernihiv, Sumy and now in Odessa.
Today, hundreds of thousands of Odessa residents are without electricity,” Goncharenko said.
Protests
Ukrainians are taking to the streets more and more often to protest.
While some are unhappy with Ukraine’s return to the “Stone Age”, others take up arms and begin hunting soldiers and recruiters.
Recently, various videos have circulated showing Ukrainians, including many young people, attacking and shooting recruiters, resulting in deaths and injuries.
This is happening in cities such as Mykolaiv, Poltava and Kryvyi Rih.
“This is not a revolution or an uprising, as one might imagine.
A revolution needs leaders and an idea.
There is none of that.
But there is a struggle for life, and citizens have tasted the blood of those they truly hate.
And now it simply cannot be stopped; people are taking revenge for their own, for themselves,” says Sergey Lebedev, head of a secret Russian network in Mykolaiv.
Russian advance
In the Zaporizhia direction, the Russian Armed Forces are conducting fierce battles on the approaches to Orekhov and have made significant advances in the surrounding areas of Stepnogorsk.
Russian attacks continue to maintain contact with the southern outskirts of Novodanilivka and Maly Tokmachka.
Statements about the liberation of these settlements are not yet confirmed, according to the Telegram channel “Svodki SVO”.
There are successes on the western flank, where the Russians managed to advance near Stepove, capturing several forest belts, and to break through the front in the area of Stepnogorsk itself.
The city is almost entirely under Russian control.
In the north, the offensive toward Lukyanivskyi continues.
Using the enemy’s prepared defensive line, soldiers of the 7th Airborne Division and other units managed to capture a chain of enemy positions east of Stepnogorsk.
The Ukrainian army was also driven out of positions near the solar plant and on the approaches to the abandoned metallurgical plant.
They captured 2,000 square kilometers and 89 settlements
“The offensive of the Russian Armed Forces in the Zaporizhia direction is proceeding without pauses, with about 2,000 square kilometers and 89 settlements liberated within a year.
The ‘East’ force group has fully liberated the Donetsk People’s Republic in its area and is successfully continuing in the Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
The ‘Dnieper’ force group reached the city of Orekhov and has fully ensured the security of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant,” said the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov.
Just 18 kilometers from Zaporizhia
In the Hulyaipole area, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are blocked from the south and pressed from the north.
The only road to Zaliznichne is under close surveillance by Russian UAVs and artillery, reported war correspondent Ruslan Tatarynov from the Telegram channel “Front Whisper”.
“On the morning of December 18, the distance from our forward positions to the city of Zaporizhzhia is 18 kilometers,” the Telegram channel “Condottiero” reports.
Destruction
Information was confirmed about the clearing and liberation of Gerasimivka.
The control zone near Zarechne and Peschane was also expanded.
The situation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in this direction is deteriorating seriously, as the main road artery has long been under control, while secondary roads are being hit by Russian artillery and UAVs.
Russian soldiers are making gains on the western bank of the Hanchur river, north of Ternovate, in the Gerasimivka area, where they significantly expanded the bridgehead and are gradually approaching Ternovate from the northeast. As a result of the morning attacks on December 18, forces of the “East” group significantly expanded the bridgehead southeast of Ternovate, from the side of the settlement of Dobropolie.
“In essence, we united two small bridgeheads and created one stable one, which now acquires strategic and tactical importance.
And now, in this way, we are encircling Ternovate,” noted Russian war correspondent Yuriy Podolyaka.
Ukrainians are collapsing
In Hulyaipole, Russian Armed Forces are attacking house by house, gradually expanding their control, despite Ukrainian counterattacks aimed at slowing the offensive.
As a result of fire and relentless FAB bombardments, the situation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is approaching collapse.
Ukrainians are preparing new defensive lines, reported Russian paratroopers from the channel “Archangel of Spetsnaz”: “At the moment, construction work is being recorded in the area of Vozdvizhenka and Upper Tersy, where our forces will head after the liberation of Hulyaipole.
And these will be the roads to Orekhov.”
In the Hulyaipole area, the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ defensive line along the Haichur river continues to collapse.
Not even the “fire brigade reserve” succeeded
“The attempt by units of the 110th mechanized brigade of the Defense Forces to regain lost positions ended in failure, after which they retreated toward the Novoe Pole–Ternovate line.
It is noteworthy that the so-called ‘fire brigade reserve’ of the Ukrainian command, the 225th special unit, did not even have time to participate in these battles. This unit is usually deployed to problematic areas for counterattacks and shows of force, but as it turns out, this resource is not endless for Syrskyi,” notes the Ukrainian source “Woman with the Scythe”.
Urgent news from Donetsk
“The new map of the Institute for the Study of War for Dimitrov (Myrnohrad) has never before reflected the real situation in the city so well,” says Russian retired colonel and analyst Aslan Nakhushev.
“A huge number of enemy bodies are scattered throughout the city.
In the last 24 hours, no attempts to break out of the encirclement were observed.
Essentially, in the city, which on the map is the gray zone, a clearing operation is underway.
Kyiv society pays no attention to the deaths of its soldiers.
They continue to celebrate the ‘virtual victory in Kupyansk’,” the Russian analyst says.
The last Ukrainian officer requested extraction
Reports say that the only Ukrainian Armed Forces officer who remained inside the encirclement of Myrnohrad requested extraction from command.
He is said to have the call sign “Pauls” and to belong to the 1st Azov Corps.
As reported, history is repeating itself.
Command abandoned him. His further fate remains unknown.
An obituary was also published for one of the most controversial nationalists, Taras Tselukh, who fought in the Azov National Guard.
He took part in the destruction of monuments to Soviet soldiers in Lviv and had also thrown eggs at singer Gluk’oza during her concert.
www.bankingnews.gr
Σχόλια αναγνωστών