Although Kyiv is supplied with a large amount of modern weapons by the West, even top US generals and former senior aide to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky have doubts about Ukraine’s military fortunes.
According to Aleksey Arestovich, a former senior adviser to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, there is no guarantee that Kiev will be able to defeat Moscow’s forces, and Ukraine has squandered the opportunity to gain the upper hand in the conflict with Russia.
On January 22, Arestovich said in an interview with political analyst Yuri Romanenko that “if everyone thinks that we are guaranteed to win the war, it seems very unlikely.”
Mr. Arestovich said that Ukraine had “not only missed a military opportunity”, but also missed the opportunity in terms of timing. So, the Russians jumped on the bandwagon, started mobilizing forces, restored the situation on the front lines, and even built up an advantage in some places.
Mr. Arestovich was an Assistant to the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky. On January 17, Arestovich submitted his resignation after claiming that a Russian missile that landed in a residential area, killing dozens of people in the city of Dnipro, was shot down by Ukrainian air defenses.
With the facts provided, Mr. Arestovich was violently “criticised.” It is generally accepted that Mr. Arestovich is attributing the deaths of the residents of the building in Dnipro to the Ukrainian military. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, a Russian Kh-22 missile struck the Dnipro building. Kiev has not yet been successful in intercepting this kind of air-launched cruise missile.
Later, Mr. Arestovich expressed regret for his comments, calling them “a tremendous mistake.” On the same day, the Office of the President of Ukraine approved Arestovich’s resignation.
Regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said over the weekend that this year, it will be very, very difficult for Ukraine to dislodge Russian troops from the areas that are currently occupied.
According to RT, speaking at a meeting of the US-led Defense Liaison Group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, General Milley said US President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and most European leaders said the war was “likely to end in a negotiation” But from a military point of view, “this was a very, very difficult war,” said General Milley.
General Milley said that Ukraine will continue to fight to fulfill its commitment to expel Russian forces from its territory. However, “this year, it will be very, very difficult to push the Russian army out of every inch of Ukraine.”
According to RT, the Ukrainian lands General Milley mentioned are Crimea (which was annexed to Russia after a referendum in 2014) and the four regions that were newly annexed to Russia last October after the referendums. referendum, including Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia.
The Ukrainian leadership has repeatedly stated that it is ready to take back those territories by force if Moscow does not give them up.
In the “peace formula” first introduced in November 2022, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky also demanded the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, which means that Russia must give up four newly annexed regions along with the peninsula. Crimea.
However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov rejected Zelensky’s 10-point peace plan, calling it “unrealistic and inadequate”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also stated: “No Ukrainian peace plan is possible without taking into account the current reality of the four territories newly annexed to Russia. Any plan that does not take this into account cannot be called a peace plan.”
