“Most difficult time of the war”: Ukraine must answer serious questions

More than two months after the start of its counter-offensive, Ukraine still cannot report any successes. President Selensky and his supporters in Germany and the EU are in need of explanations.

For a long time, the situation was glossed over. But now the doubts about the success of the Ukrainian counter-offensive have also reached the mainstream, as we have shown with several examples from international media. In recent days, the concerns have become even louder. “Western allies are receiving increasingly ‘sobering’ updates on Ukraine’s counteroffensive,” CNN reports. “This is the most difficult time of the war”.

Hope is also fading in the German media. Russia expert Alexander Gabuyev, for example, says in Der Spiegel that the Ukrainian offensive will probably not be enough to bring the Russian side to the negotiating table. “It all boils down to a war of attrition that will last for years.”

If this is so – and my sources in Brussels confirm this assessment – then some serious questions are pressing:

• Why is the counter-offensive failing when, according to Nato Secretary General Stoltenberg, enough Western weapons have been delivered to “take back land”?
• What happened to the Leopards, the Bradleys and other supposedly superior systems? So far, about 30 per cent have been destroyed – how can this be explained?
• Why does Ukraine want more weapons, including outlawed ones? What advantage are Taurus cruise missiles supposed to bring where Storm Shadows are already in use?
• What is the plan to turn the tide? Ukraine has changed tactics again and again but has not achieved an operational breakthrough. Is it because of the strategy?
• Why are Western red lines being crossed – with attacks on civilian targets in Moscow and on oil shipments in the Black Sea? Can Selensky still be trusted?

Ukraine is in need of an explanation. Last year, it was still able to keep the West in line with its impressive resistance. But now it has failed to prove that Western support is still worthwhile.

Scholz, too, must explain himself

Selenskyj is on the defensive, the image of the radiant victor is fading. He is still trying to shift the blame for his military misery onto others and to talk his way out of it with a lack of help from Germany, for example.

But even the Taurus campaign cannot hide the fact that Kiev is stuck in the “fog of war” and does not know how to get out of it. It not only lacks weapons, it also lacks soldiers – and an (exit) strategy.

And this is falling more and more on Germany. Not only Selenskyj is in trouble. Scholz, Baerbock & Co. must also explain why they are allowing themselves to be dragged deeper and deeper into the mess – and how long this is to continue…

The original post (in German) is here