The Trends Journal has called for Kyiv to negotiate for a peaceful settlement before Russia invaded Ukraine, not because we agree with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade, but because Ukraine has no chance of winning against a superior Russian military and it would be in the best interest of its government to get along with their superpower neighbor. 

But the U.S. and the collective West—sensing that regime change in the Kremlin could be real if the Russian war effort was a complete disaster—pumped Kyiv with 100’s of billions in aid and weapons to see to it that Ukraine can try to stand its ground. With a media willing to promote propaganda, the West couldn’t hide its excitement in the beginning stages of the war. We saw headlines that Russian forces were in disarray and that Putin fatally misjudged Volodymyr Zelensky, who stayed in Kyiv to fight. 

The former comedian Zelensky who for years was a sitcom star before becoming President of Ukraine gave headline-ready remarks, including, “I need ammunition, not a ride.”

But despite the effort, the Ukraine War does not read like a Hollywood script about an underdog who shocks the world and drops an oversized bully. Life doesn’t work that way. 

After selling the public for well over a year that Ukraine would win, over the past few weeks the West’s narrative of their Spring counteroffensive — which was supposed to prove to the West that it is not throwing good money at a bad war effort—has changed (See “PUTIN: COUNTEROFFENSIVE HAS FAILED” 25 Jun 2023, “PUTIN AGREES WITH TRENDS JOURNAL: ‘DON’T COUNT ON UKRAINE’S COUNTEROFFENSIVE’” 18 Jun 2023 and “U.S. ADMITS WHAT WE HAD FORECAST: UKRAINE’S COUNTEROFFENSIVE CONTRACTING, RUSSIAN CAPABILITIES UNDERESTIMATED” 11 Jun 2023.)

The Washington Post reported last week that it is now clear that Ukraine will fail to achieve one of its top objectives, which is to retake the pivotal city of Melitopol. The paper, citing a classified forecast, reported that “Kyiv won’t fulfill its principal objective of severing Russia’s land bridge to Crimea in this year’s push.”

The assessment lists some of the reasons that Ukraine will likely fall short of its goals, which include Russia’s “brutal proficiency in defending occupied territory through minefields and trenches.” 

This was not all that surprising to Western officials, who assumed that Ukraine would suffer tough losses in the effort. But these officials thought that Ukraine would be able to break through the Russian front. That did not happen, and these Ukrainians are still about 50 miles from Melitopol.

The paper said there is already finger-pointing in Washington, with some Republicans and Democrats blaming the Biden administration for not acting faster in providing Ukraine with weapons. Other Republicans have used the problems on the ground as an example of why the U.S. should stop funding the losing effort.

“I had said a couple of months ago that this offensive was going to be long, it’s going to be bloody, it’s going to be slow,” Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the paper. “And that’s exactly what it is: long, bloody, and slow, and it’s a very, very difficult fight.” 

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukrainian foreign minister, told the West not to believe its lying eyes. 

“We take such remarks in stride,” Kuleba said in the interview. “According to unnamed officials, generals, and analysts, Ukraine should have ceased to exist within three to 10 days in February 2022,” he told Politico. “They now expect that Ukraine will not be able to reclaim all of its territory swiftly. This demonstrates that even doubters become more hopeful with time.”

TRENDPOST: Last November, Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, jolted Washington when he said Ukraine may want to consider peace negotiations. But after being criticized for speaking about peace, he changed his tune and promoted more war. (See “MILLEY: NOT STOPPING RUSSIA IN UKRAINE WOULD MEAN MASSIVE JUMP IN U.S. DEFENSE BUDGET” 25 Apr 2023, “IS IT GEN. MILLEY OR MINNIE MOUSE? MORE BS FROM TOP U.S. GENERAL” 21 Feb 2023 and “U.S. MILITARY HEAD MILLEY CHANGES HIS TUNE AFTER CRITICIZED FOR CALLING FOR KYIV TO NEGOTIATE, NOW SAYS RUSSIA LOST!” 22 Nov 2022.)

“We’ve seen the Ukrainian military fight the Russian military to a standstill. Now, what the future holds is not known with any degree of certainty, but we think there are some possibilities here for some diplomatic solutions,” he said in an interview with CNBC.

His comments were remarkable at the time, because the Biden administration promoted only war up until that point, and Milley seemed like a powerful voice that could affect change.

But he did a quick about-face after facing severe backlash from pro-war Washington think tanks and politicians. He later said Russia already lost the conflict.

“They’ve lost strategically, they’ve lost operationally and, I repeat, they’ve lost tactically,” he said. “What they’ve tried to do, they’ve failed at. The strategic reframing of their objectives, of their illegal invasion, have all failed, every single one of them.”

Politico ran an article on Friday titled: “Milley Had a Point.”

Politico quoted one U.S. official, “who didn’t want to run afoul of the administration by offering real views on the record, said the realities of the counteroffensive are sinking in around Washington.”

“We may have missed a window to push for earlier talks,” the official said. The official said, “Milley had a point.”

Col. Douglas MacGregor, who The Trends Journal has interviewed, has criticized these kinds of comments from Washington and said they hurt the administration’s credibility. 

“General Milley has made it very clear that he’s aligned with the left, he is part of this administration, he’s going to say whatever they want him to say,” MacGregor said, according to RT.

The Kremlin has insisted since the start of the operation that it will achieve its goals, which include deNazification and demilitarizing the country. Russian forces now control about 20 percent of Ukraine since their invasion. Moscow also wants assurances that Ukraine will remain neutral and not join NATO.

The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the U.S. of carrying out a “total hybrid war” and putting the two countries on a direct path to a confrontation over its historic support for Ukraine to weaken Russia.

Its Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the U.S.’s military support for Ukraine has brought on an unprecedented crisis that resulted in no room for diplomacy.

TREND FORECAST: Again, and again, we had forecast that before the Ukraine War began, Kyiv should negotiate for peace, but we were, and continue to be, blackballed by the Presstitutes who only sell what their corporate pimps and government whore masters tell them. 

● “BIDEN WARNS AMERICANS HIS SANCTIONS WILL HURT RUSSIA… AND AMERICANS. WRONG ABOUT WHO’LL WIN THE UKRAINE WAR?” (15 Mar 2022)

● “PLACE YOUR BETS: UKRAINE VOWS VICTORY DESPITE RUSSIA’S GAINS IN EAST” (14 Jun 2022)

● “ZELENSKY BLINDED BY TRENDS JOURNAL COVER: VOWS NOT TO GIVE UP AN INCH OF TERRITORY TO RUSSIA” (12 Jul 2022)

● “HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL FOR MACRON: REPEATS CLAIM THAT RUSSIA CAN’T WIN WAR IN UKRAINE” (14 Feb 2023)

● “SCHOLZ, MACRON AGREE THAT UKRAINE WAR MUST GO ON” (21 Feb 2023)

● “FRANCE, U.K. VOW WEAPONS SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE SO KYIV ‘WINS’” (14 Mar 2023)

● “FAT-MOUTH FAT MAN CHRISTIE MEETS WITH ZELENSKY IN UKRAINE, SAYS KYIV CAN WIN” (8 Aug 2023)