Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky—who has benefited from Hollywood adulation that included made-for-the-camera visits by Ben Stiller, Sean Penn, and Orlando Bloom—admitted last week that the long-anticipated counteroffensive is faltering and reminded reporters the war is not a Hollywood movie.

“Some people believe this is a Hollywood movie and expect results now. It’s not,” he said, after admitting that military operations are progressing “slower than desired.”

“What’s at stake is people’s lives,” he said. 

TRENDPOST: While Western mainstream media outlets presented Russian forces as insufficient and unprofessional at the beginning of weeks of the war, The Trends Journal took the unpopular position and urged Ukraine to negotiate for peace because its military was completely outmatched by Russian forces. (See “PUTIN BLAMES UKRAINE FOR A FREEZE IN PEACE TALKS, TELLS EU LEADERS MOSCOW IS READY TO NEGOTIATE” 31 May 2022, “ZELENSKY REJECTS PEACE PROPOSAL, SAYS UKRAINE WILL BEAT RUSSIA” 31 May 2022, “WEAPONS POURING INTO UKRAINE, NO TALK OF PEACE, JUST MORE AMMUNITION” 12 Apr 2022 and “U.S. WAR HAWKS ON THE HUNT FOR PUTIN” 22 Mar 2022.)

Gerald Celente, who has voiced his opposition to Russia’s decision to invade, has likened the conflict to an armed home-invader: if you’re a homeowner and can meet this intruder with deadly force, pursuing a confrontation is sensible. But if you are unarmed and untrained, the best option would be to neutralize the threat by negotiating.

In Ukraine’s case, the help will never come. 

Kyiv will never be made a full member of NATO and the West will just provide Ukraine with more weapons in hopes to achieve its stated goals to weaken Russia.  

Russia Stops Playing Games 

Russia turned the contested territory in the country’s east into a minefield and its air superiority has turned the counteroffensive into a bloodbath. Russian troops are protected by highly fortified positions.  

Two Western officials and a senior U.S. military official told CNN that the counteroffensive is “not meeting expectations on any front.”

The CNN report said U.S. officials will reassess the counteroffensive in July. 

Hanna Maliar, the Ukrainian deputy defense minister, told reporters last week that they recaptured about 44 square miles of territory since the new offensive began. 

“The Russians are putting up a furious resistance,” she admitted.

Sergey Shoigu, Maliar’s Russian counterpart, said Ukraine launched 263 attacks against Russian positions since 4 June, and all attacks have been crushed. 

“Thanks to the smart and selfless actions of our units, all of them [the attacks] have been repelled. The enemy has not accomplished its goals,” he said, according to RT.

Two German defense experts said in an interview with the German public-service television broadcaster ZDF that Ukraine has, thus far, seized land that is not very important, according to RT.

Russia has been employing a remote-controlled mine system to protect its forces, has been using “extremely intense electronic warfare” to jam up radio communication systems, and—since the dam bombing—was able to consolidate forces and defend less territory, they said.

The two said Ukraine has only sent a small percentage of its forces, so the main thrust of the counteroffensive has not been implemented, they said.

Ukraine claimed that Russia has lost about 4,600 troops and Moscow said Kyiv lost about 13,000 fighters.

“Additional military hardware can certainly be delivered, but the mobilization reserve is not unlimited. And it seems Ukraine’s Western allies are indeed prepared to wage the war to the last Ukrainian,” Putin said, according to RT, the Russian news outlet.

TRENDPOST: While the Western media continues to look for ways to protect Zelensky, the counteroffensive continues to falter. Putin told reporters that Ukraine has no chance of defeating his forces. 

“Thanks to the courage and heroism of our fighters, thanks to the commanders’ readiness to repel any aggressive actions against Russia, I believe the enemy doesn’t stand a chance,” Putin said. “They understand that and this is why they have stalled now.”

Putin made the comment while addressing military college graduates and he said there is a current “lull” in the war because Ukraine cannot sustain the amount of casualties that it’s been absorbing. The Russian President said there was sporadic gunfire and attacks but “there is currently no active offensive.”

The Western media has already given a glimpse of how it will respond if the counteroffensive is a major flop. The New York Times ran a headline that read: “Battling Russia, Ukrainian Leaders Also Fight High Expectations.”

What high expectations?

Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, said earlier this month that Ukraine will not be graded on its war effort.