Former President Zelensky aide calls for new government in Ukraine
(Baonghean.vn) - Former advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky - Mr. Aleksey Arestovich - said that Ukraine's counter-offensive campaign has failed. Mr. Arestovich argued that holding elections is the only way out of the current deadlock.
Posting on Telegram on October 14, Mr. Arestovich emphasized that President Zelensky's focus on defending the city of Bakhmut in the Donbass region (Ukraine) at all costs earlier this year had exhausted the manpower and resources that could have been deployed south to participate in the summer counteroffensive campaign.
With weather conditions worsening, the counter-offensive has now stalled. According to Russian figures, the four-month campaign has cost Ukraine 90,000 casualties and has resulted in only minimal territorial gains for Kiev.
Speaking at the UN Security Council, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia asserted that Ukraine “achieved nothing” and that the Russian army had switched to an offensive campaign on all fronts.
Mr. Arestovich noted that with the roles reversed and the Ukrainian army now on the defensive, the country has not built defensive fortifications like those established by Russia before the Ukrainian counterattack.
“Such constructions would significantly increase the operational stability of our troops, inflict greater losses on the Russian army, reduce the load on our forces and allow some of them to be redirected to the offensive areas,” he wrote, adding that “this was not done, and this is our second strategic mistake.”
Away from the battlefield, Mr. Arestovich said, Russia is increasing defense spending, ramping up weapons production, and reaching out to friends and partners in the southern hemisphere. By contrast, Ukraine “represses business, civil liberties, and political competitors, quarrels with neighbors and key partners, and encourages corruption.”
Former advisor to President Zelensky commented: “In my assessment, the Ukrainian leadership has long reached the limit of its capabilities.”
To get the country out of its current impasse, Mr. Arestovich called on President Zelensky’s administration to abandon its previous decision not to hold elections until after the conflict and accept that the goal of retaking Crimea and restoring Ukraine’s 1991 borders will not be realized, despite the “blood, sweat, and tears” of the Ukrainian people.
Although Mr. Arestovich initially appeared optimistic about the chances of success of the counteroffensive, he has issued a series of bleak predictions about the country’s future in recent months. In August, he predicted that an invasion of Crimea would cost 200,000 Ukrainian lives, and in September he predicted that the conflict could last until 2035./.
