РУССКИЙ
12:09 26.11.2024 •
On the face of it, the new twist in the story about "Zaluzhny blowing up Nord Stream" is meant to shape the image of Ukraine’s future presidential hopeful and the country’s former top military commander, who now serves as the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK. It looks like Western spin doctors have been tasked with “molding” a political figure from the General-turned-ambassador, and bring him back into the media landscape. Covert promotion of Valeriy Zaluzhny began even before his resignation from the position of the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces late in 2023 with the publication of several articles penned by Zaluzhny. He also had an interview with The Economist headlined "Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief on the Breakthrough He Needs to Defeat Russia" [i] with an interesting subtitle: "General Valeriy Zaluzhny admits the war is at a stalemate."
In that interview, Zaluzhny said that military operations had reached a dead end, that exhausting battles can drag on for years, which poses a serious threat to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and Ukraine’s very statehood. The interview came out at a time when chances were high that there would be another election in Ukraine where Zaluzhny was viewed as an alternative to Zelensky. After Zaluzhny stepped down as commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces [ii], and Zelensky found "grounds” for not holding another presidential election, the general was "mothballed" and sent away to serve as Ukraine’s envoy to Britain.
Now that Zaluzhny is being brought back into the Western infosphere, I think that the next step will be to return the ex-commander to the political landscape of Ukraine. Judging by the latest information, they intend to create an image of him as a “hero and arbiter of the world’s destinies,” decisive and courageous – “he blew up the ‘streams’ and never told Zelensky!” As for the latter point, this is how it was emphasized in an article carried by Der Spiegel: “According to Der Spiegel, the commander-in-chief [Valeriy Zaluzhny – D.B.] was impressed by the plan [to blow up the gas pipelines – D.B.], but he decided not to inform President Volodymyr Zelensky about it. (…) … The Western intelligence agencies learned about the planned operation two months before the “Nord Streams” were blown up. The CIA representative in Kyiv then warned the Ukrainian authorities about the inadmissibility of its implementation. However, Zaluzhny went ahead with the planned operation, after which, in mid-August, a team of saboteurs went to Poland."[iii]
Zaluzhny is being brought back into the Ukrainian political landscape by Western media and using pretexts created outside Ukraine. The British newspaper The Sun published a report about Zaluzhny's visit to a military training center in southern England. In a fiery address to his compatriots undergoing training at a boot camp for new recruits shortly before their departure for the frontlines back home, Zaluzhny declared, "We have only one Ukraine. No one will protect it except us." He then warned them that their chances of survival were slim, and that they would have to learn not to fear death: "Remember that the fighting is becoming more and more violent each day. It leaves almost no chance of survival. Learn not to be afraid of death…” [iv] Although hardly uplifting, the clearly image-building newspaper story turned into a “fatalist manifesto” or “the story of a samurai,” as the world and Ukrainian media assessed the general’s appeal to Ukrainian soldiers.
Der Spiegel finished the job of molding Zaluzhny's political image even more clearly: Volodymyr Zelensky, who is simply a "hero," should be replaced by another, no less significant "hero, who blew up the "streams."
It is obvious, however, that building up Zaluzhny's image is hardly the only and main goal of the campaign being waged by Western media. Apparently, the idea channeled by Der Spiegel performs, the following tasks:
- The very fact that an article about the blown up gas pipelines appeared in a German newsmagazine indicates that the Germans have finally caved in to Washington's interests. How else to explain the positive description of the "operation approved by Zaluzhny, which Western intelligence services knew about," which is essentially killing the industry of Germany, which only yesterday was Europe’s industrial and technological powerhouse? The Germans are trying to explain this as some kind of trick by Zaluzhny, but such a dispassionate presentation of events only confirms the conclusions made above: "As Der Spiegel notes, Western intelligence had passed on to the Germans information about the preparation of an act of sabotage. However, since the nature of that information spoke of a terrorist attack being prepared for NATO exercises, once they were over, "no alarm was raised." Moreover, neither the German police, Navy, nor federal counter-terrorism agencies were notified of the danger. As a result, the saboteurs installed cylinders with explosives with a timer, which went off on September 26, when all members of that group had already left the country."
Zelensky must go; a new stage of support for Kyiv and attempts to reach an agreement with Russia require a reset. The West will send a signal to Moscow by removing the toxic Zelensky, who has banned himself by his own decree from negotiating with the Russian President. At the same time, according to the Western plan, Zaluzhny's most important advantage should be his legitimacy as the President of Ukraine.
- Message to the Western and Ukrainian public - Zaluzhny has long made decisions on his own without Zelensky; he has solved problems without Zelensky’s participation and approval in the best interest of Ukraine and the West.
- Message to Turkey: President Recep Erdogan should not relax: according to Mr. Erdogan’s information, Der Spiegel notes, Zaluzhny proposed blowing up not only the Nord, but also the Turkish Stream in the Black Sea, but the operation fell through. Erdogan is warned that the "Turkish gas hub" can be destroyed very quickly; that no one cares about the Turkish economy. As to the next "Ukrainian divers sponsored by an oligarch who supports Ukraine" – who can find them? And because Erdogan’s obstinacy and his cozying up to BRICS, no factories that are being built in Ukraine will save him.
- The West's message to Moscow is that Ukraine’s next president will be a decisive person who has already proven his readiness to resort to a large-scale terror tactic in the confrontation with Russia. If Zaluzhny had remained just "the best general of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” then with the failed counteroffensive, territorial losses, and lost battles for Bakhmut and Avdiivka, this would not be enough. This is why Zaluzhny became "the Ukrainian general who blew up Russian gas pipelines" - an obvious "victory" that no one else can boast of. Indeed, neither Zelensky nor the head of Ukrainian military intelligence Budanov (an extremist and terrorist) managed to blow up the Crimean Bridge. It is unlikely that this will scare anyone in Moscow, but the West has no time for propaganda subtleties now.
Summing this all up, I assume that Washington and its cronies are mulling a plan to "sell" a legitimate Ukrainian president to Russia and the world, instead of Zelensky. One who is ready to negotiate, is not constrained by any self-imposed prohibitions to conduct negotiations. One who will be advised to accept a de facto, albeit not a de jure, recognition of Ukrainian territorial losses. There will be bargaining over Ukraine’s prospects of joining NATO, etc. As a power argument, the prospects of possible terrorism in the person of the new "hero" are clearly evident: yes, Russia is winning on the battlefield, the use of long-range weapons haven’t become a game changer for Kyiv, but the possibilities of terrorist attacks on Russian infrastructure have not been exhausted, and this may possibly be emphasized during future negotiations. Therefore, no matter who is in power in Kyiv, the goals of the special military operation should remain unchanged and the achievement of these goals will guarantee Russia’s security.
The views of the author are his own and may differ from the position of the Editorial Board.
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[i] https://www.economist.com/europe/2023/11/01/ukraines-commander-in-chief-on-the-breakthrough-he-needs-to-beat-russia
[ii] https://interaffairs.ru/news/show/44470
[iii] https://www.rbc.ru/politics/20/11/2024/673dd83f9a79472ba6f2f8bb?ysclid=m3qwjuem26758344513
[iv] https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/31815794/ukraine-war-iron-general-russia-troops-training-england/
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