Views from the West: The Ukraine war is lost

Hollywood and DC ignore fact that Russia's army is bigger than when the war began and Ukraine can't keep up, notes FOXNEWS.

On April 10, stars in Hollywood joined politicians in D.C. in demanding that Congress take up a war aid bill authorizing $60 billion in new assistance for Ukraine.

But they’re all wrong. The war is lost. In fact, 90% of people in Europe believe that to be true.

So, what do they see that Hollywood stars, the White House, and leaders on Capitol Hill do not?

Three things.

First, Ukraine lacks the soldiers to win.

And that’s a crisis. As Ukraine’s Commander of Joint Forces said on April 11, there are seven to 10 times more Russian soldiers than there are Ukrainians on the battlefield.

That assessment came three days after his colleague, Gen. Oleksandr Pavliuk, said that no matter how much war aid they get from America or Europe, they lack upwards of 500,000 soldiers to keep up the fight.

To be fair, Ukraine’s parliament understands the crisis. They recently adopted a law to increase conscription, but it’s deeply unpopular among the Ukrainian people. It’s unclear whether or how they’ll get the bodies they need.

Plus, existing Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines are demanding to be rotated out to return home to a normal life — and to deal with new addictions they’ve picked up while fighting. But Ukraine’s parliament said no to them, delivering a devastating blow to morale.

The Pentagon now says that Moscow has already recovered from their previous losses, with their overall force now 15% larger than when the invasion began.

Which takes us to the second reason why 90% of Europeans think the war is lost: the West’s war machine can’t keep up.

As one of Kyiv’s top military officers told Politico recently, Ukraine can’t possibly produce what they need for the battlefield and neither can the U.S. nor Europe. In fact, there’s no magic weapon that’ll solve Ukraine’s lack of manpower — that’s the foundational problem.

Nevertheless, Russia’s war machine continues churn out a shocking amount of war materiel, either on their own or with the help of China. To the point, the Pentagon assesses that they’ve re-stocked all of their previously destroyed tanks.

In other words, Russian President Vladimir Putin has managed to weather the sanctions storm — and then some.

Which takes us to the third and final reason for why only 10% of Europeans think Ukraine can win: bad leadership.

Unfortunately for the West and their propaganda efforts, the Russian people largely view this war as one where NATO forces are the aggressors — and they mostly support Putin’s plan to stop them.

There is some polling and anecdotal stories that suggest that there’s a small amount of internal discontent. But, for the most part, Russians are all-in — and feeling confident.

That’s not the case for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his people.

First, he continues to deal with rampant corruption, to include inside his government and military. As a Zelenskyy aid told Time Magazine back in November, whatever anti-corruption efforts are in place in Ukraine, they’re not working.

"People [in the government and military] are stealing like there’s no tomorrow."

Next, Zelenskyy himself is under fire for being disconnected from the true state of his military and, critics say, his heavy-handed leadership.

Taken together, perhaps that’s why an increasing number of Ukrainians think the war is lost as well.

A poll back in November showed that 42% of Ukrainians said they were willing to negotiate a peace with the Russians to end to the war.

That number is up from just 29% in January 2023.

the world’s focus should be on peace, not advancing another $60 billion in war aid that even Ukrainian generals say won’t save them.

That’s the blunt reality that 90% of Europeans understand, even if America’s Hollywood stars and D.C. politicians do not.

Burns: Ukraine could lose by end of 2024

Photo: POLITICO

CIA Director William Burns (photo) offered a stark warning to lawmakers on Capitol Hill: If you don’t approve aid to Ukraine now, Kyiv could lose the war by the end of the year.

Speaking at an event at the George W. Bush Presidential Center, Burns urged lawmakers to pass the supplemental that would dedicate billions to Ukraine’s war efforts.

“With the boost that would come from military assistance, both practically and psychologically, Ukrainians are entirely capable of holding their own through 2024 and puncturing Putin’s arrogant view that time is on his side,” he said.

But if that doesn’t make it through Congress, “the picture is a lot more dire,” he continued. “There is a very real risk that the Ukrainians could lose on the battlefield by the end of 2024, or at least put Putin in a position where he could essentially dictate the terms of a political settlement.”

It’s perhaps the strongest warning from a senior administration official yet regarding the war, coming as officials in Kyiv warn that a looming Russian offensive in the summer — which would see massive waves of troops invading Ukraine — could overwhelm Kyiv’s struggling soldiers.

Burns’ remarks come a day after House Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled his highly-anticipated foreign aid package, which hangs in the balance as the speaker tries to secure the votes needed to tee up floor debate.

Supporting Ukraine right now is about more than the war with Russia, Burns argued during the event.

“It’s also about Xi Jinping in China, his ambitions, and our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific,” he said. “This is really a question of whether or not our adversaries understand our reliability and determination and whether our allies and partners understand that as well.”

Boris Johnson: “If Ukraine falls, it'll be a catastrophic turning point in history – and an utter humiliation for the West...”

Boris Johnson on a visit to Kyiv in January last year. 'We have it in our power to give the Ukrainians what they need,' the former prime minister writes.

If the war in Ukraine ends in disaster then it will be for one reason only — because of the dithering, doddering drift of the West, writes ex-prime minister Boris Johnson at ‘The Daily Mail’.

Let us be clear, that if Ukraine falls, it will be not only a disaster for that innocent country.

It will be a total humiliation for the West — the first time in the 75 years of NATO’s existence that this hitherto successful alliance has been utterly routed — and on European soil.

A defeat for Ukraine would usher in a new era of fear in the whole Euro-Atlantic area, as Putin continues his drive to rebuild the Soviet empire: from the Baltics to Georgia to Moldova to Central Asia to the Arctic.

It will be a terrifying moment for the people of Taiwan and the clearest possible signal to China that the West has lost the willpower to protect democracy.

It will be a turning point in history, the moment when the West finally loses its post-war hegemony, the moment when borders everywhere are suddenly up for grabs and aggression is seen to pay — and all because of a failure to stand up for Ukraine.

“Slowly unfurling catastrophe…”, Boris Johnson writes.

Kharkiv. Residents are leaving the city en masse. The Russian army is very close.