German general Harald Kujat
Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
The forces in Western countries behind the prolongation of the Ukrainian war are “fatally” mistaken in their assumption that Kiev could benefit in some way with it being dragged out longer, warns German general Harald Kujat, former chairman of the NATO Military Committee. However, it is evident that Washington and Kiev are planning a prolonged campaign of pressure against Moscow.
“It would be a fatal error to believe that Ukraine’s prospects will improve the longer the war continues. On the contrary, the catastrophic consequences of this error can only be avoided if it is possible to prevent a military defeat through an early cessation of hostilities and [starting] peace negotiations between the two belligerent countries,” said Kujat in an interview with the German magazine Overton Magazin.
“The military situation has become very critical for Ukraine after the failure of the offensive last year and is becoming more difficult with each passing day. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost the ability to carry out offensive operations and, on the advice of the Americans, are trying to reduce their high personnel losses through strategic defence and maintaining the territory they still control,” added Kujat.
At the same time, the German general noted that Kiev was now in an “extremely vulnerable” position in areas crucial to a successful strategic defence—lacking sufficient air defences and artillery ammunition and suffering a “huge deficit of trained soldiers.” These deficiencies “reinforce each other in their negative effects.”
“As bitter as it is to admit, despite the extensive financial and material support it received from the United States and Europe, Ukraine was unable to transform the strategic situation in its favour. On the contrary, last year, 12 Ukrainian brigades were trained by NATO countries and equipped with modern weaponry to break through Russian defences in a major offensive that began with high expectations. The offensive failed with heavy losses,” he recalled.
The Ukrainian crisis could have been avoided entirely if the US and NATO had been willing to “seriously negotiate” the draft Russian security treaties proposed by Moscow in late 2021, Kujat recalled, adding that another opportunity to end the conflict – through negotiations in Belarus and Turkey in March 2022 – was thrown down the drain by the West.
However, rather than seeking a humble de-escalation with Moscow, Washington is attempting to sustain pressure by continually propping Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address on April 28 that he is negotiating so the US can provide military and financial support for Kiev over the next ten years. The Ukrainian president claimed that the negotiations are taking place within the framework of the bilateral agreement on cooperation in the security sphere. Kiev’s goal, he said, is to make that agreement the “strongest” of all security agreements with other countries.
“We are already working on a specific text,” said Zelensky. “Our goal is to make this agreement the strongest of all. We are discussing the specific foundations of our security and cooperation. We are also working on fixing specific levels of support for this year and the next 10 years.”
It is obvious that Washington is leaving the war by shifting all responsibility to Europe and is instead prioritising the procurement of contracts for the American military-industrial complex, which is what the bulk of the 10-year plan with Kiev will revolve around – rearming Ukraine and enriching American companies. Although the US is slowly leaving the war, it does not indicate that Washington is serious about negotiations, which Kujat highlights Moscow had been urging for from as early as 2021.
NATO never took peace negotiations seriously because, from their view, the conflict represented an opportunity to weaken Russia at the expense of the Ukrainians. It is recalled that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during his visit to Kiev in April 2022 that Washington’s strategy for dealing with the Ukrainian conflict did not include peace talks but rather “massive support for Ukraine, massive pressure against Russia, solidarity with more than 30 countries.”
Over two years later, it has been observed that although the West can provide the “solidarity” of more than 30 countries, it can no longer provide the “massive support” for Ukraine to apply “massive pressure against Russia.” Although the US is providing Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars, which at first sounds massive and is a massive amount of money if used to alleviate domestic problems, it is actually minuscule for the amount needed to overcome Russian forces.
As Kujat said, it would be a fatal error for NATO to believe that Kiev could benefit in some way from the crisis being dragged out longer since only Ukraine is suffering in this scenario whilst Russia’s economy continues to grow and its territorial borders expand.
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rip former commander-in-chief of the ukrainian armed forces valery zaluzhny. rip former nato general roger l. cloutier jr. head of us army in europe.
2 fat pigs by the way :)
let rip— more appropriately rih rather than rip
allow me to play the world’s smallest violin in their memory
the next time i visit germany l will drink lots of bavarian beers right before i visit the grave of ukraine’s foreign legion commander stefan roland puri so he can actually rest in piss.
several good reflextions but done is done.
according russia medias zelinsky almost right away would be in poland or usa. is he 🙈 ???
dont forget that the west does it as well they allready said assad has fled the country or is hiding in the russian base in the early stages of the syrian war and it was not true this “leader has fled” has never been true with the exception of janukovic.
the nato deliveries were just war profiteering by rheinmetall etc because rf has air supremacy and this was well known in advance. i can guarantee the hostilities will continue as long there is money to be made. so the line kharkiv to odessa will be the new border which will include all russian speaking regions. the farmlands in the other part are already owned by dupont, cargill and monsanto fcol
it’s bullshit talk as everybody knows that us airforce ismore than 15 times bigger & much stronger than russian air force; even uk air force is more powerfull than russian one, but since usa same as uk & russia are controlled & run fully by jews (same goes for the eu with j. borrel or world bank wolfowitz, or ecb with lagarde) they do not use these power to carpet bomb the russian troops into submission.
your fantasies are sights to behold. if they ever become realities, i hope the first nuke drills up your arse.
uk air force stronger than russia’s? ok, send it in then. declare it a non-nato operation like the macaroon likes to do. go for it. don’t be shy.
russian spokesmans says, at 9 may 2024, putin ordered making parade of forein, poland, england, german , american soldiers, prisoners of war will walk in the main street of moscow under escort after tanks parade during the annual parade this year lol
at least they could sweep the streets themselves after them.
nato already made a fatal error when it coveted sevastopol for itself and sent in cookies nuland to overthrow the government using banderite fascists and install nato slaves. this deserves number one spot in the guinneas book of world screwups.
better luck next century.
there won’t be any ukraine if ukrops continue on the current path this land will simply be dived up between russia. poland. hungary and romania.
ukraine will run out of people willing to fight for them in less than five years nevermind 10 years.