US on verge of directly joining Ukrainian conflict : Moscow

Dhaka August 20 2022 :

Inside Russia : Outside Russia : News Digest by the Embassy of Russian Federation in Bangladesh on August 20 2022 

INSIDE RUSSIA

Macron calls Putin

Russian and French leaders discussed the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have had their first phone call in almost three months to discuss the Ukraine conflict and nuclear security in the area of Zaporozhye, the Kremlin said on Friday.

The call was initiated by the French side and saw the two leaders discuss “various aspects of the situation around Ukraine,” according to the Kremlin’s readout.

Putin emphasized that “the systematic shelling of the territory of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant by the Ukrainian military poses a danger of a large-scale disaster that could lead to radiation spillover onto a large territory,” Moscow said.

The two leaders agreed that a mission under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should be dispatched to the NPP “as soon as possible” in order to assess the situation on site. “The Russian side confirmed it’s ready to provide the Agency’s inspectors with all the necessary assistance,” the Kremlin said.

According to the Elysee Palace, Putin agreed that the IAEA mission to Zaporozhye NPP would be dispatched on the terms already arranged by Ukraine and the United Nations. This would mean that the IAEA delegation might travel via the territory currently controlled by Kiev’s forces. Previously, Moscow insisted that such a mission could arrive only via Russian-controlled territory.

The two sides will address this issue again in the coming days, after technical teams discuss the matter in detail, the Elysee said.

According to the Kremlin, Putin once again invited international experts to visit a detention facility in Yelenovka, in the Donetsk People’s Republic. An artillery attack on the prison, which Moscow says was carried out by Kiev’s forces, killed 50 Ukrainian POWs and injured dozens more last month.

Putin also informed his French counterpart on the implementation of the deal for Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea. This agreement, which was brokered by the UN and Turkey, is also supposed to allow Russia to deliver fertilizers and food products to the global markets. However, the Kremlin noted, “obstacles for the Russian grain [export] persist,” which continues to have an adverse effect on global food security.

The most recent call between the two leaders took place on May 28 and also involved German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. During that conversation, Putin blamed Ukraine for the stalled peace talks, assuring his counterparts that Moscow remained ready to negotiate an end to the ongoing conflict and condemning the West for supplying Kiev with weapons.

US on verge of directly joining Ukrainian conflict – Moscow

Washington has been encouraging Kiev to attack Russian territory, deputy foreign minister says

Washington’s continued support for Kiev during Moscow’s military operation has put the US on the verge of becoming party to the Ukrainian conflict, Russia’s deputy Foreign Minister, Sergey Ryabkov has said.

“We don’t want escalation. We’d like to avoid a situation, in which the US becomes a party to the conflict, but so far we don’t see any readiness of the other side to take these warnings seriously,” Ryabkov told Rossiya 1 TV channel on Friday.

Moscow rejects Washington’s explanation, that providing Ukraine with weapons and other aid is justified by Kiev’s right to self-defense, he pointed out.

“Excuse me, what kind of self-defense is it if they are already openly talking about the possibility of attacking targets deep in the Russian territory, in Crimea?” the deputy FM wondered.

According to Ryabkov, such statements are being made by the Ukrainian side “not just under the blind eye of the US and NATO, but with the encouragement of this kind of sentiment, approaches, plans and ideas directly from Washington,” Ryabkov insisted.

“The ever more obvious and deeper involvement in Ukraine in terms of countering our military operation, in fact, puts this country, the US, on the verge of turning into a party to the conflict,” he reiterated.

The US has been the strongest supporter of Kiev amid its conflict with Russia, providing Kiev with billions of dollars in military and financial aid, as well as intelligence data. Washington’s deliveries to the Ukrainian military have included such sophisticated hardware as HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, M777 howitzers and combat drones.

Reuters reported on Friday that US President Joe Biden is about to announce another lethal aid package for Kiev of around $800 million.

An unnamed official from the Biden administration told Politico on Thursday that the White House had no problem with Ukraine attacking Crimea, which became part of Russia after a 2014 referendum staged in response to a violent coup. The US believes that Kiev can strike any target on its territory, and “Crimea is Ukraine,” the American official insisted.

There have recently been a number of explosions near a Russian ammunition depot and at a military airfield in Crimea, which the Defense Ministry said were acts of “sabotage.” However, Ukrainian authorities haven’t officially confirmed involvement in the attacks.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”

In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.

Moscow comments on timeline for nuclear inspection of Zaporozhye NPP

The IAEA could visit the nuclear power plant in early September, a senior Russian diplomat suggests

The UN nuclear watchdog could send an inspection team to the Russia-controlled Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Ukraine in as soon as two weeks, a senior Russian diplomat said on Friday.

“Forecasts don’t always come true, but my sense is that it can happen in early September,” Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said during a media briefing.

The Russian diplomat stressed that the proposed timeline is conditional on non-interference by “external factors that have nothing to do with the goals of the IAEA visit.” The mission should have been launched in June, he explained, but the plan failed, and “in a sense, things have to be done from scratch now.”

The Zaporozhye plant is located in the Ukrainian city of Energodar, and is controlled by Russian troops, although its civilian operators are Ukrainian. Over the past month, it has come under a series of attacks, which Russia has blamed on Ukrainian forces.

Kiev has denied responsibility and accused Russia of shelling the nuclear site to discredit Ukraine. Ukrainian officials have also claimed that Russia is using the plant as a military base, keeping heavy weapons on site and carrying out artillery strikes against Ukrainian troops from the facility. The Russian Defense Ministry has said the only Russian forces present at the plant are lightly armed guards.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has said he wants to personally lead a fact-finding mission to the Zaporozhye plant. Both Moscow and Kiev have expressed their support for such a visit, despite near-daily reports of shelling in Energodar.

“It appears that the Ukrainans are trying to prevent the mission from happening,” Ulyanov said during the briefing.

The UN previously suggested that the entire area around the city should be demilitarized, but Russia insisted the proposal was not viable, claiming that Ukrainian forces cannot be trusted to abide by such an agreement.

By withdrawing forces from Energodar, Russia would expose the nuclear power plant to increased risks, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

Russian operator takes over Sakhalin-2

The state acquisition is aimed at consolidating control of Russian energy assets and comes in response to Western sanctions

Russian company Sakhalin Energy LLC stated on Friday that it has officially started operating Sakhalin-2, a major Russian oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) project that was transferred to domestic management two months ago.

“Sakhalin Energy is carrying out production and commercial operations. Our absolute priority is still given to the key principles – staff safety, health and care, maintenance of uninterrupted and reliable production while fulfilling all the current obligations,” Andrey Oleinikov, the head of the company, said in a statement.

Sakhalin-2, one of the world’s largest LNG projects with an annual output of 12 million tons, was launched back in 2009 as a joint venture between Russia’s Gazprom, Japan’s Mitsui and Mitsubishi, and UK-based Shell. The enterprise, located on the Russian island of Sakhalin in the Pacific Ocean, north of Japan, supplies LNG mainly to Asian markets.

In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the reorganization of the Sakhalin-2 LNG enterprise, transferring ownership to a new domestic company. The move came in response to sanctions from ‘unfriendly states’.

Separately, Asahi, one of Japan’s biggest media outlets, reported on Friday that several Japanese utilities were ready to sign contracts with the new Russian operator. The new agreements reportedly offer electricity and gas companies the same terms that were offered under the previous ownership.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT’s business section

Russia moves away from ‘toxic’ dollar and euro in economic relations with partners

MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. Russia will move away the dollar and the euro in commercial, economic, and investment relations with partners, as these currencies have become “toxic” amid growing pressure from the West, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin said in an interview with TASS.

“Against the growing geopolitical pressure from the ‘collective West’, the only way to guarantee stable trade, economic, and investment ties between Russia and its partners is to avoid the use of currencies that have become ‘toxic’, primarily the US dollar and the euro, and switch to settlements in acceptable alternatives, primarily in national currencies,” Pankin said.

The diplomat noted that the current global financial system built by Washington has proven to be “unsuitable for the conditions of a multipolar world order and has essentially become an instrument for achieving political goals of one group of countries.”

“It is quite obvious that in the current conditions the West intends to continue to abuse its privileged position,” Pankin continued. “It is encouraging to see that many nations, seeing extraordinary and illegitimate sanctions against Russia, are thinking about the need to de-dollarize foreign economic activity to ensure their sovereignty. As it turned out, if there is political will, the issue is quite solvable,” he added.

Russian diplomat blasts US media for trying to discredit Moscow’s activities in Africa

MOSCOW, August 19. /TASS/. US media outlets seek to launch another campaign to discredit Russia’s activities in the Central African Republic, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Friday.

“We have taken note of recent reports in the US media, which appear to be trying to launch another campaign to discredit Russia’s activities on the African continent, particularly in the Central African Republic,” the statement reads.

In this regard, Zakharova pointed to a Bloomberg article titled “Russian Mercenaries Seek Gold, Sow Chaos in Central Africa.” According to the diplomat, the article “claims, citing ‘artisanal miners, rebels and humanitarians,’ that fighters from the Wagner private military company, ‘alongside the national army, have killed scores of people, looted communities and displaced thousands as they increase their control of gold-mining areas in the war-torn country.’ We have to point out once again that such articles are purely unfounded and involve unscrupulous methods such as the fabrication of facts. The goal clearly is to tarnish Russia’s image, demonize Russia and harm our close and friendly relations with Bangui,” Zakharova noted.

She reiterated that Russia’s assistance to the Central African Republic was part of the international community’s efforts to strengthen the ability of the country’s law enforcement agencies to maintain security, law and order.

OUTSIDE RUSSIA

US could become directly involved in Ukraine fighting – expert

An escalation of the conflict could lead to death and destruction on a scale exceeding World War II, John Mearsheimer believes

American political scientist John Mearsheimer has issued a stark warning to the West, claiming the risks of a “catastrophic escalation” in Ukraine have been underappreciated, and suggesting the US may become directly involved in the fighting.

In a piece for Foreign Affairs published this week, the international relations scholar wrote that both the US and Russia are now “deeply committed to winning the war” – potentially by whatever means necessary.

While few would predict that the US could become directly involved in the fighting, Mearsheimer argues that it might, “if it is desperate to win or to prevent Ukraine from losing.”

On the other hand, he cautions that Russia may use nuclear weapons if it “faces imminent defeat” – a situation which could easily unfold if US forces were in fact drawn directly into the fighting.

The risk of such a catastrophic escalation is therefore “substantially greater than the conventional wisdom holds,” the political scientist believes.

Russia’s official stance on the use of nuclear weapons is that they may be used only in self-defense or when its existence is under threat. A spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, Ivan Nechaev, reiterated that position this week, saying Moscow would deploy nukes “only in response to an attack as a self-defense measure and in extreme circumstances.”

Mearsheimer has argued for years that NATO’s eastward expansion would provoke Russia into a conflict that would leave Ukraine “wrecked.” His frequent warnings even landed him on a Ukrainian government ‘blacklist’ published in July. The list includes the names of politicians, pundits and intellectuals whom Kiev accuses of promoting “narratives consonant with Russian propaganda.”

For the US, the analyst believes, the conflict in Ukraine represents an opportunity to “knock Russia out of the ranks of great powers” and has tied its own reputation to the outcome.

Mearsheimer claims that Russia’s “ambitions” have also expanded since it began its military offensive in February. Until the eve of the military campaign, President Vladimir Putin was committed to implementing the Minsk II agreement, which would have seen the Donbass region remain part of Ukraine’s territory. Now, the analyst insists, with Russia having taken control over large swaths of territory in eastern and southern Ukraine, it is unlikely to return all “or even most of it.”

Given the deep level of involvement of the US through its provision of weapons and political support, Washington is “just a short step away from having its own soldiers pulling triggers and its own pilots pressing buttons” in Ukraine.

Mearsheimer lays out various potential scenarios in which the US could become more actively involved in the war.

As the conflict drags on, US policymakers are likely to consider taking “riskier steps” such as imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine or inserting “small contingents of US ground forces.”

Another scenario would come about if Ukraine’s army was about to collapse and Russia seemed set to win a decisive victory. US officials could convince themselves that limited use of force would be possible without prompting Putin to use nuclear weapons. With US forces on the ground, Russia would see its survival at risk, providing a powerful incentive to use nukes. “At a minimum, they would consider demonstration strikes intended to convince the West to back off,” he argued.

A military mistake could also trigger an escalation if, for instance, a US and Russian fighter jet were to collide over the Baltic Sea. Such a situation could escalate quickly due to fear, lack of communication and mutual demonization, he wrote. Russian strikes on Poland or Romania in an effort to stop the flow of Western weapons also can’t be discounted, Mearsheimer claims.

“The Biden administration should have worked with Russia to settle the Ukraine crisis before war broke out in February. It is too late now to strike a deal,” the analyst said, adding that Russia, the West and Ukraine are now “stuck in a terrible situation with no obvious way out.”

US military expert backs Putin’s claims

Washington really wants the Ukrainian conflict to drag on, a Navy veteran has told Newsweek

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not wrong to blame the US for working to prolong the fighting in Ukraine, a high-profile American military expert has told Newsweek.

The respective goals of Washington and Kiev in the conflict contradict each other, claimed Sean Spoonts, a US Navy veteran and editor-in-chief of the Special Operations Forces Report (SOFREP) website.

“It seems like while Ukraine would like to end the war quickly and decisively defeat Russian forces and drive them out of their country, US policy almost seems designed to prolong the conflict hoping to bring about the collapse of Russia itself, both militarily and economically,” he said.

“That goes a lot further than [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky’s goal, which is to simply get Russian armies out of his country and regain lost territories in Donbass, Lugansk and Crimea,” he added.

Donbass is a historic, cultural and economic area that includes the People’s Republic of Donetsk and Lugansk, which declared their independence from Ukraine after a coup in Kiev in 2014, and were recognized as sovereign states by Russia before the launch of its military operation in late February.

The SOFREP editor-in-chief was commenting on the statement made by Putin earlier this week, in which the Russian leader insisted that by “pumping the Kiev regime with weapons, including heavy weapons,” the US was “trying to prolong this conflict” in Ukraine. He also said the Ukrainians have been assigned the role of “cannon fodder” in Washington’s “anti-Russia project.” 

The US has been the prime backer of Ukraine amid its conflict with Russia, providing the country with billions of dollars in military and financial aid, as well as intelligence data. Washington’s deliveries to the Ukrainian military have included such sophisticated hardware as HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, M777 howitzers, and combat drones.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian president Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”

In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.

​

SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION IN UKRAINE

Drone attack on Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters in Sevastopol reported

There are no casualties

SEVASTOPOL, August 20. /TASS/. The Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters was attacked with a drone on Saturday, with no casualties reported, Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said on his Telegram-channel.

“I am at the [Black Sea] Fleet’s headquarters now. A drone hit the roof here 25 minutes ago. Unfortunately, it was not downed. <…> There are no casualties,” Razvozhayev wrote.

Russian Air Forces Destroyed About 20 US Mercenaries in Kharkov Region, MoD Says

The Russian air force has destroyed around 20 US mercenaries in the Kharkov region as a result of a high-precision strike, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

“Over 100 militants, including up to 20 US mercenaries, have been killed in the area of ​[the village of] Andreevka, Kharkov region, as a result of a Russian air force strike against combat positions of the Kraken nationalist formation and a unit of foreign mercenaries,” the ministry told reporters.

INSIGHTS

Zaporizhzhia NPP threatens world with an atomic catastrophe for 7 years — Readovka.world

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant requires an urgent intervention of the plant’s creators, the Russian power engineers. The service life of the nuclear power units expired back in 2015-2018, and the continued operation of the rusty equipment threatens to be disastrous even without shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. However, the Ukrainian authorities have concealed the truth from the international community and international energy organizations, counting on overhauls. And now they are trying as if to destroy traces by shelling the plant with artillery. Readovka has at its disposal an official letter from one of the plant’s technicians. During a visit to the NPP of Head of Operational Safety Section of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Fuming Jiang on January 16, 2020, the technician literally ran after Mr. Fuming the entire inspection warning about the approaching disaster at the nuclear power plant. The man has been struggling to say that the shelf life of the nuclear reactors went out five years ago (unit 1 and 2 in 2015, unit 3 in 2017, unit 4 in 2018, and the fifth in 2020). The operation of all reactors had to be halted urgently, and the Soviet equipment (the units were launched in the 1980s-1990s) had to be inspected by the plant’s designers – Russian nuclear specialists, the technician warned. Nevertheless, Fuming along with the plant management pretended that the inspection went smoothly and there was no itchy employee with a panicked mood. The official verdict of the IAEA’s 2020 inspection was “no violations detected, equipment is operating properly.” The NPP’s management fired the technician, but his preoccupation with the situation made him write a letter with an appeal to the European public and environmental international organizations, the text of which was made available to Readovka.

After appeals of the NPP employee to the IAEA small changes did occur – the press service of Zaporizhzhia NPP suddenly reported that power unit No. 4 will be shut down for 125 days for overhaul. “Allegedly this is previously planned work,” says the author. But power unit No. 4 already underwent an overhaul in 2019, it needs equipment replacement, not an overhaul, insists the NPP employee.

Kyiv had reportedly regularly allocated money to ensure safety at the station, though the sums of money were so small that it sufficed only for the warning systems, because it needed billions of dollars to repair the units, which Ukraine did not have. Moreover, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the ruling party have other reasons to turn a blind eye to the barely making ends meet. The fact is that nuclear power generation is much cheaper than thermal power plants. It would be more reasonable to give the leadership in providing energy to the nuclear power plant, but then where would the director of DTEK, the Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, get the money from? To understand the situation, it is necessary to know that the DTEK group (Ukrainian thermal power plant) generates two-thirds of all energy produced in Ukraine. Akhmetov finances the “Servant of the People” faction in the Rada and is formally Zelenskyy’s backbone. The Ukrainian president himself, having distanced himself from Oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky and taken the side of billionaire philanthropist George Soros and the IMF in the disputes about the land law and Privatbank, needs the support of Akhmetov. As for the oligarch, nuclear power prevents him from making money. What is happening at the NPP now? Even though the Zaporizhzhia plant has been controlled by Russian troops since March, it continues to operate for Kyiv, but only at 20% of its total capacity. The plant sends electricity to Ukraine and is legally controlled by Ukrenergoatom. Ukraine bombs the plant every day, with shells hitting the cooling system.

If it fails and specialists do not immediately repair the damage, the plant will begin to overheat, increasing the risk of disaster for the reactor itself. This shelling actually has two calculated goals. Firstly, by shelling the plant, the Kyiv regime expects to conceal from the world community the real state of affairs at the NPP, which will raise big questions for the people in charge, primarily Zelenskyy. Secondly, the NPP accident will provoke a violent reaction of the environmental world community against Russia, which will surely be pinned as the alleged “aggressor country”. The threat is posed by the spent fuel at the power plant – Ukraine stores it in 200 concrete containers without any special protection, which, according to safety regulations, should not be there. During the next shelling there is a probability that the containers will be hit, and then heavy fractions of the dirty fuel with radiation, will get into the air. There is a huge chance of contamination. The first victims will be, of course, the personnel who are still operating two of the six units. The consequences of the disaster could be severe, depending on the scale of this leak – the radioactive wave could travel a radius of up to 845 km and cover Belgorod, Kursk, Bryansk, Voronezh, Volgograd, and even Smolensk. The distance between the Zaporizhzhia plant and Moscow it is 900-950 km. But again, the radius of impact depends on wind direction and climatic conditions. Emissions can also cover eastern Europe – Bulgaria, Slovakia, Turkey. Or it could land on the coast of Turkey, the Krasnodar region, or Romania. Elimination of the emergency will also be complicated because of the fighting, Sergey Kondratyev, deputy department head at the Institute of Energy and Finance said.

Zelensky Fails to Find Support in Latin America Because He is Seen as ‘US Puppet’, Analysts Say

Sputnik News: Following the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky went on a global tour delivering speeches in parliaments and to governments and various other organizations around the world asking for help in fighting Moscow, instead of engaging in direct talks to end the conflict.

As part of his global tour to rally support for Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky tried to gain backing from Latin America by delivering a speech to Chilean university students and attempting to make a keynote address to Mercosur.

Neither of these endeavors succeeded, however, and the majority of Latin American countries and its citizens have either remained neutral or backed Russia in the conflict, as opposed to western states with which Zelensky enjoys broader support, for now. Zelensky’s lack of support in Latin America is partially explained by his strong affiliation with the US, several analysts told Sputnik.

‘US Puppet’

The US State Department launched a “highly digitized” operation to boost Zelensky’s image at the international level, but because of this, Latin America views him as a “US puppet,” Jorge Elbaum, Argentinian sociologist and journalist explained. Such characteristics prevent most Latin American citizens and governments from sympathizing with him, he added.

“In Latin America there is great distrust of the United States and everyone sees Washington’s participation in these operations as the thread, which does not work well for Zelensky’s attempts to engage with countries south of the Rio Grande,” Elbaum explained.

While right-wing governments in the region, such as in Ecuador, Uruguay or Paraguay might be supporting the US and Zelensky, they alone will not be able to tip the scales of “mistrust” among the Latin Americans, who see the conflict in Ukraine as being instigated by NATO, Elbaum continued.

The mounting evidence of the Ukrainian president’s association with the neo-Nazi groups that have been acting with impunity and have been even rewarded by Kiev since 2014 also does not play into the hands of Zelensky, the analyst believes. He pointed out that such connections to neo-Nazis might even turn away right-wing governments in Latin America.

Russia and China’s Counter-Influence in the Media

The US achieved considerable success in promoting Zelensky’s image as a defendant of his nation against “Russian aggression” in the first months after the start of the special military operation, but following that, his image started to deteriorate, Venezuela analyst Sergio Rodríguez stated.

“Let’s recall that first United Nations vote. Already in the second vote, a month later, the number of supporters was lower and then there were no new votes in the United Nations because the truth began to emerge,” Rodríguez explained.

The analyst believes that Zelensky resorted to seeking help from Latin America after failing to garner it in Asia and Africa due to the strong influence of Russia and China. He hoped to get the backing from “oligarchic sectors related to the US”, but the vast majority of states opted to remain neutral.

Zelensky’s failure to gather allies in Latin America may also be explained by the growing presence of Russian media in the region, which provides an alternative viewpoint for the population, journalist and sociologist Elbaum added.

“Many people want to know a version that is not the one transmitted by the hegemonic media co-opted, bought or allied to the US logic,” he said.

The US-owned media built Zelensky’s image as one of a “president who loves his country and defends it in military uniform,” he explained. However, as time goes by and Ukraine fails to achieve any success in the conflict, the media increasingly struggles to keep that image up, the journalist claimed.

“Zelensky’s image is sinking amid the heap of military lies that they built, claiming that Russia was going to be defeated and that the weapons provided by the West were going to paralyze the [Russian troops],” Elbaum summed up.

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