Zelensky needs to go before Ukraine collapses

There is an emerging consensus in the Biden administration that Ukraine is barely hanging on in its war with Russia and that some sort of negotiated settlement will be needed.

While this is portrayed as the “long held” policy of President Biden, the truth is it is just the reverse: It has been the Biden administration that has blocked all attempts to broker a peace deal with Russia.

Biden and company have embraced Zelensky for the same reason: Zelensky, who more than a year ago was open to a deal with the Russians, fell into line with Biden’s national security team and even got the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, to pass a law making it unlawful for him to deal with the Russians while the war was going on.

The United States and its NATO allies have poured massive amounts of military hardware and ammunition into Ukraine, have provided the backbone for Ukrainian strategic intelligence, trained Ukrainian troops, and have put advisers in the field, some of whom have been killed in action. If the reports are true about the Russian Iskander strike on Kherson on December 27th,  four UK Patriot operators were killed along with 60 other soldiers and police when Russian rockets slammed into the Kherson train depot.

On the battlefield the Ukrainian army is facing defeats.  Setbacks are seen nearly everywhere along the line of contact. The Russians have forced the Ukrainians out of Marinka, a strategic Donbas village, and are clearing the villages around Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Bradley Square in Zaphorize, and elsewhere.

Valery Zaluzhny, overall commander of Ukraine’s military, expects that the town of Avdiivka will fall in the next few months. In fact the Ukrainians either will have to pull out sooner or end up on a suicide mission trying to hold out against devastating attacks.