Seymour Hersh: Zelensky's Bad Moment

A synopsis for readers who do not pay for a subscription to see the article

Yesterday, Seymour Hersh published a Substack article proving that the there is no way Ukraine’s stated goals for victory—the reconquest of the 4 Donbass oblasts and Crimea which have been annexed by Russia—can ever be achieved.

I know not everyone can subscribe to every good journalist on Substack—I certainly can’t—but I do support Seymour Hersh and I wanted my readers to be aware of this story. So I’ll talk about the story and focus on just a few highlights of this excellent piece of journalism.

Hersh interviewed “an official with access to current intelligence.” The last time he did that we learned that the Biden Administration ordered the Navy to blow up the Nordstream pipeline. That was at the beginning of the Ukraine war. What is happening now tells me that we are now closer to the end of it than we are to the beginning.

Which is a good thing, especially for Ukrainians.

First, this person made it clear he is no Putin fan, and I must say that events have proven his analysis of the events sound. As Sy Hersh writes:

“Let’s be clear,” the official said. “Putin did a stupid and self-destructive act in starting the war. He thought he had a magical power and that all that he wanted was going to work out.” Russia’s initial attack, the official added, was poorly planned, understaffed, and led to unnecessary losses. “He was lied to by his generals and began the war with no logistics—no way of resupplying his troops.” Many of the offending generals were summarily dismissed.

The official then talks about a joint CIA/British Intelligence operation to get the media to paint Putin as The Villain, which all of us know they did and are still doing. Then he, I’m just going to say “he,” tells the truth about the much-vaunted Ukrainian counteroffensive. Per Hersh:

“There were some early Ukrainian penetrations in the opening days of the June offensive,” the official said, “at or near” the heavily trapped first of Russia’s three formidable concrete barriers of defense, “and the Russians retreated to sucker them in. And they all got killed.” After weeks of high casualties and little progress, along with horrific losses to tanks and armored vehicles, he said, major elements of the Ukrainian army, without declaring so, virtually canceled the offensive. The two villages that the Ukrainian army recently claimed as captured “are so tiny that they couldn’t fit between two Burma-Shave signs”—referring to billboards that seemed to be on every American highway after World War II. 

This is consistent with what the much-maligned Scott Ritter and Jackson Hinkle have been saying for months. Ritter knows people, but Hinkle just reads RT and pays attention. Just goes to show that when the truth suits them, the Russians simply tell it.

Our anonymous official and Seymour Hersh go on about how the CIA has been much more skeptical of Ukraine’s chances than the DIA since the beginning, and then Sy examines Zelensky’s crude attempts to bully the UN and the United States Congress on his recent trip to the financial and political capitals of the US Empire.

It’s well worth the read, but I want to focus on the Seymour Hersh’s conclusion, which is here:

The American intelligence official I spoke with spent the early years of his career working against Soviet aggression and spying has respect for Putin’s intellect but contempt for his decision to go to war with Ukraine and to initiate the death and destruction that war brings. But, as he told me, “The war is over. Russia has won. There is no Ukrainian offensive anymore, but the White House and the American media have to keep the lie going.

“The truth is if the Ukrainian army is ordered to continue the offensive, the army would mutiny. The soldiers aren’t willing to die any more, but this doesn’t fit the B.S. that is being authored by the Biden White House.”

Zelensky’s lost the army. That’s it, then. Sooner than how long it has been since the war started, it will end. Wars start winding down when one army decides it’s no longer going to obey orders to attack. Armies are composed of soldiers. Soldiers have guns and know how to use them.

No wonder Zelensky spends so much time away from Ukraine.

Tip o’ the hat to Seymour Hersh yet again, and thank you for reading, good night, and good luck.