If Ukraine does not win the protracted battle in the key city of Bakhmut, Russia may begin to build international support for a deal requiring Kiev to make unacceptable compromises. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned about this in an interview with “Associated Press”.
In the event that Bakhmut falls under the control of Russian forces, President Vladimir Putin will “sell this victory to the West, to his society, to China, to Iran,” he stressed.
“If he senses a little blood – smells that we’re weak – he’ll push, push, pushZelensky said. The Ukrainian leader conducted the interview on a train that took him across Ukraine to cities near some of the fiercest fighting and others where Ukrainian forces have successfully repelled the Russian invasion.
Ukraine – backed by much of the West – surprised the world with the strength of its resistance to the outnumbered and better-equipped Russian army. Ukrainian forces held their capital, Kiev, and pushed Russian forces out of other strategically important areas.
As the war enters its second year, however, Zelensky is focused on the maintenance of high morale both in the army and among the Ukrainian population in general – especially among the millions of refugees abroad, and those living in relative peace and security far from the front lines.
Zelensky is also aware that his country’s success is largely due to international military support, particularly from the United States and Western Europe. However, some public figures in the US – including Republican Donald Trump, former US president and current 2024 candidate – are doubtful whether Washington should continue to supply Ukraine with billions of dollars in military aid.
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Trump’s likely Republican rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, also noted that defending Ukraine in a “territorial dispute” with Russia is not an important US national security priority. However, he later retracted his remarks after criticism from the Republican Party.
Although Zelensky did not mention Trump or other Republican politicians by name, he acknowledged that he was concerned that the war could be affected by the shift in political power in Washington.
“The United States really understands that if they stop helping us, we’re not going to win.”the Ukrainian president pointed out.
He travels with a small team of advisers and a large entourage of heavily armed security personnel dressed in combat uniforms. During his tour, Zelensky attended ceremonies on the occasion of the anniversary of the liberation of cities in the Sumy region and visited troops stationed at front-line positions near Zaporozhye.
Zelensky recently made a similar visit near Bakhmut, where Ukrainian and Russian forces have been fighting a bloody battle for months. Although some Western military analysts are of the opinion that the city is not of major strategic importance, Zelensky warned that a loss anywhere at this stage of the war could put Ukraine’s built-up momentum at risk.
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“We can’t lose the steps, because war is a pie – pieces of victories. Small victories, small steps”he pointed out.
Zelensky’s words were an admission that losing the seven-month-long battle for Bakhmut – the longest to date – would be a costly political defeat rather than a tactical one.
He predicted that the pressure from the Bakhmut defeat would come quickly, both from the international community and within his own country. “Our society will feel tired, it will push me to compromise with them“, Zelensky fears. He claims that he has not felt such pressure so far.
The international community has largely rallied around Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24, 2022. In recent months, a number of world leaders have visited Zelensky in Ukraine.
He extended an invitation from Ukraine to Chinese President Xi Jinping – a strategically important leader who has not yet visited the country.
“We are ready to see him here. I want to talk to him. I had contact with him before the full-scale war. But during this whole year – over a year, I didn’t,” noted Zelensky.
China, economically oriented and politically favorable to Russia for decades, provided Putin with diplomatic cover, such as adopted an official position of neutrality in the war.
Xi visited Putin in Russia last week, raising the prospect that Beijing may be willing to provide Moscow with the weapons and ammunition it needs to replenish its depleted stockpiles. However, Xi’s visit ended without such an announcement. Days later, Putin announced that he would deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, a country that borders Russia and brings the Kremlin’s nuclear stockpile closer to NATO territory.
Zelensky assumed that Putin’s move is intended to distract from China’s lack of guarantees.
“What does that mean? Che the visit was not good for Russia“, he summed up.
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The president made no predictions about the biggest question facing the war: how it would end. However, he expressed confidence that his country will prevail through a series of “small victories” and “small steps” against “a very big country, a big enemy, a big army” – but an army with “small hearts”, in his words.
And Ukraine itself? Zelensky acknowledged that the war “changed us,” but noted that it ultimately did his society stronger.
“It could have happened in one way – to divide the country, or in another way – to unite us. I am very grateful. I am grateful to everyone – to every single partner, to our people, thank God, to everyone – that we found this path in this critical moment for the country Finding this path was what saved our country and saved our land. We are together”he concluded.
