How the Ukraine war may end as forecast by leading Western and Russian analysts: a REN TV (Moscow) feature program
I have remarked on various occasions that going back to 2016 I have been an invited guest on Russian commercial and state television channels directed at the RF domestic audience. Among these broadcasters was REN TV, who occasionally call upon me nowadays as well to join other commentators for feature programs on the Ukraine war.
One week ago, I spent half an hour with them on Skype responding to a long list of questions. The hour long program into which my responses were integrated was aired this past Saturday, and yesterday I received the link:
Засекреченные списки - Украина 2024 7 главных прогнозов 13.01.2024
The program is in Russian. I and the other Western participants, with one exception, all were asked to give our answers in English, and the show’s producers then applied a Russian voice over. As for my Western ‘co-panelists,’ I am pleased to say that I was in good company, among them Larry Johnson and Alexander Rahr. The Russian commentators were also well credentialed.
What emerges from this program is the following:
1. The Russians are inflicting destruction and death on the Ukrainian armed forces, all of which is shown graphically throughout the film
2. The failure of the Ukrainian counter-offensive opened the way to a political struggle at the top in Kiev, between Zelensky and his military commander general Zaluzhny, with other ambitious contenders like Tymoshenko adding to the cacophony.
3. There is a real possibility of a coup d’etat against the Zelensky government led by the military
4. Meanwhile, Western backers of Kiev have lost their enthusiasm and the flow of military and financial aid is drying up
5. Continuation of the war will likely lead to further territorial losses for Kiev, with the Russians taking the Black Sea littoral while Hungary, Romania and Poland all seize their historic territories where their own ethnic groups are strongly present today.
6. The utter collapse of the Ukrainian military is now a real possibility and would result in capitulation and surrender on Russian terms, meaning neutrality, removal of the neo-Nazi elements from the ruling elites and a reorganization of the military into a small army relying on domestically produced supplies
7. Zelensky may be murdered by any one of several foreign intelligence agencies, and his best future will be to leave Ukraine for some foreign residence while the going is good
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2024