‘There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough,’ says Valery Zaluzhny.

Russia’s war with Ukraine has become totally bogged down in the trenches, according to Ukraine’s top general.

And the prospect of a long war gives Vladimir Putin and Russia an advantage, Ukraine’s Army Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny said in a sobering interview with the Economist published Wednesday night.

In the five months since Ukraine launched an eagerly awaited counteroffensive, its troops have advanced only 17 kilometers through heavily fortified and mined Russian defense lines.

The counteroffensive has already disappointed many Ukrainian partners, some of whom are now demanding an end to military aid with the war deadlocked. However, the West’s cautious provision of weapons to Ukraine has allowed the Russians to mobilize thousands and fortify positions in occupied Ukraine, according to Zaluzhny.

      • zerfuffle
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        8 months ago

        A statement way after the media sources had picked up on it? No.

        • beltsin@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          You wanted to know the source, it’s Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra. Here’s one of the media sources that corroborates this. It also mentions Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah. Was it foolish to trust these sources? Probably. But I don’t see how that would be some kind of decisive blow to the free press I mentioned earlier. It’s always hard to get accurate information in a warzone.

          • zerfuffle
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            8 months ago

            His statement was given after a ton of news stories had already come out.

            For what it’s worth, the final death toll ended up being close to what everyone was reporting anyway, but that reporting was done without sufficient evidence at the time.

            • beltsin@lemm.ee
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              8 months ago

              I guess it’s always important to be vigilant in checking sources. I try to stay wary of falling for misinformation, but that’s not easy.

              • zerfuffle
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                8 months ago

                That’s the entire point of having journalistic freedoms…

                  • zerfuffle
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                    8 months ago

                    It’s impractical to check all sources yourself and US media is spreading misinformation.