Volodymyr Zelensky may cancel the spring counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The United States wants the hostilities to freeze now.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he would have to deal with pressure from both the international community and inside Ukraine should Bakhmut fall.
"Our society will feel exhausted and will push me to compromises with Putin," Zelensky said. He called those compromises unacceptable. According to Zelensky, Ukraine will win as a result of a series of "small victories" if the Armed Forces of Ukraine have Western weapons.
The AP assumed that Zelensky thus acknowledged that a defeat in the seven-month battle for Bakhmut would be a costly political defeat rather than a tactical one.
Legitimny Teleram channel wrote that Zelensky was concerned about a possibility for the winning trend to be replaced with a negative one that would “hit the morale of the army and the society.” Zelensky's reputation is based on the status quo, and the defeat in the counteroffensive would come as a blow to his image, the authors of the channel believe.
"They are now sending everyone to the Bakhmut meat grinder to hold the front and the reputation. The Bakhmut meat grinder may disrupt (or push back) the spring counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Legitimny concluded.
Channel authors also wonder why the United States did not deliver UAVs (similar to Iranian Shaheed drones) to Kyiv for the spring offensive. It appears that the West provides as many weapons as needed for the purposes that Kyiv's partners pursue.
Those purposes have changed now.
ZeRada Telegram channel indicates that the West needs the special operation to freeze now. If the Armed Forces of Ukraine succeed in recapturing the "land corridor to Crimea" by capturing Melitopol and Berdyansk, this would mean a likely nuclear escalation.
If the Armed Forces of Ukraine fail, the Russian Armed Forces will definitely go further, and "it is not clear where the next line (for negotiations with Russia) is going to be, and Trump will have more arguments against Biden, the channel said.
The topic of Ukraine's offensive has been taken out of discussions with the West, and Zelensky is preparing the Ukrainian society to freeze the conflict "as if it's not his fault, it just so happened, that he was forced to act so."
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of PMC Wagner, commenting on Zelensky's interview with the AP noted that he had no doubts about the victory of PMC Wagner in Bakhmut. In his opinion, this will be "the greatest turn in the war and in all modern history," as the Armed Forces of Ukraine and "foreign forces" that are trying to bring Russia to its knees are being annihilated.
The Russian Ministry of Defense needs to keep the flanks in this operation, and everything will work out positively for Russia, he said.
However, there are experts who say that Kyiv is carrying out a "cover operation" on the eve of the long-announced offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.