Ukraine counteroffensive failing

The much vaunted counteroffensive by Ukraine against Russia has failed, as all outside observers now seem to acknowledge. Casualties are mounting, foreign mercenaries are abandoning the cause, and Ukraine’s President has asked the Defense Minister for his resignation.

Ukraine is losing the war

The Gateway Pundit has turned in two reports highlighting the firing of the Defense Minister. Those reports tell enough of a tale even apart from that. Not only are casualties mounting, but the bodies are piling up faster than officials can count and bury them. Disinterested casualty figures are hard to come by, but Quentin Sommerville of the BBC gives a grim perspective. Sommerville cites American officials who don’t want him to mention their names. One can understand their reticence, because the Deputy Defense Minister threatened to prosecute anyone who shared casualty numbers. The Defense Ministry also puts out the kind of lies typical of a losing side:

This refers to the German Leopard tanks NATO supplied the Armed Force of Ukraine. Apparently NATO offered training in how to drive one of those tanks. But no one offered any tutelage in how to use tanks effectively in combat. And the AFU does not have a Rommel – or a Patton. Neither can one find such an officer among the foreign mercenaries. ZeroHedge reports extreme disorganization on the Ukrainian side, and a sharp decline in the number of foreign volunteers. The problem is not desertion, but simple declining to “re-up” when an initial term has expired.

Here is another indication of a losing effort: tasking a soldier’s widow with counting the dead.

Officially the United States Department of Defense claims Ukraine has lost over a hundred thousand troops. America lost half that many during the entire War in Vietnam.

Anatomy of a firing

Over the weekend, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky fired Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, according to the Associated Press. In addition to his appalling failures on the battlefield, Reznikov stands accused of graft relating to military procurement.

His replacement, Rustem Umierov, currently runs the Ukraine State of Property Fund. TGP describes him as

a Crimean Tatar with deep ties to [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan.

Two and a half months ago, the Ukrainians had to admit their counteroffensive stalled because Russia still had air superiority. The Ukrainians boasted of driving Russians back – and then Ukraine lost the city variously called Bakhmut, and Artyomovsk. (Shortly after their instrumental role in capturing that city, the Wagner Private Military Company made their infamous mutiny.)