20 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY November 16-22, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com Disaster Fatigue With the world’s gaze on Gaza, Ukraine’s leadership is quietly split as allies consider an exit strategy. By Faisal Al Yafai FORUM With the war in Gaza reverberating around the world, it is hard to hear anything above the noise. Yet an interview with Ukraine’s commander-in-chief last week came through loud and clear, sparking both an internal crisis in Kyiv and an international debate on the future of the conflict. General Valery Zaluzhny is the man leading the Ukrainian war against Russia’s invasion. For him to voice publicly that the fighting had reached a stalemate was astonishing. Yet that was his conclusion: “There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough.” It was a surprising admission, which unsurprisingly brought an immediate rebuke from Ukraine’s political leadership. “This is not a stalemate,” said Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, clearly concerned by the characterization and its impact on Western support. It was also a rather obvious statement. That the Ukraine war is at a stalemate has been clear for weeks, yet it has taken the Gaza war to make that reality clear. Ukraine’s spring counter-offensive was meant to be a military storm that would finally shift the tide of battle. From the beginning, it was plagued by a lack of equipment and when it finally got started in the summer, it spluttered rather than shocked. Sheer focus from Western politicians on Zelensky shielded Ukraine’s leadership from the flagging campaign. Zelensky’s energetic diplomacy meant that most weeks saw him visiting or being visited by world leaders. The reality of the war was lost in a whirlwind of cameras and sound bites. Now, with Gaza taking up the world’s political attention, the lack of front pages about the Ukraine war somehow makes the reality starker. When the politics was in constant flux, it was easy to ignore the frozen battle lines. Now, it is harder to ignore. There are signs Western allies are beginning to search for a way out. Reports in American media have suggested the topic of peace negotiations has been broached with Ukraine at the highest level. For now, the official line continues to be that the West, and especially the U.S., will stand by Ukraine as long as the country needs help. In reality, though, Washington has priorities of its own, and a contentious election looming next year, at which President Joe Biden’s handling of the Ukraine conflict will be an important part of the debate. That makes Biden himself one of the weakest links in the diplomatic chain that leads to a Ukrainian settlement. He has now staked his reputation on two deeply controversial wars, neither of which show any sign of ending soon. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin will be happy to see Biden’s likely opponent Donald Trump return to the presidency, which means there is almost no chance that Russia will negotiate while the U.S. campaigns are in full swing—far better to keep the front lines frozen and let Biden take the blame. Faisal Al Yafai is a commentator on international TV news networks and has worked for news outlets such as The Guardian and the BBC, reporting on the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. OPINION Western allies are beginning to search for a way out. PRESENTED BY
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