EEYORE
From J C
Ukraine President Zelenskyy first issued a formal statement via the state web site yesterday, which was subsequently quietly removed. Here is a portion of his now-deleted, somewhat gloomy statement, which I found quoted on other sites. I think he was shooting for something Lincolnesque, but wound up sounding more like Eeyor:
“The war is entering a new, long phase. It will be a hard test for us all. But we must be ready for it.
The enemy is regrouping and preparing for new attacks. They are trying to wear us down, to break our will. But we will not give up. We will not surrender. We will defend our country to the last man.
We are still waiting for Western countries to provide us with more weapons and ammunition. We need them to help us end this war as soon as possible.
I want to thank all of our partners who have already provided us with assistance. Your help is invaluable.
I also want to thank all of our citizens who are defending our country. You are the heroes of this war.
Together, we will win. Glory to Ukraine!”
That statement was quickly replaced with a completely different one that does not discuss the war status at all, but rather describes various aspirational future programs like persuading the West to stop Russia from acquiring missile components, holding future war trials for Russian military members, and building an impenetrable “sky shield” to protect Ukrainians from missile attacks.
If I had a better update from Zelenskyy on how the war was going, I would report it. Don’t get mad at ME because Zelenksyy isn’t talking