From JC Again .

For even more context, there’s a perfectly good reason why the narrative is shifting and why the warlike Establishment Media has suddenly gotten all cynical about Ukraine’s chances. Take a look at this recent map showing all of Ukraine’s progress since the start of the CounterOffensive™ three months ago.

After billions of dollars worth of U.S. and NATO war material has been consumed, and after who knows how many Ukrainian lives have been lost, only the teeny-tiny blue areas have been recaptured from the wily Russians:

And then, what do you know? Yesterday Zelensky suddenly and unexpectedly fired his top war leader. Ukraine’s Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov, who has been in charge of the Proxy War since day one, is out. What’s even more interesting is who is in. Here’s the Hill’s headline:

The Hill did not explain the need for the change, of course, and provided no detail whatsoever:

In a statement, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky said he thinks the ministry “needs new approaches” and noted that Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov had served in the position for 550 days of “full-scale war.”

But, what kind of new approach? The replacement Defense Minister, Rustem Umerov, 41, is the current head of State Property Fund (a government agency that sells state assets to private investors), has a background in telecommunications and finance — not military — and is an Uzbekistani muslim. He wasn’t born or raised in Ukraine.

So why him? Umerov is a dealmaker.

The New York Times reported that Umerov was the chief Ukrainian negotiator of the deal with Russia allowing Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea, and has also been a prominent negotiator on ongoing prisoner exchange dealmaking with Russia. Shortly after the war started, Umerov — who attended early peace negotiations in March — told the BBC he was determined “to find political and diplomatic resolution to this brutal invasion.”

A political and diplomatic resolution with Russia.

So. If the incoming Minster of Defense has a background, not in military, but in negotiation and finance, what do we suppose they expect him to negotiate?

The obvious answer, which none of the newspapers I reviewed had the stones to even suggest, is a peace deal.