Poroshenko admits inefficiency of war

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has started admitting defeat. At a meeting in Kiev with the Deputy Secretary General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, he acknowledged that the situation in the East cannot be solved by military means alone. Earlier Poroshenko pointed to the ineffectiveness of the former military plan and declared about preparations for a new plan.

Ukrainian troops were ordered to change the tactics of military operations in the east of the country. A high price had been paid for the previous actions, acknowledged the president.
Therefore, the army was ordered to regroup, divide militia into parts and continue the attack. In fact, there is nothing new in this plan. Only the admission that the chosen path did not produce the intended results. But Poroshenko is not going to accept the fallacy of his actions, feels the expert of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies Azhdar Kurts:

“The President of Ukraine is in a fix, constantly changing tactics and strategy. There have been very heavy losses among the civilian population and among the Armed Forces of Ukraine. All of this suggests that artificial attempts to resolve the situation without resorting to the path that is most suitable in the case of any conflict, that is, negotiations with the opposing party, or attempting to clarify what these people want, will not bear fruit on the back of brutal force alone.”

Therefore, now it is being said that the situation in the east cannot be resolved militarily alone. In particular, this is what Poroshenko told the representative of the UN Secretary General Jeffrey Feltman. Very true words. Only they can hide deceit, warns Azhdar Kurts.

“It suggests completely different approaches. On the one hand, that Poroshenko really wants to sit down at the negotiating table, and order a cessation of hostilities. But it is quite another thing if his lamentation about the failure to win the war and the need for using political means indicates the demand that pressure must be mounted by the West on the militia and Russia.”

On August 26, Poroshenko will arrive in the capital of Belarus Minsk for a summit of leaders of the Customs Union including Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. This will be actually his first meeting with the Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the exception of a brief encounter at the celebrations in Normandy earlier this summer. Therefore Poroshenko will not come alone, but with a support group from the EU comprising Catherine Ashton, the head of European diplomacy, and three Commissioners. This meeting is necessary, if only because Ukraine finds itself in danger from the Russian side and is therefore constantly asking West for assistance: financial, military and political. When they meet face to face, the politicians will find it easier to understand each other. However, there is no reason for pinning excessive hope on this meeting, emphasizes expert at the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies Vladimir Bruter:

“To say that Poroshenko has his own view of the problem would be a very positive exaggeration. His views are opportunistic in nature. If he is advised that he can win a military victory, he goes forward with the military option. If he feels that now it is unlikely, he stops and says that he wants the West to help him with weapons to achieve a military victory. Poroshenko’s position will change many more times. We might recall that the Ukrainian authorities had promised decentralization, and granting the rights of the regions, and a new constitution, and elections after the new constitution. And where are all those promises now?”

But it is necessary to establish a dialogue. With Poroshenko who, whether independently or acting under orders of his mentors, represents Ukraine. And with the EU, which is stuck in the Ukrainian conflict. Kiev and Brussels are forced to admit that their intentions to rapidly deal with the resistance in the south-east have not succeeded. That the continuation of hostilities means new victims for which they will have to answer sooner or later. But how to convince them that the new plan should be a peace plan and not a military option?
 http://indian.ruvr.ru
21/8/14
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Related:

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• NATO Secretary General in Kiev for talks with senior government leaders. -- (in view of Russia’s aggression)

• Decision on US military assistance to Kiev would add fuel to fire (Sergei Lavrov)

• Ukraine to reduce funding of scientific researches in favor of weapons production (after a meeting with the military in the city of Slavyansk)

• Poroshenko: Ukraine not to give up on Crimea. (the right to file an international lawsuit against Russia)