"Reality smacks NATO in Vilnius. Zelensky trapped and isolated"
by
Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris
The Duran (July 13, 2023)
https://theduran.com/reality-smacks-nato-in-vilnius-zelensky-trapped-and-isolated/

[8:08] Alexander Mercouris: “... Zelensky furious. The entire NATO leadership turning its back on him. The hero of the last few months is now practically a zero. He’s out in the cold. We’ve all seen that terrible photograph of him glowering by himself with nobody wanting to speak to him which in itself tells the whole story. And now we’ve had even the British coming along and lecturing Zelensky to cool down and to show gratitude, telling him that they’re not Amazon and all of that.”

[8:45] “It really marks the point where NATO has had to face reality and has had to accept that it is losing in Ukraine. And the only thing that they can do now from this moment on is not to achieve victory, break up Russia, overthrow Putin – do any of those things – what they’ve to to do now is limit the political damage.”

[9:09] Alex Christoforou: “Here are some weapons. Here is some more money. Now go back and keep fighting. … not go fight to win, just go fight to buy us some more time so we can figure a way out of this. That’s basically the message that they gave Zelenskiy ... that photo. You know, everyone says a photo speaks a thousand words. Well, that photo . . . And Biden’s comment at the press conference, that meeting that they had, where Biden told Zelensky something along the lines of: ‘You know, I’ve got bad news for you. We’re not going anywhere. You’re stuck with us.’ And then Zelensky gave a very uneasy laugh. That was creepy. That was not like a good ‘We’re with you forever and buddy-buddy and all is going to be good. Uh-uh.’ ”

. . .

[11:12] Alexander Mercouris: “It was very, very creepy. It’s absolutely clear that the relationship, apparently never easy between Zelensky and Biden – but then nobody’s relationship with Biden is an easy one, as is now universally admitted – even Axios is now saying that he bullies everybody, that he’s a massive bully within his own team in Washington. And, of course, we’ve been saying for over a year that nobody likes him internationally. Well, we can just see why. He’s insulting. He’s rude. He’s aggressive. And he didn’t like the fact that Zelensky wasn’t properly grateful, and basically squashed him. It was a very uneasy, unpleasant scene altogether. ...”

[12:04] “... Yet again, in a kind of a way, you get the sense that Biden got what he wanted, which was a consistent feature of these summits. He didn’t want a commitment to send US troops into Ukraine. He didn’t want Ukraine into NATO. He wasn’t going to rush to Zelensky’s rescue. And without the United States, the Europeans – even the hard-line one’s in the Baltic states and Poland – all the rest were forced to fall into line. And the final communique is entirely in Biden’s language. Incredibly insulting and rude words about Russia. Incredibly insulting and rude words about China. The paragraph on China is horrible. Very much in Biden’s style.”

[12:56] “But he’s clearing the decks. He’s focused on he election next year. Ukraine, it didn’t work out. He’s got his visceral feelings about Putin. But at the end of the day, getting re-elected is now his priority. If for no other reason than because one gets the sense that investigations on him are now starting to close in. So he has got to get re-elected. It’s now his absolute, overriding priority. And if Zelensky doesn’t like it, he can lump it. And Biden told him, Look, you can’t do anything about it. I’m the boss. You’re not.”

. . . [14:10] Alex Christoforou: “. . . Obviously, Biden has had interests in Ukraine now for a very long time. And Zelensky, you know, is trapped. He trapped himself. He destroyed his country so that he could get this EU/NATO thing. He has enriched himself to incredible levels. But there is nowhere for him to go now. He has to go back and he has to convince the Ukrainian people to keep fighting this war. For what? For Europe, the EU? You’re not getting in there. For NATO? You’re not getting into that alliance. So why is the Ukrainian military, why are the Ukrainian people going to continue to fight this conflict? They must realize by now that they are being used. This was never about Ukraine. Never about “democracy.” Never about allowing Ukraine into the European Union or allowing Ukraine into NATO. This was always about Russia and Putin and regime change. … maybe [Zelensky] finally understands that. Maybe he has known it all along. But finally it hit him that he’s not going to be a part of the club. He’s not going to sit at the adult table. But what can he do? . . .”

. . .

[17:57] Alexander Mercouris : “. . . The British only have 50 working examples of these tanks. So, they don’t want a fifth of the global operating tank fleet, Challenger-2s, burning on the Ukrainian steppes. And just a few more armored vehicles is all that Britain has left that it can supply to Ukraine. ... They didn’t expect to be in this position. They didn’t think that in August 2023 they would be in a position where they had to tell Zelensky, ‘You know that blank check we gave you in April of last year.? Well, there’s no more money in the bank for you to cash.’ They didn’t expect that. They thought the sanctions would cause the Russian economy to implode. They persuaded themselves that the Russian military was inefficient and incompetent. They didn’t expect, they didn’t think that within a year of the US elections, they would find themselves in a no-win situation. So they gave Zelensky all of those promises and now they have to tell him straightforwardly that they can’t fulfill them. . . .”

. . .

[20:00] Alex Christoforou: “. . . How do they survive this? . . .

. . . [21:34] Alexander Mercouris : “. . . The Russians see him as irreparably damaged goods. They were prepared to negotiate with him last year but he went back on what he said, what he agreed to. He has been a very difficult and ugly opponent, from a Russian point of view. His intelligence agencies have carried out murders on Russian territory, planted bombs, done all kinds of things of that kind. He has engaged in some appalling rhetoric against the Russians. There are Russian officials -- Medvedev, for example -- who are saying straightforwardly that he’s not somebody they’re prepared to deal with. . . .”

“… old F-16’s from storage . . .”

. . .

[28:33] Alexander Mercouris: “The cruelty of this is something we should never lose sight of.”

. . .

[32:11] end of program