We’ve been told time and time again that the only acceptable outcome of Ukraine’s war with Russia is a total Zelenskyy victory over the Kremlin’s forces, and if you didn’t agree, you are clearly a puppet of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
Well, according to Politico sources — including a Biden administration official and a Washington-based European diplomat — the White House and Pentagon, despite insisting that there’s been no official change of heart, are joining some European officials in pivoting away from a total win over Russia to a negotiated end to the war.
According to Politico’s Michael Hirsh, “Such a negotiation would likely mean giving up parts of Ukraine to Russia.”
“The White House and Pentagon publicly insist there is no official change in administration policy — that they still support Ukraine’s aim of forcing Russia’s military completely out of the country,” Hirsh reports. “But along with the Ukrainians themselves, U.S. and European officials are now discussing the redeployment of Kyiv’s forces away from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s mostly failed counteroffensive into a stronger defensive position against Russian forces in the east, according to the administration official and the European diplomat, and confirmed by a senior administration official.”
Air defense systems have been beefed up, fortifications have been built, and razor wire and anti-tank measures have been deployed along Ukraine’s border with Belarus.
“In addition,” Hirsh writes, “the Biden administration is focused on rapidly resurrecting Ukraine’s own defense industry to supply the desperately needed weaponry the U.S. Congress is balking at replacing.”
The defensive maneuvers, the administration official — a White House spokesperson who was given anonymity because they are not authorized to speak on the record — told POLITICO Magazine this week, are an effort to improve Ukraine’s position in any future negotiations.
“That’s been our theory of the case throughout — the only way this war ends ultimately is through negotiation,” the spokesperson said. “We want Ukraine to have the strongest hand possible when that comes.”
No talks have been planned, the spokesperson stressed, and Ukrainian forces are still on the offensive in some places.
“We want them to be in a stronger position to hold their territory,” the spokesperson explained. “It’s not that we’re discouraging them from launching any new offensive.”
The shift in strategy will “prove tricky” for President Biden as the 2024 election heats up.
“As it helps Ukraine shift to a more defensive posture, the Biden administration can’t appear to be handing the advantage to Putin after insisting since the war began in February 2022 that it stands fully behind Zelenskyy’s pledge of victory over Moscow,” Hirsh writes.
Online, the sentiment is being echoed.
“The White House signals to Politico that the war in Ukraine will end through negotiation, probably by giving up territory, something which if you said 6 months ago made you Putin’s right hand man,” noted reporter Zaid Jilani on X.
The White House signals to Politico that the war in Ukraine will end through negotiation, probably by giving up territory, something which if you said 6 months ago made you Putin’s right hand man https://t.co/qkOPu0Lv6n pic.twitter.com/vacxWoKofr
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) December 27, 2023
Another user on X called the “U.S. establishment” “heartless” for vowing to “fight to the last Ukrainian.”
Everyone knew this was the only possible outcome (besides all out ww3)
And yet they still sent nearly 1 million people to their deaths for economic gain…
“we’ll fight to the last Ukrainian”
-US establishmentheartless
— HelioWave (@heliodown) December 28, 2023
One congressional official who is familiar with the thinking of the Biden administration told Politico, “Those discussions [about peace talks] are starting, but [the administration] can’t back down publicly because of the political risk” to the president.
John Kirby, head of strategic communications at the National Security Council, admitted that Washington is “nearing the end of our ability” to provide military assistance to Ukraine and blamed Republicans for blocking Biden’s approximately $60 billion request for more aid for Zelenskyy’s embattled nation.
The Biden administration, Kirby said in a Dec. 21 interview, is “very much focused on helping them on offense and defense.”
“We are having literally daily conversations with the Ukrainians about the battlefield, about what their needs are and their intentions,” Kirby said, adding that he is “not going to telegraph to the Russians what the Ukrainian strategy is in the coming months.”
Notes Hirsh:
Over the past year — with U.S. military support flagging fast on Capitol Hill and Zelenskyy’s once-vaunted counteroffensive failing since it was launched in June — Biden has shifted from promising the U.S. would back Ukraine for “as long as it takes,” to saying the U.S. will provide support “as long as we can” and contending that Ukraine has won “an enormous victory already. Putin has failed.”
Some analysts believe that is code for: Get ready to declare a partial victory and find a way to at least a truce or ceasefire with Moscow, one that would leave Ukraine partially divided.
Citing a report last week from The New York Times, Hirsh states that Ukraine and Russia “remain largely stalemated but Putin may now be signaling that he’s willing to compromise if he’s allowed to keep the approximately 20 percent of Ukrainian territory that he partially controls in the east.”
Asked to respond the The Times’ report, the anonymous White House spokesperson said, “I’m not aware of any serious discussions at this point.”
Even the Ukrainian military commander-in-chief, Gen. Valeiy Zaluzhnyi and Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, are raising opposition to President Zelenskyy’s refusal to negotiate with Putin in the wake of Zelenskyy’s bid to draft another half-million troops, Hirsh reports.
“One problem, of course, is that Putin understands these stakes all too well — especially given the surging poll numbers for Trump, who has suggested both that he’d swiftly cut a deal with Russia over Ukraine and order the U.S. to depart from, or at least downgrade, NATO,” according to Hirsh.
“Militarily, the biggest concern may be that Putin could go on the offensive in the spring with major air support that he’s avoided until now but could deploy as Ukraine runs low on defensive missiles,” he writes. “Politically, the worry is that Putin won’t go near a negotiation until he sees who the next U.S. president is.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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