Western media outlets, once cheerleaders for Kiev, are increasingly warning sanctions are failing and Ukraine needs to make peace


Even as the collective West continues to insist – against all observable reality – that the conflict in Ukraine is going well for Kiev, major media outlets are becoming increasingly uneasy with the situation on the economic front. More and more observers are admitting that the embargoes imposed by the US and its allies aren’t crushing the Russian economy, as originally intended, but rather their own.

Meanwhile, major publications have begun to report on the actual situation on the frontlines, rather than uncritically quoting myths like the ‘Ghost of Kiev’ or ‘Snake Island 13’ propagated by Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, as they did early on. There have even been hints, however timid, that the West should perhaps stop unconditionally supporting Kiev and promote a negotiated peace instead.

“Russia is winning the economic war,” the Guardian’s economics editor Larry Elliott declared on Thursday. “It is now three months since the west launched its economic war against Russia, and it is not going according to plan. On the contrary, things are going very badly indeed,” he wrote.

Elliott actually argues that the recent US announcement of sending rocket launchers to Ukraine is proof that sanctions are not working: “The hope is that modern military technology from the US will achieve what energy bans and the seizure of Russian assets have so far failed to do: force [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to withdraw his troops.”



In a May 30 essay, Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins also said that the embargo had failed to force a Russian withdrawal, but argued the EU should “stick to helping Ukraine’s war effort” instead, while withdrawing the sanctions because they are “self-defeating and senselessly cruel.”

As Jenkins points out, the sanctions have actually raised the price of Russian exports such as oil and grain – thus enriching, rather than impoverishing, Moscow while leaving Europeans short of gas and Africans running out of food.[b]

[b]Note that Jenkins is wrong about the supposed effectiveness of Western weapons, given that Russian and Donbass troops have won a series of victories over the past month – from Popasnaya to Liman. On May 26, the Washington Post of all places published a shockingly frank account of how one Ukrainian unit lost more than half its strength near Severodonetsk and retreated to the rear. Its commanders actually got arrested for treason after speaking to the US outlet.

This reality couldn’t be ignored by even the Telegraph’s defense editor, Con Coughlin, who’s become somewhat of a meme for prophesying Russian defeat on a weekly basis. He is now saying Moscow might pull off a “shock triumph” – albeit in service of his argument that Kiev needs even more weapons.


The collective West’s failure to break Russia was apparent even to The Economist, not exactly a publication sympathetic to Moscow. The newspaper reluctantly admitted a month ago that the Russian economy had bounced back from the initial sanctions shock. Meanwhile, it’s the West that has to deal with energy shortages, spiraling costs of living, and record inflation. It’s Americans, not Russians, who can’t find baby formula in stores and can’t afford gas.

Perhaps that’s why this “spring of discontent” with the Western sanctions policy hasn’t been confined to the European side of the Atlantic. On Tuesday, the New York Times ran an op-ed by Christopher Caldwell in which he criticized the Biden administration for “closing off avenues of negotiation and working to intensify the war” by sending more and more weapons to Kiev.

“The United States is trying to maintain the fiction that arming one’s allies is not the same thing as participating in combat,” Caldwell wrote, pointing out that this distinction is getting “more and more artificial” in the information age. A day later, the head of the US Cyber Command admitted to conducting offensive operations against Russia on Ukraine’s behalf.


The US has “given Ukrainians cause to believe they can prevail in a war of escalation,” Caldwell wrote, which is why Kiev isn’t eager to make peace. Indeed, when none other than Henry Kissinger tried to argue in Davos for settling the conflict quickly, Zelensky’s office cursed him out. He was soon designated an enemy of the Ukrainian state.

There have been calls for an off-ramp to the war even earlier – though few and far between, and lost amid the ongoing cacophony of media cheerleading for Kiev. Back on May 18, the usually hawkish Charles Kupchan of the Council of Foreign Relations advised Ukraine in the pages of The Atlantic to “take the W,” so to speak.

“Russia has already been dealt a decisive strategic defeat,” he wrote. “For NATO and Ukraine alike, strategic prudence argues in favor of pocketing these successes rather than pressing the fight and running the tantamount risks.” NATO, Kupchan added, should advise the Ukrainian government on how to end the bloodshed, and soon.

The very next day, the New York Times’ editorial board echoed his argument, saying a decisive Ukrainian victory over Russia was “not a realistic goal” and that US President Joe Biden should tell Zelensky that there is a limit to which the US will go.

“It is imperative that the Ukrainian government’s decisions be based on a realistic assessment of its means and how much more destruction Ukraine can sustain,” they wrote.


Judging by the official statements coming from both the White House and Kiev, however, the conversation Kupchan and the NYT advised never took place. Instead, the US continues to give Ukraine a blank check, of the kind Germany offered to Austria-Hungary in 1914.

Speaking of First World War analogies, a senior political scientist at the RAND corporation – a think-tank advising the Pentagon – made one in Foreign Affairs on Tuesday. According to Samuel Charap, the creation of Belgium as a neutral state by its neighbors was to everyone’s benefit for almost a century, with Britain willing to fight Germany in 1914 to preserve it. The neutrality arrangement proposed at the talks in Istanbul in late March could provide Ukraine with the same thing, he said.

Too bad, then, that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had personally intervened to scuttle those talks back in April, telling the Ukrainians that if they wanted to make a deal with Moscow, the collective West did not.


Nebojsa Malic

Nebojsa Malic is a Serbian-American journalist, blogger and translator, who wrote a regular column for Antiwar.com from 2000 to 2015, and is now senior writer at RT.

@NebojsaMalic Twitter
@TheNebulator


Front page pls Seun lalasticlala mynd44 Mukina2 justwise

Lol... China has ban all Russian airbuses and Boeings from its airspace due to maintenance and safety concerns. U think one tree can ever make a forest?

lecowas:
Lol... China has ban all Russian airbuses and Boeings from its airspace due to maintenance and safety concerns. U think one tree can ever make a forest?

Modified: China’s civil aviation authority banned Monday all of Russia’s Airbuses and Boeings from entering Chinese airspace — planes that were stolen from international lessors shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine back in February

Apparently, you failed to report the whole news, you only picked the headlines

Teaser4:


Modified: China’s civil aviation authority banned Monday all of Russia’s Airbuses and Boeings from entering Chinese airspace — planes that were stolen from international lessors shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine back in February

Apparently, you failed to report the whole news, you only picked the headlines

Lol... U will find better non bias news on the Asian media outlets. I'm not u reading Russian Times always. What u read are "opinions" and not what is happening.

Never knew u modified ur post, u will soon get the full gist. Lol

lecowas:


Lol... U will find better non bias news on the Asian media outlets. I'm not u reading Russian Times always. What u read are "opinions" and not what is happening.

Never knew u modified ur post, u will soon get the full gist. Lol

I modified cos I fest ask you for your source, then I decided to do a little google search myself.

The news source i quoted isn’t related to Russia.
I read all news source, that’s how you can spot fake news. You can simply create your threads with your full gists…that’s none of my business, next time if you wan report news on my thread, don’t copy the headlines only…. If you think China go turn against Russia, then you have zero clue about international politics

lecowas:


Lol... U will find better non bias news on the Asian media outlets. I'm not u reading Russian Times always. What u read are "opinions" and not what is happening.

Never knew u modified ur post, u will soon get the full gist. Lol

even Abcnews got the news from Russian media lmao

lecowas:


Lol... U will find better non bias news on the Asian media outlets. I'm not u reading Russian Times always. What u read are "opinions" and not what is happening.

Never knew u modified ur post, u will soon get the full gist. Lol

thats the full news from your favorite western media, as I said earlier na only headlines you read….

Excerpts- “ China’s air regulator asked all foreign carriers last month to update ownership information and other details, RBK said, citing two unidentified sources. It said Russian airlines that couldn’t provide documents showing their aircraft were “de-registered abroad” were barred from Chinese airspace. Abcnews

I hope that’s self explanatory enough Abi you want me to expatiate for you

Teaser4:
I modified cos I fest ask you for your source, then I decided to do a little google search myself.

The news source i quoted isn’t related to Russia.
I read all news source, that’s how you can spot fake news. You can simply create your threads with your full gists…that’s none of my business, next time if you wan report news on my thread, don’t copy the headlines only…. If you think China go turn against Russia, then you have zero clue about international politics

Calm down na, we are not fighting . China only cares about herself and no one else. Anything can happen, that's life

lecowas:


Calm down na, we are not fighting . China only cares about herself and no one else. Anything can happen, that's life

im not fighting with you either, I Dey clarify ni

Teaser4:
im not fighting with you either, I Dey clarify ni

Check this out.
They are accepting reality slowly

Discombulator:

Check this out.
They are accepting reality slowly

na so bro, I forget to upload the image I have it here too… thanks for sharing jare

Discombulator:

Check this out.
They are accepting reality slowly

Lol one person tweeting from both sides of his mouth.


...

Teaser4:
Western media outlets, once cheerleaders for Kiev, are increasingly warning sanctions are failing and Ukraine needs to make peace


Even as the collective West continues to insist – against all observable reality – that the conflict in Ukraine is going well for Kiev, major media outlets are becoming increasingly uneasy with the situation on the economic front. More and more observers are admitting that the embargoes imposed by the US and its allies aren’t crushing the Russian economy, as originally intended, but rather their own.

Meanwhile, major publications have begun to report on the actual situation on the frontlines, rather than uncritically quoting myths like the ‘Ghost of Kiev’ or ‘Snake Island 13’ propagated by Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, as they did early on. There have even been hints, however timid, that the West should perhaps stop unconditionally supporting Kiev and promote a negotiated peace instead.

“Russia is winning the economic war,” the Guardian’s economics editor Larry Elliott declared on Thursday. “It is now three months since the west launched its economic war against Russia, and it is not going according to plan. On the contrary, things are going very badly indeed,” he wrote.

Elliott actually argues that the recent US announcement of sending rocket launchers to Ukraine is proof that sanctions are not working: “The hope is that modern military technology from the US will achieve what energy bans and the seizure of Russian assets have so far failed to do: force [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to withdraw his troops.”



In a May 30 essay, Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins also said that the embargo had failed to force a Russian withdrawal, but argued the EU should “stick to helping Ukraine’s war effort” instead, while withdrawing the sanctions because they are “self-defeating and senselessly cruel.”

As Jenkins points out, the sanctions have actually raised the price of Russian exports such as oil and grain – thus enriching, rather than impoverishing, Moscow while leaving Europeans short of gas and Africans running out of food.[b]

[b]Note that Jenkins is wrong about the supposed effectiveness of Western weapons, given that Russian and Donbass troops have won a series of victories over the past month – from Popasnaya to Liman. On May 26, the Washington Post of all places published a shockingly frank account of how one Ukrainian unit lost more than half its strength near Severodonetsk and retreated to the rear. Its commanders actually got arrested for treason after speaking to the US outlet.

This reality couldn’t be ignored by even the Telegraph’s defense editor, Con Coughlin, who’s become somewhat of a meme for prophesying Russian defeat on a weekly basis. He is now saying Moscow might pull off a “shock triumph” – albeit in service of his argument that Kiev needs even more weapons.


The collective West’s failure to break Russia was apparent even to The Economist, not exactly a publication sympathetic to Moscow. The newspaper reluctantly admitted a month ago that the Russian economy had bounced back from the initial sanctions shock. Meanwhile, it’s the West that has to deal with energy shortages, spiraling costs of living, and record inflation. It’s Americans, not Russians, who can’t find baby formula in stores and can’t afford gas.

Perhaps that’s why this “spring of discontent” with the Western sanctions policy hasn’t been confined to the European side of the Atlantic. On Tuesday, the New York Times ran an op-ed by Christopher Caldwell in which he criticized the Biden administration for “closing off avenues of negotiation and working to intensify the war” by sending more and more weapons to Kiev.

“The United States is trying to maintain the fiction that arming one’s allies is not the same thing as participating in combat,” Caldwell wrote, pointing out that this distinction is getting “more and more artificial” in the information age. A day later, the head of the US Cyber Command admitted to conducting offensive operations against Russia on Ukraine’s behalf.


The US has “given Ukrainians cause to believe they can prevail in a war of escalation,” Caldwell wrote, which is why Kiev isn’t eager to make peace. Indeed, when none other than Henry Kissinger tried to argue in Davos for settling the conflict quickly, Zelensky’s office cursed him out. He was soon designated an enemy of the Ukrainian state.

There have been calls for an off-ramp to the war even earlier – though few and far between, and lost amid the ongoing cacophony of media cheerleading for Kiev. Back on May 18, the usually hawkish Charles Kupchan of the Council of Foreign Relations advised Ukraine in the pages of The Atlantic to “take the W,” so to speak.

“Russia has already been dealt a decisive strategic defeat,” he wrote. “For NATO and Ukraine alike, strategic prudence argues in favor of pocketing these successes rather than pressing the fight and running the tantamount risks.” NATO, Kupchan added, should advise the Ukrainian government on how to end the bloodshed, and soon.

The very next day, the New York Times’ editorial board echoed his argument, saying a decisive Ukrainian victory over Russia was “not a realistic goal” and that US President Joe Biden should tell Zelensky that there is a limit to which the US will go.

“It is imperative that the Ukrainian government’s decisions be based on a realistic assessment of its means and how much more destruction Ukraine can sustain,” they wrote.


Judging by the official statements coming from both the White House and Kiev, however, the conversation Kupchan and the NYT advised never took place. Instead, the US continues to give Ukraine a blank check, of the kind Germany offered to Austria-Hungary in 1914.

Speaking of First World War analogies, a senior political scientist at the RAND corporation – a think-tank advising the Pentagon – made one in Foreign Affairs on Tuesday. According to Samuel Charap, the creation of Belgium as a neutral state by its neighbors was to everyone’s benefit for almost a century, with Britain willing to fight Germany in 1914 to preserve it. The neutrality arrangement proposed at the talks in Istanbul in late March could provide Ukraine with the same thing, he said.

Too bad, then, that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had personally intervened to scuttle those talks back in April, telling the Ukrainians that if they wanted to make a deal with Moscow, the collective West did not.


Nebojsa Malic

Nebojsa Malic is a Serbian-American journalist, blogger and translator, who wrote a regular column for Antiwar.com from 2000 to 2015, and is now senior writer at RT.

@NebojsaMalic Twitter
@TheNebulator


Front page pls Seun lalasticlala mynd44 Mukina2 justwise

So this one now is no longer a western propaganda because the Serbian blogger wrote what you want to hear?

I'm still in shock to hear that you still scramble,read, interested & post western made news!!!

I'm even surprised that you still believe anything published by the western media?

WHEN TWO ELEPHANTS FIGHTS,THE GRASS SUFFERS MOST.

However, the truth still remains that the both sides must feel the "NEGATIVE IMPACT" of the war.

Russia took the west by surprise, having prepared for it many years before hand.

The west in anger reacted without any sort of preparation probably because they have numbers & they control over 60% of the world economy & politics.

Therefore, speaking from my own angle,it will be difficult for one country to defeat over 30 countries against her.

VOICEofORIENTAL:
So this one now is no longer a western propaganda because the Serbian blogger wrote what you want to hear?

I'm still in shock to hear that you still scramble,read, interested & post western made news!!!

I'm even surprised that you still believe anything published by the western media?

WHEN TWO ELEPHANTS FIGHTS,THE GRASS SUFFERS MOST.

However, the truth still remains that the both sides must feel the "NEGATIVE IMPACT" of the war.

Russia took the west by surprise, having prepared for it many years before hand.

The west in anger reacted without any sort of preparation probably because they have numbers & they control over 60% of the world economy & politics.

Therefore, speaking from my own angle,it will be difficult for one country to defeat over 30 countries against her.

Why are you shocked ? Shey I tell you say I be antiWest ni. West wey I Dey visit steadily, even some American citizens dey here dey criticize their country, na normal thing, we no fit reason alike….Please don’t be surprised, I’m not always antiWest but on this Putin matter, na West get fault in my opinion, and based on the research wey I don do so far. However, I’m not happy with the war but it is what it is, life happens.

The reason why I highlighted the author’s name is cos I no wan hear say na propaganda, cos any news that’s not in western’s interest here na propaganda for una ears….

Whereas, I’m just trying to balance the level ni, in my own little way, I no dey get paid…make ppl read news from both sides, then decide who to believe. I no dey try campaign with my posts, I just drop it and move

Pro-Putin luuunatics can continue cajoling themselves.

Putin himself is desperately calling for sanctions to be lifted before Ukrainian produced will be allowed to leave the Black Sea.

The sanctions are not working indeed.

I need more tears

Teaser4:
Why are you shocked ? Shey I tell you say I be antiWest ni. West wey I Dey visit steadily, even some American citizens dey here dey criticize their country, na normal thing, we no fit reason alike….Please don’t be surprised, I’m not always antiWest but on this Putin matter, na West get fault in my opinion, and based on the research wey I don do so far. However, I’m not happy with the war but it is what it is, life happens.

The reason why I highlighted the author’s name is cos I no wan hear say na propaganda, cos any news that’s not in western’s interest here na propaganda for una ears….

Whereas, I’m just trying to balance the level ni, in my own little way, I no dey get paid…make ppl read news from both sides, then decide who to believe. I no dey try campaign with my posts, I just drop it and move

Well I'm interested in the research You said you made & concluded it was the fault of the west.

I will like you to share some of those research with me.

Thank GOD you said Americans are criticizing their country & that is a normal thing!!.... but is it a normal thing for Russians to criticize Russia & still remain safe in Russia?

In today's Russia,You cannot criticize Russia & still remain in Russia.

This are some of the many reasons why the west is still better.

Joe Biden or Boris Johnson cannot gag the media in their respective countries!
Because the house would not pass such bill.... they have a very strong & effective opposition checkmating the excesses of the government in power.

You saw how Boris Johnson was "SERIOUSLY DRILLED" by the opposition party,because of Covid PARTY GATE.

There's no opposition in today's Russia.The only people that decides the destiny of Russia is Putin & Kremlin.

Nobody can vote out Putin.. but Donald Trump was voted out just four years in office.

Vladimir Putin, while in office amended the Constitution to enable him elongate his tenure to 5years per term in office, after the normal 8years.

No president in the entire Western world would be in office & seek to elongate his/her tenure after having ruled for 8years will succeed.

Russia is winning. Their economy is booming. Sanctions are useless and clearly failing. UP PUTIN.

Opolopoopolonio:
Pro-Putin luuunatics can continue cajoling themselves.

Putin himself is desperately calling for sanctions to be lifted before Ukrainian produced will be allowed to leave the Black Sea.

The sanctions are not working indeed.

My dear the matter tie wrapper!

They said the sanctions didn't touch them yet they're insisting on removing the sanctions before they will allow Ukraine to export their grains...

Wetin concern Ukraine's grains with sanctions against Russia?

They said they are making more money than before yet, inflation is high even with the oil & gas money.

They said sanctions no touch Russia yet, OPEC+ has contacted Saudi Arabia & Qatar to cover up the volume of oil & gas short falls from Russia because of the sanctions.

VOICEofORIENTAL:
Well I'm interested in the research You said you made & concluded it was the fault of the west.

I will like you to share some of those research with me.

Thank GOD you said Americans are criticizing their country & that is a normal thing!!.... but is it a normal thing for Russians to criticize Russia & still remain safe in Russia?

In today's Russia,You cannot criticize Russia & still remain in Russia.

This are some of the many reasons why the west is still better.

Joe Biden or Boris Johnson cannot gag the media in their respective countries!
Because the house would not pass such bill.... they have a very strong & effective opposition checkmating the excesses of the government in power.

You saw how Boris Johnson was "SERIOUSLY DRILLED" by the opposition party,because of Covid PARTY GATE.

There's no opposition in today's Russia.The only people that decides the destiny of Russia is Putin & Kremlin.

Nobody can vote out Putin.. but Donald Trump was voted out just four years in office.

Vladimir Putin, while in office amended the Constitution to enable him elongate his tenure to 5years per term in office, after the normal 8years.

No president in the entire Western world would be in office & seek to elongate his/her tenure after having ruled for 8years will succeed.

I’m happy that I got a warm reply from you. I hope others can emulate you, so we fit dey communicate without hostility. Cos dis thing no affect most of us directly.

About the research I did, firstly, you should know that this crisis didn’t start on feb 24, nah agitations and struggles wey don dey pile up, unfortunately it lead to war this year. Pls go and read about the “2014 coup in Ukraine”, “Minsk agreements”,” Donbass war” and so on like that, to have a clear understanding about the Genesis of this crisis….that’s part of my research that I’m willing to share for a starter.

If you studied “Government” in secondary school, you should remember this subtopic “forms of government” they are; democracy, monarchy, oligarchy…etc



What I’m trying to point out is that, each country have their own unique mode of governance. I mean what works for their society, democracy can’t work everywhere, just like we have different religions, it’s all about tolerance.

The reason why those inalienable rights you mentioned above are missing in Russia is simply because Russian isn’t a democratic state, same as China, it’s their way of life so you gotta respect that, you can’t castigate em because they don’t practice democracy.

All these forms of government have merits and demerits, dem teach us everything in secondary school , even if you no do government in sec school, let’s say you be science student, a simple google search will make you understand better.

The fact that you can’t drag Putin and Xi, and get away with it doesn’t mean that they’re evil.
Shebi you Dey read about America’s gun violence, Kyiv currently is safer than some American cities sef. A totalitarian society like Russia is safer than a democratic state like USA.

So that’s the difference, there are several forms of government across the world. Uk still practice monarchy, while dem ousted all the monarchs in their colonies during the colonial era.

Nah all these super power countries get bloods on their hands, their is no saints among em, you can get unlimited access to some of their atrocities online….

Stay safe

Abeg epp me correct any typo wey you notice, I Dey multitask, I’m making dinner here….life of a bachelor

VOICEofORIENTAL:
My dear the matter tie wrapper!

They said the sanctions didn't touch them yet they're insisting on removing the sanctions before they will allow Ukraine to export their grains...

Wetin concern Ukraine's grains with sanctions against Russia?

They said they are making more money than before yet, inflation is high even with the oil & gas money.

They said sanctions no touch Russia yet, OPEC+ has contacted Saudi Arabia & Qatar to cover up the volume of oil & gas short falls from Russia because of the sanctions.

anybody wey talk say sanction no touch Russian Dey catch cruise ni. What we Dey talk about be say their sanctions didn’t yield their expectations, no be wetin dem expect dem get, it’s obvious some of this eu leaders talk about it openly in their interviews, one google search go show you results

The issue be say West shot em sef in the legs cos dem Dey feel the heat of the sanctions as well, you wan to inflict pain on someone yet you dey suffer from the pain, no be juju be that… Russia is too big and too relevant to the global economy to be isolated or neglected.

When they sanctioned Iran, Nk, VZ, Cuba, gas price no spike in their countries nah, baby formula sef no scarce.

If their sanctions were effective as anticipated dem no go reach 6th….dem Dey do trial and error…

Why did the sanctions fail? It failed cos Russia already know what to expect and have back up plans. If to say China join the West ni, the war go don stop since, the sanctions would have handicap the Russian economy, but Russia and China na padi wey get common enemy(USA)

This thing no be sentiments na reality, how much was gas in the USA before their sanctions? How much dem Dey sell am today? Same with other European countries, what was their inflation figures before their sanctions, go and check the numbers today.

Qatar gave Germany conditions not to resell its fuel to other countries in the eu. Oil no be tomatoes, e no Dey spoil, if eu no buy directly dem go buy indirectly and Russia go always sell their oil in the market, price go go up and that’s more money. Who’s the mumu here? Who’s the loser here? More revenue means more money to finance the war, which was the reason for the sanctions initially, to capitulate Moscow.

Abeg manage any typo wey you see