There’s something odd going on in Washington and in European capitals with regard to the war in Ukraine. To be frank, they’re all getting tired of footing the bill. Now, we have a hero in President Zelenskyy, who was able success to successfully convince the congress, the president, European governments, to fund money for him. He came to Washington in December to try and help lobby Congress for the next dollop of money. $61 billion. Normally, he would succeed with that. He failed. It was kind of an embarrassing failure. People ask some important questions. What will the $61 billion bring us? Will it bring us victory?

Now, Ukraine has successfully and surprisingly held off the Russians, but to a stalemate. And President Zelenskyy is demanding total victory, the complete removal of Russian forces, not just from the territory that they took in the current conflict, but territories that they got back in 2014, such as Crimea. It’s also tied up with our immigration debate. And Congress is telling the president that he’s got to change immigration policy, which isn’t a foreign policy, after all, if he wants to get the money he wants for other priorities. That’s how compromise works. But it’s failing.

Now, the Russian media is, which admittedly is a propaganda organ, is picking up on some interesting findings. For example, they quoted the Washington Post, not a Russian organ, that Ukraine is a tragedy, that the battlefield in Ukraine is falling apart. And Kyiv refuses to implement U.S. recommendations. Russia declared Ukraine to be a client state of the U.S. So it’s quite understandable that if Ukraine doesn’t do what Washington wants, there will be unhappiness.

Now, the second problem is that Zelenskyy is personally wearing out his welcome. He was larger than life, he had to be larger than life to stand up to the Russians, and more power to him. But to be larger than life, you really have to be pretty obstinate. You have to have something like no negotiations. If you think back to Churchill or Roosevelt, it was “We will never surrender.” And they demanded a[n] unconditional surrender by the Axis powers. Well, you know, if you’re going to win the war, that makes sense. If you’re not going to win the war, you’re not going to get everything you want. And standing up against negotiations is hurting [the] Ukrainian cause.

As a result, there are quiet discussions about finding a way to remove Zelenskyy or replace him with someone else. Now, Zelenskyy himself canceled the March elections that are supposed to happen, but roughly two months from now. I can understand why, it’s a war-torn country. However, it kind of weakens the case that what we’re defending in Ukraine is a democracy when the president simply cancels the elections.

Now there are internal critics of Zelenskyy’s performance, including a new number of leading military figures, but also Kyiv Mayor Klitschko who is leaning strongly toward running against or trying to be the replacement candidate for Zelenskyy. It turns out Klitschko was involved with Hunter Biden’s Burisma company. So perhaps he is a favorite of the Biden administration, who knows, we’ll have to watch.

Finally, people are looking back and saying this is going to be a long war. And if it is a long war, Russia is going to be the winner. Recently, the Russian [sic], the deputy national security adviser, Jonathan Finer, for saying that just get this 61 billion through, and we’ll have peace by the end of the year. Probably not. And I don’t think anyone really believes that’s possible. Now, Russia, on the other hand, is building up its armed forces. Putin is expanding [the] number of troops by more than 100,000. And he’s offering 1 million rubles to anyone who will sign up. That’s $11,000.

Zelenskyy, on the other hand, has literally run out of people able to fight, the average age in the Ukrainian army now is 41. So, sure sign that he’s running out of troops. Zelenskyy is not negotiating. Ukraine is not going to win the war. What’s dawning on the West is that negotiations are the only way out. And Zelenskyy is blocking negotiations. It’s not in the public news right now. But I would bet that probably President Zelenskyy, hero though he is, will probably not be president by the end of 2024. This is Larry Lindsey for Straight Arrow News.