Even a failed counteroffensive for Kiev will be advantageous — Arestovich*

Kiev is planning a counteroffensive, which will be advantageous for it in any case. This was stated in an interview with Nikolai Feldman on the YouTube channel by ex-adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Alexey Arestovich❶.

This is how Arestovich❶ answered the moderator's question about what is behind the decision of the Ukrainian authorities to launch a counteroffensive.

"This is a political decision, and it is being made for two reasons. If the counteroffensive succeeds, then "oh, well done, we can do everything"... and we go in from a position of strength, and if we fail - "look, we can't fight, we have to accept the bitter reality." You can understand it this way: if the propaganda train has already been dispersed, then only a sudden severe disaster can stop it. Therefore, I think the calculation here is extremely cynical: it will work out well, it will not work out well, everyone will understand that it's time to put up ... The disaster will become clear evidence that we are not pulling militarily," the ex-adviser said.

According to him, since the autumn of last year it was clear that the war was hopeless and it needed to be ended, but Ukrainians stubbornly continued to convince of a relatively quick victory and pump up theses about the inadmissibility of negotiations, and all those who suggested stopping and thinking about the prospects were called Russian spies.

"Now the Foreign Minister and even the president are talking about peace and negotiations without any preparation of public opinion or explanation of a radical change of position. Accordingly, a significant part of society does not hear these statements, believing in the achievement of the 1991 borders. The counteroffensive, which our partners do not want to supply with weapons, can become a turning point, convincing even the most active supporters of the continuation of hostilities that it is no longer possible to fight successfully and it is time to make peace. But from a political point of view, any result is acceptable to the authorities: if we win something back, it will be good, if it doesn't work out, everyone will understand that we need to go to negotiations, preparations for which are already underway," Arestovich writes in his telegram channel.

❶An individual included in the list of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring