Zelensky this last week started saying that Ukraine will start negotiating by the end of the year.

The recent "peace summit" in Switzerland was a failure, but immediately afterwards we saw a bunch of Western nations ramping up the aid and committing to deploying support personell for the rear (mostly medics and engineers they say). Probably Zelensky promised there will be one last counteroffensive. If some success, he's probably thinking he will convince the Russians to accept less concessions.

He announced this week that Russia must accept:

• Ukraine joining NATO (no chance)

• Ukraine joining the EU (maybe feasible, as Putin's last terms did not prohibit this)

• Russia to pay Ukraine monetary concessions for the war and lost territorry (significant that the Ukrainians are backpedalling on 1991 borders; maybe Russia will actually pay as a negotiating chip for further Ukrainian concessions)

He did not talk about:

• demilitarization (which will definitely be a Russian term)

• denazification (which Russia will likely accept symbolically, in favour of other concessions)

• commitment to neutrality (which Russia will definitely demand)

And he still wants to treat Russia through a third party (likely the US/UK, possibly China) which Russia will not accept.

The Biden-Trump debate, as well as the French election results have shown that the West is unlikely to continue supporting Ukraine for long. That Zelensky is willing to negotiate by the end of the year probably has something to do with Biden's likely exit from the White House in January.

Furthermore, the current situation on the ground could not be more starkingly obvious:

• Russians are sweeping Ukrainian defenses and making massive gains in significant areas.

• The recent mobilization in Ukraine was a massive failure. Newly mobilized troops are either surrendering en masse AND giving up information to the Russians (which has led to an increase in precision strikes on Ukrainian HQs, ammo depots, vehicle depots and areas of troop concentration), or refusing to attack or take up positions for defense, or dying in large numbers due to poor training.

• Ukrainian manpower is completely depleted and Ukrainian losses are climbing to record numbers.

• Lack of defensive works that outlines the massive corruption regarding Western aid

• Removal of commanding officers (like the general that Azov wanted removed) and disagreements between general staff and Zelensky (Zelensky and Syrsky are not getting along - it is likely that Syrsky refused to carry out a counteroffensive - also the aforementioned removed general was Syrsky's friend/supporter/ally).

It is no wonder that Western media will start actually telling some truth about Project Ukraine. They need to prepare the people for the inevitable defeat of the West in Ukraine.