the times | Tuesday May 24 2022 2GM 15News
cities and industries. Thanks to this
[patronage] model, the postwar re-
building could be fast and efficient and
the largest in Europe since the Second
World War.”
Switzerland will host a conference in
Lugano in July to help to raise funds for
the reconstruction, attracting inter-
national donors.
President Putin was among the
speakers when the Davos forum was
held remotely last year, but Russian
officials have now been banned for the
first time since the Cold War.
Separately, at a televised meeting in
the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Putin told
President Lukashenko of Belarus that
the Russian economy was doing well
despite western sanctions.
Lukashenko said that the sanctions
had given both countries the impetus to
focus on self-development and westernSpy chief tells
of attempt
to kill Putin
Maxim TuckerThe head of Ukraine’s military intelli-
gence has claimed that assassins tried
to kill President Putin two months ago.
Kyrylo Budanov said the unsuccess-
ful attempt on the Russian leader’s life
was carried out by “representatives of
the Caucasus”, according to the
Ukrainian news website Ukrainska
Pravda, which said it planned to release
full details of the interview today.
The Caucasus region ranges from
members of the Russian Federation
such as Chechnya to the independent
countries Armenia, Azerbaijan and
Georgia. Russia waged two wars
against Chechens seeking independ-
ence in the 1990s, the latter of which
was overseen by Putin. Between 50,
and 80,000 people are thought to have
died in that conflict. The current Che-
chen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, is an ally
of Putin. Russia invaded Georgia in
2008 and maintains a “peacekeeping”
force in Armenia after its conflict with
Azerbaijan.
“This is non-public information,”
Budanov said. “Absolutely unsuccess-
ful attempt, but it really took place ... It
was about two months ago.”
Photographs suggest that Putin may
wear a bulletproof vest in public.help rebuild his country
elites were deluded about the causes of
their economic woes.
Davos has been decked out in
Ukrainian colours and speakers and
activists from the country are appealing
to the international community for
assistance. Zelensky was given the
keynote speaking slot to open the four-
day conference.
Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv,
and his brother Wladimir, the former
heavyweight boxing champing, called
on delegates to make Russia a pariah
state by demanding that the Swiss-
based International Olympic
Committee ban the country from all
Olympic events. “The world must wake
up. We are screaming for help and the
help is never enough as long as this war
is ongoing,” Vitali Klitschko told the
forum. “It took two months for the free
world to understand the weapons that
need to be delivered.”
Ukraine is on the brink of a food crisis
as its farmers struggle to sow, store and
sell grains that are vital to the global
food markets for wheat, maize and sun-
flower oil. Russian forces have de-
stroyed ports such as Odesa to prevent
exports, and have also been accused of
burning crops and smuggling grain for
sale on the black market.
Zelensky said he was in talks with
allies including the US, UK and EU to
establish a “food corridor” to transport
crops out of the country and sell them
from other European ports.
IMF’s food warning, page 33President Zelensky told delegates all
foreign companies should leave RussiaNews
Ukraine must seek
peace talks to have
any hope of revival
MUHAMMED ENES YILDIRIM/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGEST
he towering certainty, 90
days since Vladimir Putin
launched his invasion of
Ukraine, is that Russia has
not achieved victory, and is
not going to. The Ukrainians have
shown magnificent fighting spirit,
tactical skill and resolution. As for
Russia, it is hard to decide whether its
army is more disgraced by its
incompetence or its savagery.
Almost every western expert has
been astonished by the former. In the
past we have seen the Russians
conduct operations in Afghanistan,
Chechnya and Syria with brutish
clumsiness. But their willingness to
inflict indiscriminate devastation and
death has sometimes enabled them to
prevail. Their special forces appeared
professional and sophisticated.
What has gone wrong this time?
First, the Ukrainians have proved
more motivated and disciplined than
any other enemy they have faced, and
— thanks to Nato — equipped with
technology superior to their own.
Kyiv’s forces had time to prepare to
meet the invasion. They have profited
from some western training and
much “real time” intelligence,
especially satellite imaging.
In the Second World War Russian
generals earned the admiration of the
world. They were repulsive human
beings, indifferent to losses, including
hundreds of thousands of their own
men shot for alleged cowardice. But
they won their battles, especially from
1943 onwards. Today, by contrast,
Putin’s commanders seem to have
forfeited the skills of their forebears.
Tactical defeats feed upon themselves
— the heavier the losses, the harder it
becomes to induce troops to renew
attacks with conviction. Whereas the
Ukrainians have been fighting nimbly
and imaginatively, the invaders
remain sluggish. But be in no doubt:
had America withheld support, as it
might well have under President
Trump, then with or without the
British Ukraine would have lost the
war. The EU, excepting Poland and
the Baltic states, has failed miserably
to support Ukraine as it deserves.
This is partly because of European
dependence on Russian energy. But
there is also a deeper malaise, evident
since the end of the Cold War.
Western Europeans still recoil from
shedding blood in any cause. It
remains uncertain that their defence
and security policies will
henceforward be galvanised as their
early rhetoric promised. President
Macron still appears to flinch from an
outright collision with Putin.
As for Ukraine, while much of the
world hails its people’s achievement,
stubborn challenges persist. British
ministers, headed by Liz Truss and
Ben Wallace, have diminished
themselves by their irresponsible
rhetoric, especially the foreign
secretary with her insistence thatthere must be no peace while one
Russian remains on Ukrainian soil.
We are not the ones fighting and
dying. It is sadly unattractive to
embrace proxy bellicosity for
domestic political advantage. Where
this war stops can only be a
Ukrainian decision. Some of us have
argued from the outset that it is one
thing to halt the Russian onslaught,
as President Zelensky’s forces have
accomplished, but far tougher to
expel Putin’s forces from Donbas.
The Ukrainian president showed by
his words on Saturday that he himself
recognises this is unlikely to prove
attainable. The Russians will remain
formidable defenders.
On both sides economic pressures
are building, likely to prove as critical
to the outcome as immediate events
on the battlefield. The cash costs of
the struggle are mind-boggling. All
the participants’ and suppliers’
inventories of high-tech weapons are
deeply depleted. Industry cannot
instantly gear up to restock them.
We still do not know how horrible
the Russian leader is willing to be —
whether, to check a Ukrainian
counteroffensive or to achieve
something he might call victory, he is
willing to use chemical, biological or
nuclear weapons.
Professor Yehezkel Dror, the Israeli
strategy guru, argued last week that
Zelensky’s western allies were
pursuing recklessly self-indulgent
policies, ignoring the fundamental
reality, that Ukraine remains the
weaker party: “Emotional name-
calling, such as branding Putin as a
war criminal and calling for a regime
change in Moscow, may be morally
and ethically correct and honourable,
but it is also a form of strategic
madness. Russia is, and will remain,
an indispensable major partner in the
global arena.”
Some pundits suggest that the war
will drag on indefinitely, or become
frozen, with the killing suspended but
no settlement. The objection to such
an outcome is that it would block the
revival of Ukraine. It also renders
impossible recovery from the
frightening global food chain
disruption that is already taking place.
Benn Steil of the US Council on
Foreign Relations has published a
powerful essay, arguing that there can
be no Ukrainian resurrection as long
as it borders a Russia committed to its
ruin. Steil wrote: “The regrettable but
inescapable conclusion is that long-
term, credible internal and external
security is a precondition for a
successful Marshall Plan in Ukraine,
and that the United States and its
allies are incapable of providing it...
Russia may never be able to conquer
Ukraine, but it is more than capable
of making it a hellish place to live.”
Too much British political and
media attention focuses on gloating
over Russian battlefield humiliations.
These are real enough, but what
matters most to the Ukrainian people
is how the shooting can be stopped,
and their lives start again.
An absolute Ukrainian military
“victory”, with Russia condemned to
the permanent pariah status it has
earned, remains unattainable. Sooner
or more likely later a negotiation will
have to take place. The challenge will
be to identify guarantees against
Putin renewing his aggression at will.The West should stop
gloating over Russian
losses and
focus on a
deal, writes
Max Hastingsgs