Yesterday evening, there was a discussion on #italian #TV where journalist Andrea #Scanzi had an illuminating take on the #war in #Ukraine: #Putin has won. He took all the important parts, the prospering south, the grain, the agriculture. He secured a corridor to #Krimea. What remains is destroyed land, caught in war forever. #Selenskyj already has become a de facto military dictator. And the warzone will effectively isolate and protect #Russia from #NATO and #EU.
He played us - and won.
@jack
1. "He took all the important parts, the prospering south, the grain, the agriculture. " -- From what I can tell the region that Russia has seized in the South isn't all or even most of the agricultural land in Ukraine. While there is a lot of wheat grown in that portion of Ukraine, it's by no means all of it, and many of the other crops Ukraine grows are grown in other parts of the country. In fact, the South of the country is mostly hot and dry, and Crimea itself especially so. https://ipad.fas.usda.gov/rssiws/al/up_cropprod.aspx
2. "He secured a corridor to Krimea" --- Occupied a corridor? Yes. Secured a corridor? No. Putin is going to be dealing with revolts in the area as well as fending off attacks from the rest of Ukraine.
3. "What remains is destroyed land, caught in war forever." ---
This is a really editorialized description. I'm not going to comment on it.
4. "#Selenskyj already has become a de facto military dictator. " --- Even if Zelenskyy were a dictator and not a president with emergency powers, he's a *very* anti-Putin one and one who has the fierce support of both the country that elected him, of the EU, and of NATO, the latter two of whom are currently supplying Ukraine with funds and weapons in order to fight off Putin. So even if one assumes this claim about Zelenskyy being a dictator is true (and I don't), that doesn't help Putin in any way.
5. "And the warzone will effectively isolate and protect #Russia from #NATO and #EU." This ignores the fact that the EU and NATO are likely to grow from this. Sweden and Finland are likely to join NATO since they want protection in the event Putin invades them. It also ignores the economic and political isolation of Russia and fact that even those countries in the EU which *haven't* been invaded are set to increase their defense budges as a direct result of Putin doing this.
In short, Putin hasn't already won, and certainly not on the fronts that reporter asserted.
