Veronica Haidar #FBPE #FBPA 🇪🇺 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Putin knows he has to conquer Ukraine to survive politically and personally. This means his only viable strategy to succeed in Ukraine is to erode support for Western military aid. He believes this will allow him to win a war of attrition. Consequently, Putin has developed a narrative that Ukraine will be a "forever war" like Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. He maintains that if we go on sending Ukraine weapons, we are only fuelling a pointless conflict that would otherwise soon be resolved. To be clear, what Putin is actually saying is that the only way to stop the war in Ukraine is to let him win. But to allow him to triumph would send a clear message to all dictators and authoritarian regimes that aggression is perfectly justifiable. A terrifying aspect of Putin's strategy is that through a variety of Russian agents already in the USA, Britain, Germany and elsewhere in the West, Putin is paying lobbyists to promote his message. We know that he has previously tried to interfere in Western elections. Right now he is doing everything possible to get Trump re-elected, because he believes Trump is sympathetic to Russia. Another part of the narrative is that Western for Ukraine support risks Russia collapsing internally, which could be much more dangerous than maintaining the status quo. Which may be true. There are also efforts to discredit Zelensky and his Government, with accusations of corruption and authoritarianism which as bad a Russia's. Much of what is being whispered into Government ears has a ring of truth about it. But let's not forget that the most convincing lies are often very close to the truth. The worst thing about what is going on is that many of the people who have been paid by Putin are respected advisors who should know better. I have seen it firsthand and am appalled by it. Shame on them. Luckily, Western media is starting to pick-up on this. I just hope politicians on both sides of the Atlantic will not be taken-in by such sedition. We must stay the course in Ukraine until Russia is pushed out. This day is definitely coming. So let's not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Many thanks to @randymot4 for pointing out the same problem in the USA.