First the NY Times, a Week Later the Washington Post: A Break from Washington’s “Poison to the Soul”, “war Porn” concerning the War in Ukraine

According to the Russian government, the two Donbass republics the Luhansk and Donetz Peoples Republics have been liberated, indicating that Russia has no intention of returning them to Ukrainian sovereignty, which neither republic wants anyhow (photo credit: al Jazeera)

The Mainstream U.S. and Western Narrative on Ukraine: Poison to the Soul and War Porn

A Colorado friend of mine (one Chester McQueary) refers to the mainstream media reporting on Ukraine as “poison to the soul”, “war porn”. I could not agree with him more.

Given its intensity, we all know the routine that has been drummed into our heads:

Ukraine’s David is a match for the Russian Goliath: in fact, Ukraine is winning on the battlefield and the Russians are bogged down in an Afghanistan-like quagmire (the 1979 version). Vladimir Putin is nothing short of Satan – or Hitler – incarnate and besides he is dying of cancer. The Russian military is an ineffective fighting force with poor training and mass desertions.

Add to this that NATO involvement is negligible, that the Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine suffered no discrimination or repression the past eight years and that the neo-Nazi influence in Ukraine’s military, security and intelligence apparats have been exaggerated.

This rounds out the false narrative.

The above description was the coordinated drumbeat from the mainstream media in the United States, UK (where it was even more strident) and much of Western Europe. While there are many examples of this form of “war porn” that could be cited, I zero in on one in particular, the April 30, 2022 edition of the British Economist, that well written, often interesting weekly of which the foreign policy coverage is often little more than a well-articulated version of Fox News. 

The headline of their Ukraine coverage in that issue is “Russia’s Army Is In A Woeful State; the Fiasco in Ukraine could be a Reflection of Bad Strategy or a Poor Fighting Force”. The article goes on to quote none other than Admiral James Foggio, commander of the U.S. Naval Forces in Europe and Africa, who chimes in with:

It’s not a professional army out there,” said Admiral Foggo. “It looks like a bunch of undisciplined rabble,”

The upshot of this false news: Russia is bogged down in Ukraine and in the more triumphalist interpretation of events, Ukraine is winning the war or at the very least giving the Russian military incursion a run for its money.

And then …. Wham Bang! The Russians are winning!

As reported previously, a series of articles and statements began to challenge the mainstream narrative, the first blows coming from a (previously discussed) May 19th op ed in the NY Times. This was followed by Henry Kissinger’s remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos a few days later. In an effort to return to the balance of power prior to the February 24 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kissinger argued that Ukraine is losing the war, that if some kind of negotiations with Moscow don’t take place the military situation will turn into a debacle. The West (U.S and NATO) should accept certain territorial concessions to Russia over Crimea and the Donbas. Kissinger’s focus is unambiguous: Washington and its proxy, the Zelensky government, should bite the bullet, admit defeat, cut its losses now so that the Ukraine can live to fight another day. The former U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor stated that the West had a mere two months to grasp a political stalemate from the jaws of military defeat.

In response to his calling for a negotiated settlement, the Ukrainian government added Kissinger’s name to Kiev’s “list of enemies” on the elder statesman’s (and war criminal)) 99th birthday. Called the ‘Mirotvorets’ or “Peacemaker”, it is a kind of Ukrainian “most wanted” or “kill list” Those on the Mirotvorets are considered “accomplices in the crimes of the Russian authorities” with their names placed publicly on an internet website. Those on the list are not welcome in Ukraine and are considered nothing less than enemies of the state. A number of Ukrainian journalists whose names so appeared have been assassinated.

A week after the Times editorial board published its call for a face-saving negotiated settlement – not to be outdone, the Washington Post weighed in with its own “narrative shift” path-breaking piece. In an article entitled “Ukrainian volunteer fighters in the east feel abandoned” by Sudarsan Raghav, the Post paints a dismal picture of the state of the Ukrainian military fighting in the Donbas. This picture contradicts the mainstream Western media narrative of a well-trained, battle hardened, effective Ukrainian military that the public in the United States and Europe have been bombarded with over the past three months. Some have even argued that Ukraine is winning the war on the ground. In fact, the Post article essentially contradicts what the Economist was spinning a few weeks earlier.

The main idea of the Post article paints a bleak picture of the Ukraine’s situation. Contrary to western news reports from both Britain and the USA, the military situation in Ukraine is going very badly for the Zelensky government; the Ukrainian military in the Donbass is getting hammered, if not annihilated. Troop morale is collapsing along with the defensive front positions built over eight years; mass surrenders of Ukrainian forces are becoming more common and troops, many of whom are poorly trained reserves, are being sent to the front short of ammunition, artillery support and food. They have become little more than cannon fodder.

What’s the Deal? Why The U-Turn in the Media Reporting?

Why the shift from a Ukraine winning to a sudden Ukraine losing narrative in both the trend setting New York Times and Washington Post,?

As Greek blogger and political commentator Alexander Christoforou noted this is a narrative shift in order to prepare the public for what is to come, including the possible collapse of the Ukrainian government as we know it. Christoforou goes on to argue that given the actual situation, the changing military balance on the ground in the Donbas that mainstream media outlets like the Times and Post would have to publish the truth of the matter sooner or later. It would no longer be possible to hide the Ukrainian military collapse in the Donbas or to hide the extent of Russian victories there.

There is mounting evidence that Ukrainian military resistance in the Donbass is collapsing every day. The implosion began with the Ukrainian defeat at Poposnaya on May 8 in the Luhansk region; a week later Izium fell as well to Russian forces. As of this writing (May 29, 2022), Russian, Luhansk and Donetsk forces have entered a larger Ukrainian bastion, Severodonetsk. All this bodes ill for the Ukrainian military posture as it appears that Ukrainian troops have been now completely defeated and cleared from the territory of the Luhansk People’s Republic.

Put more bluntly, Ukraine is losing the war on the ground and with every passing day the question is not which side in the Donbas is winning – the Russian side is definitively – but rather just how devastating a defeat will Ukraine suffer? As a number of U.S. Senators have admitted, it is a U.S.-NATO proxy war in which the Ukrainian forces are fighting Washington’s battles. This is a humiliating setback for Washington and Bruxelles as well. It is simply no longer possible to hide the Ukrainian military collapse in the Donbas or to hide the extent of Russian victories there.

It is this debacle that has led the NY Times and Washington Post to make what amounts to 180 degree turn in their reporting. It is only so long that these publications can trumpet such a false narrative and retain their credibility. Keep in mind something else. The extent of the Ukrainian debacle has become impossible to hide or to spin positively. In their desperation major European leaders (the French, Germans, Austrians and Italians) are calling Russia’s President Putin, asking for a cease fire (among other things) and for the reopening of negotiations that might lead to an end to the fighting.

While Putin did not reject an opening of negotiations, he did insist that at present there is no interest from Kiev in pursuing diplomacy. According to the Russian president, if such an initiative from Ukraine did take place, it would have to be more serious than the recent Istanbul conference Nor does there appear to be any serious moves on the part of these European leaders nor of the Biden Administration to move in such a direction.

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