Zelensky says: ‘We will win’; Time headline: ‘Ukraine Can’t Win the War’

“Over two years, we’ve grown accustomed to war and tragedies, and have started to consider it the new normal, a part of our everyday lives. And that’s the scariest part of it all,” writes poet Andriy Lyubka in this guest op-ed.https://t.co/6SDezYFnYa

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) February 24, 2024

COGwriter

Today marks the second anniversary of Russia’s ‘Special Military Operation’ into Ukraine. As reported here yesterday, the European Union and the United States announced additional sanctions to punish Russia (see USA and EU add more sanctions; whereas Transnistria Assembly wants to be part of Russia and/or its Eurasian Economic Union).

Ukraine’s President has again claimed that Ukraine will win:

February 24, 2024

Four world leaders visited the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Saturday (Feb 24), a day that marked the completion of two years of the Ukraine war. It was on this day in 2022, that Russian forces launched was President Vladimir Putin calls a ‘special military operation’. On Saturday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed confidence that Ukraine will clinch victory in the ongoing conflict. …

“We will win,” said Zelensky during the joint press conference at Gostomel airport in Kyiv. …

However, following Western help Ukraine has not been able to mount a successful counteroffensive and Russian forces have dug in, building fortified defences on Ukrainian land. https://www.wionews.com/world/two-years-of-ukraine-war-world-leaders-visit-kyiv-zelensky-confident-of-victory-693497

Time reported the following:

Ukraine Can’t Win the War

February 24, 2024

he long-awaited counteroffensive last year failed. Russia has recaptured Avdiivka, its biggest war gain in nine months. President Volodymyr Zelensky has been forced to quietly acknowledge the new military reality. The Biden Administration’s strategy is now to sustain Ukrainian defense until after the U.S. presidential elections, in the hope of wearing down Russian forces in a long war of attrition.

This strategy seems sensible enough, but contains one crucially important implication and one potentially disastrous flaw, which are not yet being seriously addressed in public debates in the West or Ukraine. The implication of Ukraine standing indefinitely on the defensive—even if it does so successfully—is that the territories currently occupied by Russia are lost. Russia will never agree at the negotiating table to surrender land that it has managed to hold on the battlefield. …

Yet supporters of complete Ukrainian victory have engaged in hopes that range from the overly optimistic to the magical. At the magical end of the spectrum is the notion, set out by retired U.S. Army General Ben Hodges among others, that Russia can be defeated, and even driven from Crimea, by long-range missile bombardment.

This is folly. Ukrainians have scored some notable successes against the Russian Black Sea Fleet, but to take back Crimea they would need to be able to launch a massive amphibious landing, an exceptionally difficult operation far beyond their capabilities in terms of ships and men. Attacks on Russian infrastructure are pinpricks given Russia’s size and resources. …

For Ukrainians to stand a chance, military history suggests that they would need a 3-to-2 advantage in manpower and considerably more firepower. Ukraine enjoyed these advantages in the first year of the war, but they now lie with Russia, and it is very difficult to see how Ukraine can recover them. … the lost Ukrainian territories are lost … https://time.com/6695261/ukraine-forever-war-danger/

As far as the lost territories go, President Zelensky has stated that Ukraine would not give them up or negotiate with the Putin regime unless Russia would give them up.

The Hill posted the following:

Ukraine can no longer win

February 22, 2024

There is no path for Ukraine to win this war. American support will not change this reality. …

The reality, two years in, is that there is no path to victory for Ukraine, at least not in the sense of pushing Russian troops back to 2021 lines of control. After Ukrainian troops abandoned Avdiivka following some of the war’s heaviest fighting — the most significant loss or gain by either side in nine months — almost all advantages accrue to Russia.

The seizure of Avdiivka does not materially change the war, but it does change the momentum. Moscow can throw mass in terms of bodies, tanks, artillery, and drones at exhausted Ukrainian forces until they crack. Ukraine is exhausted and outnumbered, struggling to recruit new troops. The best Ukraine can do now is fight Russia to a negotiated settlement that allows it to keep its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security against another Russian invasion. Even these provisions may now seem unrealistic. …

None of this is fair to the people of Ukraine, who have placed their hopes of sovereignty on America’s commitment to them. It is, however, the tragic reality of the situation. https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4481154-ukraine-can-no-longer-win/

Ukraine is not winning this conflict.

Furthermore, Russia has basically stated that since they annexed various areas previously controlled by Ukraine, those lands are now part of Russia and that Russia would use nuclear weapons if it thought it faced defeat.

As long-time readers of the COGwriter site are aware, since 2013 I have written that at least part of the territories that Ukraine controlled would end up supporting Russia. That happened in 2014 with Crimea. Also on February 5, 2022, I spoke in a video that stated that more areas of Ukraine (than only Crimea) would end up aligning with Russia (watch Russia, Ukraine, Babylonian Europe, and Prophecy). That has happened.

Now, let me add that the West has betrayed both Russia and Ukraine.

How so?

About 30-35 years ago, the Americans and Europeans assured Russia that NATO would not expand to include most of the nations of Eastern Europe. Yet, nearly all are now part of NATO.

When Vladimir Putin told the West to not allow Ukraine to be in NATO, the West told Russia it would do so as it wished. Shortly thereafter, Russian invaded Ukraine.

Now, Ukraine used to have nuclear weapons. If it still had them, it is likely that Russia would not have invaded.

The Americans, Russians, and Europeans (including the Brits) told Ukraine a few decades ago that if it got rid of its nuclear weapons that they would defend Ukraine’s borders.

But, instead, the West supported a coup to oust the democratically elected president of Ukraine (who was pro-Russian), which upset the Russians. The coup and later elections then installed a series of anti-Russian presidents, plus caused problems for Russian-speakers in Eastern Ukraine. Russia then got more directly involved in the Donbas region and also ended up annexing Crimea.

Then the West imposed sanctions publicly intended to get Russia to give up Crimea, while Russia then built a bridge to connect Crimea directly to itself. Russia also continued to support Ukrainian opposition in the Donbas (eastern) region–and many there pleaded for Russia to assist and/or annex those territories.

As far as winning this ‘Special Military Operation,’ no one really wins.

Reportedly, hundreds of thousands have died in this conflict so far.

Many cities, towns, and villages have been destroyed or badly damaged.

Families have been hurt.

Economies have been hurt.

There is damage all over.

As far as what is ahead in the next decade or so for this region, that is discussed in our free online book: Lost Tribes and Prophecies: What will happen to Australia, the British Isles, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and the United States of America?

The end of war is coming.

In a co-worker letter dated April 17, 1967, the late Pastor General of the old Worldwide Church of God, Herbert W. Armstrong, wrote:

There is a prophecy about that in the second chapter of Isaiah. In these LAST DAYS, it says, the NATION or KINGDOM of GOD’S HOUSE shall be established above all other nations on earth. “For,” it says, “out of ZION (God’s Church—God’s PEOPLE) shall go forth the LAW, and the Word of the ETERNAL from Jerusalem.” And then the nations of the earth shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks; there will be WORLD PEACE—NO MORE WAR!

   I wonder if YOU realize the THRILLING part the Eternal GOD has actually called YOU, personally, to have in fulfilling this tremendous prophecy!

   LISTEN! For this affects YOU, individually!

   God BEGAN intervening in WORLD AFFAIRS over 33 years ago, in the very smallest way at first, … This intervention is PREPARING THE WAY for Christ’s coming.

   It is restoring the knowledge that SIN is the transgression of God’s Law (I John 3:4). It is, by a preaching of LOVE, showing the people THEIR SINS! It is making plain WHAT sin is! It is lifting up its voice like a trumpet, and is CRYING, ALOUD, with the AMPLIFIED POWER of more than 45 million watts of radio power, WORLDWIDE! It is fulfilling Isaiah 58:1.

   God says He will do nothing without first WARNING the people (Amos 3:7). …

   God is going to INTERVENE in WORLD AFFAIRS, just prior to Christ’s Coming, by sending on the SINNERS OF THE WORLD the PLAGUES of “The Day of the Lord.” That is a time of GOD’S WRATH against evil spoken of in more than 30 different prophecies—both Old and New Testaments!

   Christ’s Coming is to occur as the CLIMAX of this “Day of the Lord”! …

God has been WARNING THIS WHOLE WORLD of the forthcoming world-shaking PHYSICAL INTERVENTION by GOD in world affairs.

   In HOLY WRATH, God Almighty will first bring physical punishment, through The PLAGUES of the period called “THE DAY OF THE LORD” on THE EVIL OF THIS WORLD.

   More than 30 prophecies foretell this DAY OF THE LORD! …

   It is to immediately precede Christ’s own Coming, to establish The KINGDOM OF GOD, and usher in WORLD PEACE in the happy WORLD TOMORROW!

And we are closer to that time, than when Herbert W. Armstrong wrote the above.

Notice now, something from my article Russia and Ukraine: Their Origins and Prophesied Future:

Repentance for the Nations or You?

Since the Asian nations, like Russia and its allies, are prophesied to be involved with Babylon and various wars, what about you?

Does this mean that you are doomed?

No. God does not require “group salvation.” The Apostle Paul wrote:

…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling… (Philippians 2:12)

Thus, your personal relationship with God is not determined by what your fellow countrymen do.

Can, will, God help you during the coming tribulation?

Notice the prophecy for this latter time tribulation in the Hebrew scriptures:

29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice 31 (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them. (Deuteronomy 4:29-31)

Thus, help from God during these hard times will be available to the truly sincere who really strive for it.

In late 2015, we made arrangements to get some materials translated into the Russia language. And here is a link to the first item we got back: Библия Новости Пророчество, Январь – март 2016.

We hope to get more materials out in Russian to better reach those who know that language.

Russians and Ukrainians After Babylon Falls

In Revelation 16, we also see that God will issue punishment to nearly all of humanity after Babylon (the European Empire) falls:

17 Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” 18 And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. 19 Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. 20 Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21 And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great (Revelation 16:17-21).

God sent the punishments to get all men, including the Russians, Belarussians, and Ukrainians, to repent, but they refused at first:

And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory (Revelation 16:9).

Apparently Russia and its Asian allies will be involved with the 200 million man army (Revelation 9:16) at least part of which will gather at Armageddon (Revelation 16:12-16). Those who are persuaded by demonic signs and wonders (Revelation 16:13-14) and fight against the returning Jesus will be destroyed (Revelation 19:19-21).

What Happens After the Great Tribulation and Day of the Lord?

After the battles and punishments, the tribulation and Day of the Lord will end. And Christ will return:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory (Matthew 24:29-30).

And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS (Revelation 19:16).

Christ’s return will usher in a kingdom that will be established for 1,000 years:

4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years (Revelation 20:4-6).

This is the millennium that many Russians and Ukrainians are even now looking forward to.

And people of many nations, including those of Russia and Ukraine, will be part of this kingdom. Notice:

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb (Revelation 7:9).