In late February, when the war in Ukraine began, the number of social media interactions on the subject peaked at 18 million, according to the study group at tracking company News Whip. It was said that in the information war, Ukraine was already victorious. By the end of May, however, the number had dropped to 345,000, which is 50 times less than in February.
The same happened with journalistic reports published on the internet. As reported by the American news Axios, in the first week of the war, about 520,000 articles were published about Ukraine. Recently, publications have dropped to 70,000 per week, seven times less.
Realizing that the world has diminished interest in the war, Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska told ABC News on May 22: “Don’t get used to this war. Otherwise, we run the risk of living an endless war. Don’t get used to our pain.”
Le Beck International security researcher and analyst Michael Horrowitz posted on Twitter about the risks of this reduced international interest in the conflict. “The decline in Western attention comes at a time when Ukraine is most in need of support,” he commented. At this point in the war, Ukraine no longer has ammunition for weapons of Soviet origin and needs the Western system. “Of course, media coverage is different from public interest and the supply of weapons. But one factor affects the other. I believe this is Russia’s bet,” he added.
Economic crisis is an obstacle to support for Ukraine
As inflation and the food crisis advance in the world, reinforced by the war, Ukraine finds it more difficult to receive Western aid. Will the United States, for example, which has already allocated more than US$ 40 billion to Kyiv, be able to help Ukraine for a long time, given the risk of recession in the country?
The way nations organize themselves in the face of the advance of war also compromises Western unity. While Poland and the Baltic countries are taking a more aggressive stance against Russia, other nations such as Italy, France and Germany can afford less time to apply sanctions to Vladimir Putin’s country.
Losing to Russia could cost the West even more, NATO says
“War can last for years,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag last weekend. “We must not give up on supporting Ukraine. Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, but also for rising energy and food prices,” added the head of the military alliance.
As Stoltenberg stressed, “no financial cost compares to the suffering on the front lines of Ukraine”. The NATO chief also warned that if Russia achieves its goals as it did with the annexation of Crimea in 2014, “the price will be even greater” for the West.
On a trip to Kyiv last week, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that at this time of fatigue for Ukrainian troops, this is when the country most needs military support. He also said that a ceasefire would only be of interest to Russia. “It would be a catastrophe if Putin won,” the British prime minister said.
But in practice, the UK Ministry of Defense reported that, after almost four months of fighting, in the face of fatigue, troops on both sides defected and rebelled against orders from officers, especially on the Ukrainian side.
Conflict is more concentrated and less attention-grabbing
In addition to the weather, which naturally cools down interest in the news, the current nature of conflicts attracts less public attention. Troop fatigue, both from months of combat and from their intensity in the same key locations, generates less interest than the large movements towards the capital in the first months of the war.
The public would be surprised, however, if they knew that the village of Tochkivka, taken by the Russians on Tuesday (21), is a strategic point a few kilometers from Severodonetsk and is part of the Russian plan to conquer the much-disputed Donbas Basin. .
According to the American Institute for War Studies (ISW), Russian troops want to cut Ukrainian lines of communication on roads in the region. As part of the same project to take the Donbas, the Russians have carried out “catastrophic destruction” in Lyssytchansk, as announced by the governor of the Luhansk region, Serguiï Gaïdaï.
30% of the country’s structures were destroyed
“About 30% of roads, bridges, ports, railways and airports were destroyed,” Ukrainian infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubranov said in an interview with Le Monde. According to him, 105 billion euros will be needed to remake this structure. About 40% of this amount would be allocated to damages in transport.
Among the most destroyed cities are those that were initially targeted by the main attacks, Mariupol, Kharkiv and Chernihiv, but also those that have become the focus of Russian attack in recent months, such as Severodonetsk and Lyssychansk. About 320,000 people declared having lost their homes, but, according to Kubranov, this number tends to be much higher.
“In Mariupol, for example, everything is destroyed. In total, more than 44 million square meters of establishments were damaged or destroyed”, commented the minister.
The problem with extending the war for so many months, and perhaps years, is that even if the structure of cities is rebuilt, there is a risk of further attacks. “We cannot rebuild on a large scale at the moment,” explained Kubranov. Even so, the Ministry of Infrastructure will invest in part of the repair so that Ukrainians can return to the country.
#Troop #Weakness #Destruction #Media #Fatigue #Time #Conflict #Hurts #Ukraine
