CIA informs Blinken of Ukraine counteroffensive failure: Hersh
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Hersh cites a US official as saying that the Jeddah Peace Summit, which was scheduled earlier this month, failed after Russia was not invited.
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a media briefing at the State Department, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023, in Washington. (AP)
Seymour Hersh, renowned US investigative journalist, reported on Thursday that the CIA has informed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the Ukrainian counteroffensive will not likely yield results.
This information, said Hersh, came from a US intelligence official, who stated more specifically, that "the word was getting to him [Blinken] through the Agency [CIA] that the Ukrainian offense was not going to work. It was a show by Zelensky and there were some in the administration who believed his bullshit."
Following in the footsteps of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger when he ended the Vietnam War through a peace deal in Paris in 1973, Blinken, according to Hersh's source, has sought to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace agreement, however, "it was going to be a big lose."
The Russian Defense Ministry announced earlier that as of August 4, the Ukrainian forces lost more than 43,000 troops and 4,900 units of military equipment.
'Jeddah peace'; a Blinken story
In his piece, Hersh also cited the US official as saying that the Jeddah Peace Summit, which was scheduled earlier this month, failed after Russia was not invited.
"Jeddah was [Biden National Security Advisor Jake] Sullivan's baby," Hersh cited the official as saying, reaffirming that Sullivan had "planned it to be Biden's equivalent" of the World War I peace treaty known as Woodrow Wilson's Versailles Treaty moment.
"The grand alliance of the free world meeting in a victory celebration after the humiliating defeat of the hated foe to determine the shape of nations for the next generation. Fame and Glory. Promotion and re-election. The jewel in the crown was to be Zelensky's achievement of Putin's unconditional surrender after the lightning spring offensive," the official said before adding that "they were even planning a Nuremberg-type trial at the world court, with Jake as our representative. Just one more f***-up, but who is counting?"
Significantly, the official concluded by stating that in Jeddah, what happened was that "forty nations showed up, all but six looking for free food after the Odessa shutdown."
Ukraine counteroffensive
Last month, Hersh reported, also citing a US official, that the US and Ukrainian military have refrained from making forecasts about future victories in the counteroffensive because Russia has a clear upper hand on the ground.
"The American and Ukrainian military are no longer making any predictions," the US official was quoted by Hersh as saying. "The Ukrainian army has not gotten past the first of three Russian defense lines. Every mine the Ukrainians dig up is replenished at night by the Russians."
The fact of things "is that the balance of power in the war is settled. Putin has what he wants," the official noted. Ukraine is not in the capacity to retake Crimea, Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, and Zaporozhye.
The Ukrainian President has "no plan, except to hang on," he added.
