Contrary to the incomprehensible advice of U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley — that Ukraine use winter's potential slowdown in fighting as a "window" for negotiations with Russia — Britain's Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace is smartly encouraging President Zelensky's armed forces to strike - to "keep up the pressure, keep up the momentum," and thus capitalize on their recent counteroffensive successes.
Said Wallace in an interview with the Daily Beast:
"Given the advantage the Ukrainians have in equipment training and quality of their personnel against the demoralized, poorly trained, poorly equipped Russians, it would be in Ukraine’s interest to maintain momentum through the winter. They have 300,000 pieces of arctic warfare kit from the international community."
His advice is as commonsensically smart as it is welcome. Ukrainian troops virtually danced through Russian "defenses" in the northeast — the Kharkiv region — and more recently they captured Kherson, President Putin's prize of an occupied city which he briefly, officially fancied as a part of Russia. For Ukrainian forces to let up now against the "demoralized, poorly trained, poorly equipped Russians" would be a damnable instance of military malpractice.
Wallace commented further on the deplorable state of the Russian army in Ukraine:
"A Russian unit was recently deployed with no food and no socks, and not many guns. That is catastrophic for a person going in the field... The Russians have scale, but are not very good. Well, most of the good ones are dead. They are a meat grinder—they shove them in the meat grinder—and use massive quantities of artillery. Only a nation that does not care for its own people could send 100,000 of its own people to be either dead, injured, or deserted."
This is the army to which General Milley wished to provide a "window"? And negotiate with its commander in chief, Vladimir Putin? What is there to negotiate? Either Russia voluntarily removes itself from all of Ukraine's territory, including Crimea and the Donbas' entirety, or Ukraine must force it back to its borders. If Ukraine and Europe desire a permanent peace, this is the only acceptable term.
In part because negotiating with Putin is like making an unsigned deal with the devil. He would use any peace settlement as mere biding time; a "window" to rebuild his military as best he could — and back to Ukraine he would go. In his mind Russia is still a formidable military power; he'll never capitulate to "little" Ukraine in any lasting way. As well, any land-for-peace settlement would only reward Putin's aggression.
Fortunately, Zelensky "has declared that he will not negotiate with Russia while Putin remains in power," as the Daily Beast reminds us. He has also declared that any settlement must meet the conditions outlined above. Zelensky realizes that as long as Putin is president, "settlement" = "military resolution."
We must also thank Britain's Ben Wallace for acknowledging what, again, is incomprehensively missing in Gen. Milley's thinking.