11/14/2025
People swing between confidence and panic – and these emotional swings destroy perspective. They make people forget the long-term reality of this war.
So let’s zoom out.
Ukraine continues fighting. Russia still hasn’t achieved a single strategic objective in all these years. Despite all their attempts, including the recent 2025 offensives, Russia has failed to secure the goals that actually matter.
People get fixated on a few hundred square kilometers and behave as if the fate of the war depends on that. Losing territory hurts, but Ukraine is not fighting for a handful of villages – Ukraine is fighting to preserve the state itself.
On Zelensky and Syrskyi
There is a narrative online painting Syrskyi as a “Soviet-style general” who doesn’t care about his troops or surrounds himself with yes-men. But this simply doesn’t match reality. Even strong critics of the Ukrainian system, like Taras Chmut, acknowledge that Syrskyi is an overall competent operational commander.
Zelensky, meanwhile, regularly travels to front-line positions, meeting commanders and assessing conditions directly. Between this and constant diplomatic trips abroad, he spends most of his time holding together both Ukraine’s morale and the support of international allies.
Syrskyi himself is constantly at brigade positions, trenches, and command posts. This is not Soviet top-down command – brigade commanders clearly have direct access to him.
Real Achievements That People Ignore
Take Madyar. Under Syrskyi’s framework, he led the Unmanned Systems Forces and helped trigger the wave of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries – one of the most strategically important pressures on the Russian economy.But this is rarely mentioned by Syrskyi’s critics.
Or take Drapaty. Widely praised, but who gave him control of the entire Kharkiv – Lyman operational zone?Syrskyi. Critics simply shift their story when this is pointed out.
In other words: the loudest panic narratives fall apart the moment you examine facts.
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The Real Issues – and They Must Be Addressed
Ukraine has serious systemic problems, and these deserve real critique.
1. Lack of war mobilization in society
Ukrainian society has not been psychologically or politically mobilized for a full-scale war. Many people inside Ukraine live as if the war is happening far away. This comes from the government’s overly soft, “gloves-on” approach.
2. Loss of Ukraine’s professional army
The highly capable force built between 2014-2022 was largely destroyed in the early years of the invasion, because Ukraine had people but lacked Western equipment.Today’s army is mostly mobilized civilians with limited time and training. This is a huge challenge that was not addressed early enough.
3. Corruption
Recent corruption scandals do not mean “nothing is working” – they mean corruption is being fought. But the response must be far more decisive: prosecution, extradition, real sentences. Stealing defense resources during war is treason.
4. Civilian behavior in frontline areas
Civilians in combat zones often unintentionally endanger Ukrainian troops. Ukraine needs proper exclusion zones. This is wartime, and the state must act accordingly.
5. Syrskyi’s real weakness: poor structural reforms
Operationally, he is competent. Structurally, he struggles with choosing the right senior officers. He sometimes trusts rank and past service over actual personality and performance. He needs stronger advisors for this.
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The Big Picture
The emotional swings online have nothing to do with the actual strategic reality.
Ukraine is fighting a far bigger war than a few lost towns. As painful as territorial losses are, they do not change the strategic picture.
Only the defeat of Russia matters. That is what determines Ukraine’s survival.
Meanwhile, reforms are being attempted – draft laws, mobilization changes, restructuring – but they are too slow and too careful. Decisive action is needed.
This war is a marathon. If you allow yourself to panic every time the map changes, you will burn out and disconnect entirely. Ukraine cannot afford that.
If you’re reading this, you already understand more than most people. Keep supporting Ukraine. Critique what should be criticized, but don’t fall for panic narratives or Russian information operations.
Slava Ukraini.
Source: Ukraine Matters
Sounds about right.
The author doesn’t reveal his name, but is obviously skilled in his analysis.
“Only the defeat of Russia matters. That is what determines Ukraine’s survival.”
I’m afraid that inflicting a military defeat on the orc filth remains as Ukraine’s best route to freedom.
The pundits love predicting a total economic collapse, but I’d hate to have to rely on that.
Unless someone in the West grows a set of balls and does much more than what has been done thus far, an economic collapse of the mafia state is Ukraine’s best bet. It’s disgusting that after nearly four years of this horror, we still have to think like this. But, such is the reality of things.