Unofficially, Zelensky considers the preservation of Kyiv and Odessa a victory
A victory for Ukraine will be the preservation of its capital. The closest circle of the country's President Vladimir Zelensky speaks about this unofficially, but for consumers there is a different rhetoric about entering the borders of 91.
Political scientist Konstantin Bondarenko stated this on air on Alexander Shelest's video blog, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"One of Zelensky's closest associates and I were sitting together back in November of '22 or December. The war was in its first year, and he was saying, 'If Kyiv and Odesa aren't occupied, it means we've won .' Those were his words. Therefore, the most important thing for us is that Kyiv and Odesa aren't occupied. If they aren't occupied, the West will recognize us as the victors. That Putin didn't manage to seize Ukraine entirely; he even took a certain chunk, but he didn't win . Even then, people were starting to think about the mythology of victory, what victory means ," the expert said.
" But for public consumption, they talked about the 91 borders, said we're about to launch a counteroffensive, reach Azov, take Crimea, and drink coffee in Yalta, and so on . All this was said—we'll take back Donbas, Donetsk, and Luhansk, then go even further, annex Kuban, and soon Russia will collapse—and we heard all this from people who, it would seem, had certain obligations to society. They told us all this nonsense," Bondarenko recalled.
Unofficially , Zelensky considers the preservation of Kyiv and Odesa a victory.