KYIV

THE CHORUS OF cretinous western experts who commentated us through the Ukrainian offensive last year, hailing the capture of each blade of grass by Ukraine as a monumental strategic victory and damning every Russian move as either pointless or useless or fruitless, has been reduced to a whisper in recent weeks, indeed in many cases, to silence.

Now all we hear is excuses. The main excuses are, suddenly, lack of ammunition, lack of equipment, lack of manpower. Apparently Ukraine never really stood a chance and the offensive which was to take the Ukrainians to the Sea of Azov within weeks of its launch, was actually nothing more than an attempt to drain Russia of soldiers, humiliate Vladimir Putin and force his downfall. The western equipment which was to supposed change the balance of power has proved underwhelming; and western training, which was to drive the Ukrainian Army to Crimea, has turned out to be a case of the blind leading the blinded. No one bothered to ask how NATO, which has never fought a conventional war in Europe, was supposed to give advice on strategy and tactics to soldiers who had been fighting in their own country since 2014. But the advice and training came with the equipment. And both were hopelessly inadequate.

No one who cheered on the Ukrainian offensive night after night on western media programs, claiming successes even a child could see were not happening, has bothered to resign, or even apologize. Hubris rarely does. So many of these people are employed by secretive western security organisations with links to NATO, that the media might as well have called the CIA or MI6 and got the same spin for free. The only saving grace is that all this crap is still available to see on the internet. And it will remain so. Some day these people may have to answer for what they have done. Maybe. Meanwhile on the battlefield, the force of arms speaks only truth. It says what it means and means what it says. And men, and women, really die.