How Medvedev Blew a Hole in Putin’s War Plan

Ukraine’s June 1 operation didn’t just destroy bombers — it may have created permanent gaps in Russia’s ability to see the war.

Ridiculously stupid.

For a brief moment, I considered making that the title of this story — because that’s how bad, how flat-out idiotic, Dmitry Medvedev’s move was yesterday.

Medvedev — former President of Russia, current Deputy Chairman of the Security Council, and widely known as Putin’s favorite sidekick — told the world that Russia wants the Istanbul negotiations to end not with peace, but with a “swift victory and the complete destruction” of the Ukrainian government.

Not a compromised peace, he said, but a rejection of “someone else’s delusional terms.”

That message got picked up by every major news outlet on the planet and blasted into every possible corner. And no — the stupid part wasn’t what he said. Most of us, the entire European continent, and a solid majority of Americans already know that’s what Russia wants. The stupidity was in the timing of Medvedev’s announcement.

It looks like the Russians had a grand plan for the Istanbul negotiations, which were set to begin on June 2. Codenamed Operation Zeus, they were…