Ukraine Always Get What You Want

Hundreds of Bodies of Civilians Found in Territory Reclaimed by Ukraine

 

Putin appears to be running out of off-ramps.

"The truth is on our side and truth is strength!" Vladimir Putin boomed into a microphone on Red Square last week, after a grand ceremony at which he proclaimed four large chunks of Ukrainian territory to be part of Russia.
"Victory will be ours!"
But in the real world, things look very different.
Even as Russia's president signed his illegal annexation treaties in the Kremlin, Ukrainian forces were advancing inside the areas he had just seized.
Hundreds of thousands of men have been fleeing Russia rather than be drafted to fight in an expanding war.
And things are going so badly on the battlefield that Mr Putin and his loyalists are now reframing what they once claimed was the "de-Nazification" of Ukraine and the protection of Russian speakers as an existential fight against the entire "collective" West.
That is the truth and none of it is on Russia's side.​

Putin's dream of Russian victory slips away in Ukraine — BBC News

The Ukrainians' bodies lay side-by-side on the grass, the earth beside them splayed open by a crater. Dragged to the spot by Russian mercenaries, the victims' arms pointed to where they had died.
"Let's plant a grenade on them," a voice says in husky Russian, in what appears to be a plan to booby-trap the bodies.
"There is no need for a grenade, we will just bash them in," another says of the Ukrainian soldiers who will come to collect the bodies. The mercenaries then realize they have run out of ammunition
These events seen and heard on battlefield video, exclusive to CNN, along with access to Wagner recruits fighting in Ukraine, and candid, rare interviews CNN has conducted with a former Wagner commander now seeking asylum in Europe, combine to give an unprecedented look at the state of Russia's premier mercenary force.​

Morale is plummeting in Putin's private army as Russia's war in Ukraine falters — CNN

A member of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle has voiced disagreement directly to the Russian president in recent weeks over his handling of the war in Ukraine, according to information obtained by U.S. intelligence.
The criticism marks the clearest indication yet of turmoil within Russia’s leadership over the stewardship of a war that has gone disastrously wrong for Moscow, forcing Putin last month to order the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of troops in a desperate bid to reverse recent battlefield losses.
The information was deemed significant enough that it was included in President Biden’s daily intelligence briefing and shared with other U.S. officials, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.
The discontent that the member of Putin’s inner circle expressed related to what the insider considered mismanagement of the war effort and mistakes being made by those executing the military campaign, according to one of the people.
The insider’s identity could not be confirmed, although the name has been included in U.S. intelligence reporting.
The new intelligence, coupled with comments from Russian officials, underscores divisions within Putin’s upper echelon, where officials have long been loath to bring bad news to an autocratic Russian leader who is seen as more isolated that at any time in his 22-year rule.​

Putin confronted by insider over Ukraine war, U.S. intelligence finds — The Washington Post

 

Putin sounds like Herschel Walker campaigning at a county fair below the gnat line.

 

Someone say my name?

 

There's a gnat line? How far north do I have to go?

 

They're flying in the cabin today, so apparently not far enough.

 

You got a dog pecker laying around?

 

Finnish people.

 

A pen pal in Finland once told me that Finns live to take people down a notch. In Hibbing the old boys got so tired of hearing the Irish celebrate St. Patrick's Day that they invented their own patron saint, St. Urho, who drove the grasshoppers out of Finland on March 16.

 

Speaking of which, the Russians didn't have a lot of luck invading Finland either. I get the impression that Russia can withstand an invasion well, but isn't any good at being invaders. They got whipped at Tannenberg too when they tried to make a move on the Germans in WWI.