Putin will not like this. The Duma is acting like they have something to say about Vlad's performance when everyone knows that that is not how the dance has traditionally worked. Vlad probably will fix it and convince the Duma that they cannot show this kind of division openly when the Motherland was at war but he knows he is suffering a loss of prestige and control here just to have it publicly reported. Putin will probably identify some of the ones who cooked up this plan and have them killed. Maybe Shoigu will use his charm to win them over. Little joke there. Russian parliament to consider summoning defence minister "It is virtually unknown for the State Duma to summon a defence minister to account for himself." https://news.yahoo.com/russian-parliament-consider-summoning-defence-160505139.html
We only need to look at the leniency shown Trump to see that US is reluctant to take a hard stand on matters. Then look at Germany with its cowardly approach to dealing with Putin and China to see it wants to play both sides. I'm not so sure that the West will retaliate. Russia bombs the shit out of Ukraine but no one bombs Russia in retaliation. No wonder NK, China, Russia want to shit stir, because they know they can get away with it.
There are those who argue that the Budapest Agreement obligated the U.S. to protect Ukraine against any attacks upon it, if Ukraine gave up its nukes. It is unclear though. There are those who argue- and I am in that camp for what it is worth- that the Budapest Agreement did not obligate the U.S. to protect against any outside attacks upon Ukraine- but only in instances where the attacks or threat involved nuclear weapons where Ukraine was disadvantaged for having given up its nukes. It was not intended to be used as just a wildcard that Ukraine could play if it got into conflict with another country. Just sayin that is a fair debate, but if Ukraine is attacked or imminently threated with nukes then that debate goes off the table. Vlad might want to study up on that a bit because he crosses over a new red line by doing so.
"they left between a fifth and a third of artillery shell reserves" Yep. But worse than that. They also took control of the rail hub that would bring any replenishment into eastern Ukraine. The same rail hub that feeds the line going down to Kherson too. Where they gonna get their resupply from? You have all these military analyst bean counters who calculate the ammo burn rate based on assessments of firings in the field and then figure that Russia has enough for X number of months. All fine and dandy, except massive amounts of ammo are being taken out of action either by blowing up ammo depots every day or due to ammo being abandoned by fleeing troops. Might want to work that into the calculation too. Some of those ammo dumps probably had three months of supply in them for that particular area. Could be more. Putin may have pre-staged it before the war. Then Mr. Himar comes along and messes up the plan. Then they start firing less to preserve ammo and the bean counters assume they can last until next January because they are using very little ammo. Yeh BUT that might be because they have very little ammo. duh. We dont know. We do know that taking out ammo depots in combination with taking out rail supply hubs is not good for the Russians and the effects are going to set in soon. Seriously, I dont know what some of these Russian units are doing for food and ammo. The rail lines are mostly down. The bridges are mostly down. They are being asked to fight without even a peanut butter sandwich to hold them over.
Ukrainians in recaptured villages recount the exploits of Brave Sir Russian. ‘They ran away’: Ukrainians recount hasty Russian withdrawal Residents of Ukrainian villages retaken by the country’s army describe the retreat of Russian forces in the face of Ukraine’s counteroffensive. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/15/they-ran-away-ukrainians-recount-hasty-russian-withdrawal
Russian "Research Institute for Childhood, Family and Education" has conducted a survey of students in junior high and high schools in Russia. 68% said they are patriots of Russia 46% said they want to permanently emigrate ROTFLMAO