One By One, The Former Soviet Republics Are Abandoning Putin From Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Tajikistan, countries in Russia's orbit have refused to help him turn the tide in the Ukraine war. All (maybe even Belarus?) is coming to understand that his next step would be a complete restoration of the Soviet empire. https://worldcrunch.com/world-affairs/soviet-republics-putin
desperate and pathetic attempt to drive a wedge on the alliance. Don't stop at cutting your nose Putin, we're enjoying the show.
Just gonna say that occasionally I get fleeting thoughts that Ukraine is playing an ultra long game with Russia, wherein it will accept the fact that Putin has dug Luhansk and Donetsk very hard and not likely to let go or be driven out. So Ukraine ramps up its fronts there against them for the ultra long haul, mostly to make then commit massive resources to defending them. Then over a period of a year or more - while Russia is bogged down there- Ukraine takes Mariupol, Kherson, downward, including Crimea and ultimately concedes Luhansk and Donetsk. So Vlad gets those areas but pays an enormous price in maintaining them because Ukraine will take more land back, much more, while he is fully maxed out defending the newly annexed areas. Some of this type of scenario might be enhanced if Vlad plays around with dropping a small tactical nuke in the region. Some of the pundits think that Nato would not necessarily respond with nukes if he did so, and if his strike was limited, but instead would take out the Black Sea Fleet, and Sevastopol their headquarters, and use conventional forces to hand Crimea over to the Ukrainians. Putin is going to be thumbing his nose at the world on this Donetsk and Luhansk takeover, but the price he will pay is that he is going to lose Kherson while he is defending those annexed areas. And the Ukrainians will keep him busy in those areas while they continue to advance. Russians have made no real progress in taking Odessa which is good. They were just weeks/days away at one point, then the Black Sea Fleet was given reasons to leave the area and stay farrr away. Next stop for the Ukrainians is to encircle the city village of Lyman up near Kharkiv- another rail hub there I guess. Some pundits are saying that Ukraine has drawn the Ruskies into another trap there. The Ukrainians went for the rail hub just to bring all the Russian forces there and then they backed off and other Ukrainian forces came to encircle them. We shall see. Lyman. It's gonna be a thing like Izyium. Probably by the weekend.
'Just Military Exercises, Right?': Families Send Off Russian Reservists https://www.barrons.com/news/just-m...nd-off-russian-reservists-01664367608?tesla=y These are just military exercises, right?" a woman in her 60s asks a relative next to her. Around her, women are sharing a last kiss, holding hands or exchanging a final word with departing men through a metal barrier separating the reservists from the street. "I think so, yes -- military exercises. I don't know," 55-year-old Svetlana Antonova replied, hoping to reassure the woman. "I think they'll be taken to a training camp. I don't know. No one knows. I think they'll be in the rear."
There is an expression in Russian "в полной жопе" - literally "completely in the ass", but figuratively "in deep trouble". I think that's what she meant by "be in the rear".