Ukrainian forces continue to amaze the world with their bravery and they are stunning Putin’s forces with their tenacity.
Russian soldiers are now refusing to fight in Ukraine as Moscow is racking up losses on the battlefield.
There has been a lightning counter-offensive by Kyiv this week and it has pushed Putin’s invaders right back to the border with Russia. Ukraine has reclaimed huge areas of its nation, even the territories lost in the beginning stages of the war.
Russian soldiers are running back to Russia or surrendering en masse. There are videos of soldiers just lying down on the road in front of Kyiv’s forces. It’s as if they “understand the hopelessness of their situation,” Ukrainian military intelligence said.
The situation has to be embarrassing for Putin.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk said, “Learning about the number of dead [estimated to be up to 43,000], Russian troops are refusing to fight on the territory of Ukraine, payments to the wounded occupiers have been halted.”
“The military command of the Russian Federation suspended the dispatch of new, already formed units to the territory of Ukraine,” he added.
A US think-tank said Kyiv’s gains in the north-east Kharkiv region “may be impacting the will or ability of the Russian military command to use newly formed volunteer units in Ukraine in a timely fashion.”
And US intelligence officials told the Washington Post they expect to see further humiliating retreats made by Moscow’s armed forces.
“The Russians are in trouble,” one source said. “Their weaknesses have been exposed and they don’t have great manpower reserves or equipment reserves.”
Another Western official said it was “too early to say” whether the advance made by Ukraine amounted to “a turning point” in the six-month war.
“But it’s a moment that has power in terms of both operations and psychology,” the official said. “It’s exactly what the Ukrainians need right now. They need that success, and they need that winning narrative. I would describe it as scoring a goal before half-time.”
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