After word surfaced that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wants to make Russian President Vladimir Putin pee in a bucket if he loses the war, it seems that Putin’s strategies might be changing. Perhaps this also has to do with former Putin associates clucking their tongues at his fallen “Superman” image. As well, there’s been a lot of criticism after Putin invested a great effort into luxury bunker hiding while his disastrous war continues to see Russian troops flounder and die by the tens of thousands.
Additionally, a defected Putin underling revealed that the Russian leader is “pathologically afraid for his life” and prefers to hide from reality, eschewing both the Internet and cell phones. As The Independent now reveals, however, Putin has at least seen enough to can a high Russian commander after a series of embarrassing failures on the battlefield. Colonel-General Rustam Muradov is outta there, and that news comes from the British foreign ministry:
“The EGF under Muradov has suffered exceptionally heavy casualties in recent months as its poorly conceived assaults repeatedly failed to capture the Donetsk oblast town of Vuhledar,” the MoD said in its latest intelligence update.
The Moscow Times confirms this report, adding that Russia has repeatedly tried and failed to seize a symbolically significant area near the coal-mining town of Vuhledar. One such attack led to “dozens of Russian tanks” being obliterated after “being ordered to advance in single-file,” which doesn’t sound like the most optimal strategy even from a civilian standpoint. Can Putin’s army possibly turn this mess around? He could die trying, which is actually the fear that came from Russian State TV talking heads who wonder exactly how long this war might drag on into the future.
(Via The Independent & The Moscow Times)