Nearly six months have passed since Vladimir Putin waged his imperialistic invasion on Ukraine. Since that time, he’s lost so many top generals (those whacked by a sniper are no joke) and demonstrated (for all the world to see) that his military has been much less better equipped than he imagined. Not only that, but the Russian economy’s struggling to deal with global sanctions, and they’re stealing gold to finance military operations, but all is most decidedly not well.
And I’m not simply talking about how Russian troops nearly blew up one of their generals. Rather, Putin apparently regrets the larger picture, including putting his whole plan into motion. According to former NATO Supreme Allied Commander James Stavridis there’s no way that Putin doesn’t realize that he’s made a (to quote Arrested Development in a very inopportune place) huge mistake. Via Business Insider, Stavridis spoke out on WABC New York’s “The Cats Roundtable” program over the weekend:
Asked whether Putin knew the invasion of Ukraine was a mistake, Stavridis said: “I think in the dark, quiet hours at two o’clock in the morning when he wakes up, he realizes he’s made a mistake. Publicly, he’ll never admit that. Never.”
Stavridis said Putin would maintain the “fiction” that Neo-Nazis run Ukraine and that he was forced into the conflict by NATO, rather than choosing to invade. “I think he knows it in his heart, he’ll never admit it publicly,” he said.
Not only that, but Stavridi’s own observations (and given the stalled Russian convoys that are common cable-news knowledge, it’s not a leap) show that he’s “burning through capability” without the ability to keep things going for the long haul. But more than that, this report points towards Putin knowing that he’s flat-out mistaken with this ongoing invasion, but he’ll never admit as much, even though there’s more loss of life (on both sides) to come. Apparently, his desire to look like a Peter The Great-eque figure is far more important to him. Putin’s also put a nine-month goal on winning this war, and we’ll see if those Ukrainian grandmas can keep their fight going, too.
(Via Business Insider)