The so-called stalemate continues to cost Ukraine dearly. The country's infrastructure is being devastated, 10 million people have fled to neighboring counties, and Ukrainians, both soldiers and civilians are being slaughtered by the Russian invaders. In a just world, the UN would have bombed Moscow into the stone-age and tried and executed Putin as a war criminal for his crimes against humanity-- along with his top conspirators.
Colonel Yuri Medvechek, commander of the 37th Motor Rifle Brigade, won't have to be included among those top conspirators. That's because, if the intelligence reports are to be believed, his own soldiers already took care of it, killing him by purposely running him over with a tank in Ukraine. Reports say it was because of low morale in the unit where losses are high.
This morning, Ukraine's minister of defense said that "that Russia is losing ground, allowing Ukrainian forces to reclaim certain key towns and positions just 20 miles from Kyiv. The Ukrainians estimate that between 10,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed so far.
An anonymous officer from Nato said on Wednesday that battlefield casualties suffered by Russia are thought to total between 30,000 and 40,000 since Putin launched his invasion on February 24.
British military intelligence said on Thursday that "Russian forces have almost certainly suffered thousands of casualties during their invasion of Ukraine."
In an effort to bolster their troops, Russia is likely looking at bringing reservists and conscription, further intelligence has suggested.
The Russian President is said to be frustrated at the lack of progress, which has seen his troops fail to seize any major cities despite heavy bombardment of them.
Russian state journalists were told the invasion of Ukraine would be over in two weeks, a whistleblower has claimed.
Speaking anonymously to ITV News, a journalist for the Russia 1 television channel said they were initially told the war would be over by 8 March, then they would be able to go back to their "normal work."
But a week after that date passed, Russian security chiefs admitted that the conflict was not going "as fast as we would like."
...Speaking to ITV News, the Russia 1 journalist said: "We expected the war to go on for one week.
"Our manager told us it would be over by 8 March and then we could return to our normal work on musical and dance programmes."
Reuters reported today-- likely Russian propaganda-- that 'all" Russia wants now is the Russian-speaking territory in eastern Ukraine, reminiscent of Hitler saying all he wanted were the German-speaking regions of Czechoslovakia before gobbling up the whole country less than a year after Neville Chamberlain had "appeased" him. This does not ring true to my ears: "Moscow signalled on Friday it was scaling back its ambitions in Ukraine to focus on territory claimed by Russian-backed separatists as Ukrainian forces went on the offensive to recapture towns on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv."
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