They were meant to drop on Antonov Airport yesterday, but the air assault holding the airfield was defeated. This meant the Il-76s in the air were forced to turn back.
To me this is a sign of desperation by Russian military leadership.
The fact that they are getting bogged down and could not achieve the quick decapitation has come as a surprise. Their political goals in Ukraine require a quick victory. A prolonged campaign will de directly counter to their objectives.
Putin will not back down from his campaign in Ukraine. His rhetoric will not allow him to.
I believe that if Kyiv is not captured tonight, it will lead to a more brutal campaign in the morning. Russia will be forced to use more indirect assets to dislodge Ukrainian defenders.
On top of this Russia only has a limited stockpile of precision guided munitions. This is one of the reasons Ukrainian air defense systems and aircraft are still operational. Due to this the air force will soon have to switch to dumb munitions.
If Chechnya is anything to go by the Russians will just kill on site and burn everything.
You have to admire the Ukrainian people standing up like this. Can you imagine Leo and Simon doing a video outside telling their people to fight if we were invaded
A Russian Duma member from the Communist Party has tweeted that the war should be stopped.
The motion to recognise the DNR/LNR as independent was brought by the Communist Party.
Translation: I think that the war should be stopped immediately. Voting for the recognition of the DNR/LNR, I voted for peace, not for war. For Russia to become a shield, so that Donbass is not bombed, and not for Kyiv being bombed.
It has fuck all to do with politicians and everything to do with the brave men who fight for their friends and neighbors. How many brave men fought in the civil war here? Some fought against their own brothers. I’d like to think I’d fight
The oligarchs are oligarchs at the whim of Putin. They live and die at the whim of Putin. Any tiny hint of a shift and they’ll be drinking tea with the fishes.
It’ll take an extremely cunning and ruthless person to take Putin down, and it’ll be some ruthless ex KGB psycho involved you’d think. Whoever tries it will need the organs of the secret state on board.
It’ll happen sooner rather than later if the world treat Russia as the pariah it currently is, with total economic, sporting and social isolation. Western politicians are as self serving as Putin many if them though, certainly Boris, though he’s made himself pretty much irrelevant these days.
This may all come too late for the Ukraine. I really hope not, but it may.
If the west had the morals to do so, and the honesty, their populations would on the whole accept has price rises if it was explained why.
The Ukrainians are a very very brave people. They’ve put the world to shame.
