Putin’s ‘Good’ Options Evaporate.
Vladimir Putin appears to be in an increasingly dire predicament as the war in Ukraine does not go well for the Kremlin. (CNN)
“The reports out of Russia suggest a military and a leader in desperate need:
Anti-war protesters have been arrested and conscripted directly into the military, according to a monitoring group. Those who refuse can be punished by a 15-year prison sentence.
Convicts have been offered freedom in exchange for fighting on the front lines.
Reservists and citizens have been called up to service in a 300,000-person “partial mobilization” not seen since World War II.
As world leaders gathered at the United Nations in New York and condemned him, Russian President Vladimir Putin was back home, scrambling to refill his depleted war machine.
His foreign minister Sergey Lavrov was notably absent as the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a blistering soliloquy to the UN Security Council, documenting what he referred to as Russia’s war crimes since February.
“If Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends,” Blinken said, pledging the US would maintain its growing support for Ukraine.”
Vladimir Putin was under the impression that waltzing into Ukraine would be a cake walk, not only would the war be easily won, the residents of Ukraine would be happy to come back under Russian rule. The war in Ukraine is the exact opposite of a cake walk and is punctuated by fierce Ukrainian resistance, with the help of the Western arms and ammunition. If Putin’s war was immediately successful then World order could have been disrupted especially if China tried to duplicate Russian aggression with an invasion of Taiwan. The ultimate end of the conflict remains to be seen.
