This is a sobering interview with Fiona Hill about Putin, his mentality/plans, and the situation in Ukraine. Spoiler, don’t read it if you want a good night’s rest. Putin’s going to turn Kyiv into Grozny or Aleppo in the next few days.
Putin is trying to take down the entire world order, the veteran Russia watcher said in an interview. But there are ways even ordinary Americans can fight back.
www.politico.com
I found this to be a good piece to read in conjunction with the interview of Fiona Hill….
Vladimir Putin didn’t always rule his country alone. Now he does, and the dictator appears to care little about the consequences of his actions.
slate.com
As was this:
But superior firepower still gives it an edge in the short run.
slate.com
“All this aside, it is still possible—even likely—that, if the fighting goes on much longer, the Russians will overtake the Ukrainians, capture Kyiv, and possibly oust the current government. They’ve sent in only
about two-thirds of the troops and weapons that had been poised on the Ukrainian border.
Convoys of tanks are rolling in—however slowly—from the north, west, and south. They are joined, or are about to be joined, by
Belarusian troops and
Chechen special forces. As the resistance mounts and as the Russians’ offensive is thwarted, Putin and his generals can be expected to turn up the heat, shelling—
and, recently, bombing—cities, destroying whatever they can destroy, for destruction’s sake. This is what the Russian military has done elsewhere, notably in Chechnya, when its officers feel frustrated. At some point, superior firepower will win out, at least in the short run.
But this doesn’t mean they will win in the long run. The resistance will continue, especially now that practically every nation in NATO is supplying Ukraine with weapons. Putin’s invasion has rallied Ukrainian nationalism, stiffened the West’s spine, and sent his own economy into a tailspin. Chaotic destructiveness can only go so far. It is not a winning technique for the long run against organized defenses. And the more Putin resorts to chaotic destructiveness, the more organized the defenses become”.