Putin has no way back
Putin has no way back. If he loses the war he started against Ukraine, it will cost him power, and possibly even more. The members of the Russian government and the deputies of the State Duma, who - for better or for worse - are in the same situation with the current Kremlin master. They are in a panic. Against the backdrop of Ukraine's success in reclaiming its territories, Russia faces a military defeat. One that no one in Moscow counted on.
Source - DW
That's why Putin has now announced a "partial" mobilization, he wants to send 300,000 reservists to the front. They have to stop the Ukrainian offensive, an offensive that shows the hopeless situation of the Russian army.
Weakened and isolated?
Until a few days ago - backstage at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan - Putin relaxed that Russia had no reason to rush into Ukraine. In reality, the world saw a weakened, isolated Putin. Television cameras showed a severely aged man that other heads of state and government have made themselves scarce. Putin obediently sat on the couch and listened to what they had to say.
Turkey, India, even China have publicly made it clear that they do not support Putin's war, preferring the territorial integrity of Ukraine. And with good reason - this war puts a burden on the world economy and makes those politicians whose support for the war Putin was counting on weaker.
According to the Kremlin, it cannot go on like this. Therefore, when Putin returned to Moscow, he hurried to change course. In fact, the "partial" mobilization is an admission of Russia's failure and military weakness in eastern Ukraine. Within days of the announcement of the "vote" to annex the seized territories to Russia, it became clear that Ukrainians did not want to be part of Russia. Yes, and voting at gunpoint, a referendum on the ruins, no one in the world will take seriously.
Putin wants to protect his booty. The captured Ukrainian territories, according to his plan, must become part of the Russian Federation. Then he will call upon all military means to defend the homeland. From a "special military operation," whose conduct was supposed to be limited to a certain place and time and affect little of the realities of ordinary Russians, this will rhetorically turn into the defense of the "homeland" by all means and even with nuclear weapons.
The end of the "special operation"
It doesn't take a prophet to predict that the concept of a "special military operation" will soon disappear. It will be buried by Kremlin propaganda. Instead, even more insane lies, new fabrications, and threats through the state-controlled media will be aimed at indoctrinating Russians. It is already being claimed that Russia is not waging war against Ukraine, but is protecting Ukraine from the United States and Great Britain. Whoever wants to believe this, does.
The new Putin escalation will be taken seriously by the world leaders now gathered at the UN General Assembly in New York. But their policy toward Moscow is unlikely to change. Kiev will continue to receive weapons, the Ukrainian army will continue to fight. And the 300,000 Russian reservists? They have never been to war before, they are poorly equipped. They are fathers of families, men who have been ripped out of their normal lives against their will.
In Ukraine they have to defend Russia - along with convicts and Chechen mercenaries. This will not lead to anything good. They will see with their own eyes that Ukraine does not want to belong to Russia. Tens of thousands of men will die so that Putin and his entourage can remain in power and not answer to the people for their crimes. This is the tragedy of the miscalculation made by the Kremlin master.
Author - Serhii Kolomiets, 22/09/2022
