'Gloom' Hovers Over Putin as The Ukraine War Turns Sour

Vladimir Putin may have got it all wrong on Ukraine. The Russian president maybe now be biting his nails at the way is going and wondering what’s next?

He can’t stop his Russian military adventure but he won’t halt the war either despite the heavy losses which he and his military generals are refusing to come clean about and give the exact figures. Sure there is plenty of destruction but Russian soldiers deaths are kept to a minimum. 

It’s a war that is turning out to be messy, bloody and brutal as relayed by different media platforms and pictures do not lie. Heavy bombardments of cities across the country, including the capital of Ukraine, Kiev, have been rife from Day 1 of the invasion which started on 24 February.

But the Russians have met tough resistance from the Ukraine army, its ordinary civilians and volunteers. Even they were surprised by their ability to block Russian soldiers and stop them from having a free reign whether in Mariupol, Kharkiv, Irpin, Chernihiv, Bovary, Mykolaiv, or other parts of the country like Odessa and other coastal towns of the Black Sea.

What the Russians managed to do is increase the displacement of people from their homes.

In just three weeks of war they managed to create about 3 million refugees and scatter them into the border countries of Ukraine - into such places as Hungry, Romania, Moldova and off course Poland which has become the highest recipient of uprooted people from the Ukraine with figures spiralling every day. 

Meanwhile the war continues in a checkered and futile manner. The Russian troops are still to reach Kiev. For the past two weeks they have been fighting on its outskirts. They are now reportedly 16 kilometers from reaching the capital city that has become almost a ghost town with half of its people pf 3.5 million running away to safety if that is the appropriate word to use for non of the geographical areas are safe in the Ukraine at the moment to use an understatement.

The 65-kilometer-long Russian convoy that was supposed to make it to Kiev has grounded to a halt seemingly because of no supplies and fuels and with reports that it has been continually hit by the Ukraine army and its volunteers. There is no sign of it moving again.

But the Russians continue to dominate the skies. They continually hit different cities with deadly missiles. They supposedly bombed a maternity hospital in Mariupol under the pretext it was full of fighters taking up arms. Again, pictures don’t lies. The so-called fake mom blogger turned out a real pregnant mother who subsequently died with her unborn.

The claims that Russian bombs are falling on military installations - the Moscow Defense Ministry states it rendered out of action 3593 armed structures so far - should be taken within the overall context of things. With the inability to control major cities and towns Russian jets are frequently destroying from the air with deadly missiles that don’t seem as accurate as it was thought.

This is the case with Kiev. First they wanted to ‘rail-road it’. Later they wanted to encircle it and now they are trying their hardest to missile it from the air, frequently bombing civilian targets with deathly consequences and with homes and flats, long made the abodes of ordinary people smouldering into charcoal, blood and fire.

From the pictures and videos that are shown on the media, this is turning out to be an ugly war for the people despite the bickering of politicians and the stiff upper lips made by such people as Vladimir Putin and President Vlodymyr Zelensky who continues to utter "upbeat" words and statements to give the people hope and Dutch courage about beating the Russian invaders while his appeals of NATO intervention and the imposition of a no-fly zone over his country continues to fall on deaf dears by western leaders. 

It seems banal for the West, starting from US President Joe Biden to British Premier Boris Johnson, to say they won't impose an air embargo because they don't want to widen the arena of war to NATO countries. But this would be seen as appeasing Putin and allow him to intensify the Russian bombings of Ukraine.

However, reports are coming in that Russian troops are in deep trouble because they only have 10  to 15 days of military supplies and ammunitions. This begs the exclamation of: Really! A country such as Russian becoming unstuck three weeks into the war. Is this why they are seeking Chinese help but Beijing is not so gullible as to answer despite the beaming warnings being made that are being made in Washington not to interfere?

However, this might all be talk, and then it might not be since Russian-Ukraine delegations are constantly meeting on the Belarus border while apparently murdering each other - and let's call a spade a spade here - if we are to believe what Zelensky has been saying that about 12,000 Russian soldiers were killed in the war so far by the Ukraine army.