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Associated Press

Russian military slog in Ukraine a ‘dreadful mess’ for Putin

Ellen Knickmeyer – March 18, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — The signs are abundant of how Ukraine frustrated Vladimir Putin’s hopes for a swift victory and how Russia’s military proved far from ready for the fight.

A truck carrying Russian troops crashes, its doors blown open by a rocket-propelled grenade. Foreign-supplied drones target Russian command posts. Orthodox priests in trailing vestments parade Ukraine’s blue and yellow flag in defiance of their Russian captors in the occupied city of Berdyansk.

Russia has lost hundreds of tanks, many left charred or abandoned along the roads, and its death toll is on a pace to outstrip that of the country’s previous military campaigns in recent years.

Yet more than three weeks into the war, with Putin’s initial aim of an easy change in government in Kyiv long gone, Russia’s military still has a strong hand. With their greater might and stockpile of city-flattening munitions, Russian forces can fight on for whatever the Russian president may plan next, whether leveraging a negotiated settlement or brute destruction, military analysts say.

Despite all the determination of Ukraine’s people, all the losses among Russia’s forces and all the errors of Kremlin leaders, there is no sign that the war will soon be over. Even if Putin fails to take control of his neighbor, he can keep up the punishing attacks on its cities and people. Ukraine’s president said Russia is trying to starve Ukraine’s cities into submission and that Putin is deliberately creating “a humanitarian catastrophe.”

“His instinct will be always to double down because he’s got himself into a dreadful mess, a huge strategic blunder,” said Michael Clarke, former head of the British-based Royal United Services Institute, a defense think tank.

“And I don’t think it’s in his character to try to retrieve that, except by carrying on, going forward,” he said.

Putin’s forces are waging Russia’s largest, most complex combined military campaign since taking Berlin in 1945. His initial objective, which he announced in a television address on Feb. 24 as the invasion began, was to “demilitarize” Ukraine and save its people from “neo-Nazis” — a false description of Ukraine’s government, which is led by a Jewish president.

Fatefully, Putin underestimated the national pride and battlefield skills that Ukrainians have built up over the past eight years of battling Russian-backed separatists in the country’s east.

At the start, Russians thought “they would install, you know, some pro-Russian government and call it a day and declare victory,” said Dmitry Gorenburg, a researcher on Russia’s security at the Virginia-based CNA think tank. “That was sort of Plan A, and as near as we can tell, they didn’t really have a Plan B.”

Russia’s first apparent plan — attack key Ukrainian military targets, and make a quick run to Kyiv, the capital — failed immediately. It was foiled by Ukraine’s defenses along with the countless mistakes and organizational failures by a Russian force that had been told it was only mobilized for military drills.

Clarke, the British researcher, related accounts of Russian troops selling communication equipment and fuel out of military vehicles to locals during the weeks they waited on Ukraine’s borders.

With no friendly population to welcome them, Russian forces reverted to tactics from their past offensives in Syria and Chechnya — dropping bombs and lobbing missiles into cities and towns, sending millions of men, women and children fleeing.

Putin’s forces are in position to capture the besieged port city of Mariupol. Overall, Russians appear to be fighting with three objectives now: to surround Kyiv, to encircle spread-out Ukrainian fighters in the east and to break through to the major port city of Odessa in the west, said Michael Kofman, an expert on the Russian military and program director at CNA.

Kofman cautions that much of the information on the war is coming from Ukrainians or from their American or other allies. That makes the partial picture skewed and a full picture impossible.

A senior U.S. defense official on Friday said the Russians have launched more than 1,080 missiles since the start of the war and that they retain about 90% of the combat power they had arrayed around Ukraine at the beginning of the invasion.

The U.S. assesses that the airspace over Ukraine remains contested, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the military assessments. The Ukrainian air force is continuing to fly aircraft and employ air and missile defenses..

“Just look at the map, and you just look at how little progress the Russians have been able to make,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said recently.

The math of military conquests and occupation may be against Putin in Ukraine.

Estimates of Russian deaths vary widely. Yet even conservative figures are in the low thousands. That’s a much faster pace than in previous Russian offensives, threatening support for the war among ordinary Russians. Russia had 64 deaths in five days of fighting during its 2008 war with Georgia. It lost about 15,000 in Afghanistan over 10 years, and more than 11,000 over years of fighting in Chechnya.

Russia’s number of dead and wounded in Ukraine is nearing the 10% benchmark of diminished combat effectiveness, Gorenburg said. The reported battlefield deaths of four Russian generals — out of an estimated 20 in the fight — signal impaired command, he said.

Researchers tracking only those Russian equipment losses that were photographed or recorded on video say Russia has lost more than 1,500 tanks, trucks, mounted equipment and other heavy gear. Two out of three of those were captured or abandoned, signaling the failings of the Russian troops that let them go.

Meanwhile, Russia needs to limit its use of smart, long-range missiles in case they’re needed in any larger war with NATO, military analysts say. On Saturday, the Russian military said it has used its latest hypersonic missile for the first time in combat, claiming that the Kinzhal, with a range of up to 2,000 kilometers (about 1,250 miles), destroyed an underground warehouse storing Ukrainian missiles and aviation ammunition.

When it comes to the grinding job of capturing and holding cities, conventional military metrics suggest Russia needs a 5-to-1 advantage in urban fighting, analysts say. Meanwhile, the formula for ruling a restive territory in the face of armed opposition is 20 fighters for every 1,000 people — or 800,000 Russian troops for Ukraine’s more than 40 million people, Clarke notes. That’s almost as many as Russia’s entire active-duty military of 900,000.

On the ground, that means controlling any substantial chunk of Ukrainian territory long term would take more resources than Russia could foreseeably commit.

Other Russian options remain possible, including a negotiated settlement. Moscow is demanding that Ukraine formally embrace neutrality, thus swearing off any alliance with NATO, and recognize the independence of the separatist regions in the east and Russian sovereignty over Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Russia’s other options include an unrelenting air campaign in which it bombs and depopulates cities as it did in Chechnya and Syria. U.S. officials also warn of the risk of Russian chemical attacks, and the threat of escalation to nuclear war.

“Unless the Russians intend to be completely genocidal — they could flatten all the major cities, and Ukrainians will rise up against Russian occupation — there will be just constant guerrilla war” if Russian troops remain, Clarke said.

——

Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

Business Insider

Photo shows destroyed Russian military helicopters on airfield attacked by Ukrainian forces at night

Sinéad Baker – March 17, 2022

• A satellite image shows Russian helicopters destroyed at Ukraine’s Kherson International Airport.
• Ukraine’s military said the attack happened Tuesday. It is not clear how many helicopters were hit.
• Ukraine said earlier this month that it destroyed 30 Russian helicopters in a different attack.

A satellite image shows destroyed Russian helicopters at a Ukrainian airport after an overnight attack.

The image, taken on Wednesday by a Maxar Technologies satellite, shows the aftermath of a Tuesday strike by Ukrainian forces at Kherson International Airport in the south of the country.

Ukraine’s military said it hit the airport on Tuesday. It is not clear what kind of weaponry was used in the attack, or how many helicopters were destroyed.

CNN reported on Tuesday that at least three Russian military helicopters were destroyed.

There is no indication of whether there were any casualties in the attack.

Ukraine previously said that it destroyed 30 Russian helicopters on a Kherson airfield on March 7.

Russia captured the city of Kherson on March 2. It was the first major Ukrainian city to be seized by Russia in its invasion, which it started on February 24.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Reuters

Top ex-Kremlin official quits post after condemning Ukraine war

Arkady Dvorkovich, Russian economist – March 18, 2022

(Reuters) – A former Russian deputy prime minister who spoke out against the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine has quit as chair of a prestigious foundation after a lawmaker accused him of a “national betrayal” and demanded his dismissal.

Arkady Dvorkovich, deputy prime minister from 2012 to 2018, became one of Russia’s most senior establishment figures to question the war when he told U.S. media this week that his thoughts were with Ukrainian civilians.

His comments prompted a senior ruling party lawmaker to demand that he be fired and to accuse him of being part of a “fifth column” undermining Russia.

The 49-year-old had been chairman since 2018 of the Skolkovo Foundation, an innovation and technology hub on the outskirts of Moscow that brands itself as a kind of Russian Silicon Valley.

On Friday, the Skolkovo Foundation said in a statement that Dvorkovich had decided to step down. He could not be reached immediately for comment. He remains president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE).

Igor Shuvalov, chairman of the foundation’s board of directors, said Dvorkovich had resigned, saying that he could no longer combine his duties at Skolkovo with his responsibilities at FIDE under the current circumstances.

Thousands of people have been detained for protesting against Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, which officials in Moscow describe as a “special military operation” to demilitarise and “de-nazify” its former Soviet neighbour.

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday delivered a stark warning to people he called “traitors” in Russia who he said the West wanted to use as a fifth column to destroy the country.

After his comments to Western media, Dvorkovich said in a statement on Skolkovo’s website that he was “sincerely proud of the courage of our (Russian) soldiers” and that Russia had been targeted by “harsh and senseless sanctions”.

But the following day, Andrei Turchak, a lawmaker from the ruling United Russia party, called for his sacking.

“He has made his choice,” Turchak said. “This is nothing but the very national betrayal, the behaviour of the fifth column, which the president spoke about today.”

(Reporting by Reuters)

Axios

What to know about the tiny, remote-controlled drones the U.S. is giving Ukraine

Bryan McBournie – March 18, 2022

Switchblade drones are among the military support items President Biden announced yesterday in an $800 million package for Ukraine.

Why it matters: Unlike the large drones the U.S. military uses for reconnaissance and deploying weapons against targets, these tiny Switchblades are themselves the weapon.

Why are Switchblade drones called “kamikaze drones”?

The Switchblade drones are sometimes called “kamikaze drones” because they act as single-use, remote-controlled bombs.

• They are small and easily deployed, and are intended to hit targets that are outside the line of sight. They are launched out of a tube much like a mortar.
• Once launched, the Switchblade drone can be controlled from the ground before striking its programmed target.
• It has a feature that allows a service member to call off the strike should the target have moved away or civilians are in the area.
• Manufacturer AeroVironment has two different models.

What is a Switchblade 300 drone?

The Switchblade 300 drone weighs 5.5 lbs. and is small enough to be transported in a rucksack.

• It can fly for up to 15 minutes, with a range of just over six miles.
• It has a cruising speed of 63 mph and top speed of 100 mph.
• It’s designed for strikes on soldiers.

What is a Switchblade 600 drone?

The Switchblade 600 drone weighs 50 lbs. and fly for more than 40 minutes, with a range of about 25 miles.

• It has a cruising speed of 70 mph and top speed of 115 mph, and it was designed for strikes on soldiers and tanks.

It’s not clear how many of each model are being sent in the support package.

What Turkish drones are in Ukraine?

Ukraine has used Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2s to launch guided missiles at Russian tanks, missile launchers and supply trains, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

• The Bayraktar TB2s are not considered to be particularly fast or stealthy.
• But drones have had success against keeping Russian forces from securing air superiority.
• The smaller, more easily deployed Switchblades are expected to be even more effective in the war.

What they’re saying: “These were designed for U.S. Special Operations Command and are exactly the type of weapons systems that can have an immediate impact on the battlefield,” said Mick Mulroy, former deputy assistant secretary of defense.

Business Insider

Putin replaced 1,000 personal staff members in February over fears they would poison him, report says

Jake Epstein – March 18, 2022

• Putin replaced 1,000 personal staff members in February over fears they would poison him.
• The Daily Beast reported that those sacked included bodyguards, cooks, launderers, and secretaries.
• A French agent said an attempted assassination would come from within the Kremlin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin replaced about 1,000 personal staff members in February over fears that they would poison him, a report said.

Those sacked included bodyguards, cooks, launderers, and secretaries, The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday, citing a Russian government source.

February was marked by US and Western officials repeatedly warning that Russia was preparing to stage a pretext to justify waging war against Ukraine after it spent months gathering troops along their shared border.

As much of the world has condemned Russia’s ongoing bombardment of Ukraine, an operative for France’s General Directorate for External Security told The Daily Beast that carrying out an attempted assassination of Putin “is on every intelligence agency’s design table.”

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has even called for Putin’s assassination, drawing criticism from fellow Republican lawmakers.

“The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out,” Graham tweeted earlier in March. “You would be doing your country — and the world — a great service.”

The operative told The Daily Beast that an attempted assassination wouldn’t be the job of a foreign government.

“The attempt will be from within the Kremlin,” the operative said. “Russian intelligence is likely the only one left that deploys poison as a default” to assassinate people.

Poison as a killing tool is not unheard of in Russia. Alexei Navalny, the prominent Kremlin critic, was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok in Siberia in August 2020, and Putin has been widely accused of ordering the attack.

Yahoo! News

Inside the cutting-edge Switchblade drones the U.S. is shipping to Ukraine

Niamh Cavanagh, Producer – March 18, 2022

On Wednesday. the White House announced a new $800 million military support package for Ukraine in a bid to help that country fight back against the ongoing Russian invasion. Part of the aid package is for cutting-edge aerial drones that experts say could prove exceedingly lethal to Russian forces.

The list of weapons to be shipped, President Biden said, includes 9,000 anti-armor systems, 7,000 small arms and 100 tactical unmanned aerial systems. A U.S. official later confirmed to ABC that the aerial systems to be sent would be small Switchblade drones.

Manufactured by the California company AeroVironment, the drones come in two variations: the Switchblade 600 and the 300. The latter is built to hit at smaller and more precise targets; the 600 is built to strike armored vehicles and tanks.

The 300 is less than 2 feet long, weighs 5.5 pounds and can fly up to 15 minutes. The larger drone weighs 50 pounds and can fly for 40 minutes over a range of 25 miles. Both can be carried in a backpack and deployed by individual soldiers. It has not been confirmed whether both models will be included in the shipment.

According to its manufacturer, the drones can cruise at around 65 mph and come fitted with cameras and GPS systems. They are single-use, which means they explode after striking their target and are not recoverable after they have been launched. The Switchblades also have a “wave-off” feature so that operators can abort a mission if civilians appear near the target or if the enemy withdraws.

“These were designed for U.S. Special Operations Command and are exactly the type of weapons systems that can have an immediate impact on the battlefield,” Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense, told ABC News.

Ukraine’s drones have proved vital in carrying out successful attacks in the early stages of the invasion. Jack Watling of the London-based Royal United Services Institute told Euronews that Ukraine had used drones to strike Russian forces before they were able to set up their air defenses in the battlefield.

Watling went on to say that the Ukrainian army drones “have been essentially flying in at a low level and then coming up and raiding with them. So striking targets of opportunity.”

A senior defense official confirmed the Switchblades’ effectiveness for Ukrainian forces by claiming that the drones would be useful in taking out long-range Russian artillery as Russia ramps up the bombardment of major cities in Ukraine.

“These tactical UAVs can be useful against Russian vehicles and artillery,” the official told reporters this week.

On Friday, the Times of London reported that an elite Ukrainian drone unit had destroyed dozens of “priority targets” by attacking static Russian forces as they slept. That specialist unit within the army, named Aerorozvidka, has reportedly been striking vehicles, including tanks and trucks, since the invasion began on Feb. 24.

“We strike at night, when Russians sleep,” Yaroslav Honchar, the unit’s commander, said from his base in Kyiv.

The latest allocation of military aid came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the West to “do more” in the fight against Moscow’s aggression when he addressed Congress on Wednesday. In his speech, Zelensky invoked the horror of the 9/11 terror attacks as he pleaded for more military aid.

Asociated Press

Turkey builds massive bridge linking Europe and Asia

Susan Fraser- March 18, 2022

• Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan poses for photos in front of the 1915 Canakkale Bridge, in Çanakkale, western Turkey, Friday, March 18, 2022. The bridge links the Asian side of Turkey with European side over Dardanelles Strait. South Korean Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum also attended the opening ceremony. (Turkish Presidency via AP) Associated Press
• Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, center, and South Korean PM Kim Boo-kyum, left, attend the opening ceremony of the 1915 Canakkale Bridge, in Çanakkale, western Turkey, Friday, March 18, 2022. The bridge links the Asian side of Turkey with European side over Dardanelles Strait. (Turkish Presidency via AP) Associated Press
• Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, center, and South Korean PM Kim Boo-kyum, center left, attend the opening ceremony of the 1915 Canakkale Bridge, in Canakkale, western Turkey, Friday, March 18, 2022. The bridge links the Asian side of Turkey with European side over Dardanelles Strait. (Turkish Presidency via AP) Associated Press
• Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, and South Korean PM Kim Boo-kyum shake hands before a meeting in Çanakkale, western Turkey, Friday, March 18, 2022. Kim will attend the opening ceremony of the Canakkale Bridge later in the day. (Turkish Presidency via AP) Associated Press

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The president of Turkey, South Korea’s prime minister and other officials inaugurated a massive suspension bridge Friday over the Dardanelles Strait that connects the European and Asian shores of the key waterway.

With a a 2,023-meter (6,637 feet) span between its towers, the “1915 Canakkale Bridge” becomes the world’s longest suspension bridge, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

It connects the town of Gelibolu, located in the European side of Turkey’s northwestern province of Canakkale, with the town of Lapseki on the Asian side. The bridge allows travelers to cross the Dardanelles — which connects the Aegean Sea with the Sea of Marmara — in just six minutes compared to the previous 1 1/2 hours by ferry, the president said.

“Turkey has overtaken Japan, which has the longest bridge in the world in terms of the midspan, and has taken the first place,” Erdogan said during the inauguration ceremony.

The inauguration was timed to coincide with the 107th anniversary of Turkey’s World War I naval victory over a joint British and French fleet attacking the Dardanelles. The failure of the naval campaign led to the ill-fated 1915 landings on the Gallipoli peninsula by the allies led by Britain and France along with troops from Australia and New Zealand.

“The 1915 Canakkale Bridge will leave this history of collision and conflict behind and will be a bridge between East and West, starting a new era of peace and prosperity,” South Korean Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said during the ceremony, in reference to the Canakkale region’s historic battlefields.

The bridge, which was build by a consortium of Turkish and South Korean companies, will also strengthen the bonds between Turkey and South Korea, Kim said.

The “1915 Canakkale Bridge” cost 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion) to build but Turkey will save 415 million euros ($458 million) per year from a reduction of fuel consumption and carbon emissions, Erdogan said. He announced the bridge’s toll will be 200 Turkish lira ($13.60).

The bridge’s architecture is awash with symbolism. It’s central span of 2,023 meters (6,637 feet) is in recognition of the year 2023, when Turkey celebrates the centenary of the founding of the Turkish Republic following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Erdogan said. The height of the bridge’s towers is 318 meters (1,043 feet) — a nod to March 18 (or 3/18) when Turkey commemorates soldiers killed during the Gallipoli sea and land battles.

The World War I Gallipoli campaign aimed to secure a naval route from the Mediterranean Sea to Istanbul through the Dardanelles, and take the Ottoman Empire out of the war. The April 25, 1915 Gallipoli landings marked the start of a fierce battle that lasted for eight months. Around 44,000 Allied troops and 86,000 Ottoman soldiers died in the fighting.

Business Insider

Ex-partner of Russian oligarch close to Putin said life in Russia was like ‘The Godfather’ and there was a ‘lack of normal human morals’

Rebecca Cohen – March 18, 2022

• The ex-partner of Putin’s former banker said living in Russia was like “The Godfather.”
• “This crazy insane wealth, and also a complete lack of sort of normal, human morals,” Alexandra Tolstoy said.
• While she was together with Sergei Pugachev, she got a front-row look at the inner-workings of Putin’s government.

Alexandra Tolstoy, the former partner of Russian oligarch Sergei Pugachev, said living in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s world was like “The Godfather.”

“It was sort of like everything you probably imagine, as someone earlier said, like ‘The Godfather,'” Tolstoy told Erin Burnett on CNN Thursday.

“This crazy insane wealth, and also a complete lack of sort of normal, human morals,” Tolstoy said of living in Putin’s Russia for eight years with Pugachev.

She added that Putin’s top aides all “hate each other” and that their government is “ruthless.”

Tolstoy and Pugachev were together for eight years before Pugachev’s falling out with Putin. The pair share three children and their relationship is the subject of the BBC documentary “The Countess and the Russian Billionaire.”

Pugachev was once known as “Putin’s banker,” but left the Kremlin in 2011, according to The Guardian.

He once owned two shipyards, the world’s largest mine, and significant real estate across Russia, but he claims it was all taken from him. The Kremlin said Pugachev is a criminal, claiming he stole hundreds of millions of dollars from loans given to Russia’s central bank in 2008, The Guardian reported.

Business Insider

Ukraine publishes video of artillery barrage on Russian military post near Kyiv, set to AC/DC’s ‘Highway to Hell’

Sophia Ankel – March 17, 2022

• Ukraine posted aerial footage of what it said was an artillery barrage of a Russian military post.
• The video, shared on Facebook on Wednesday, was set to the AC/DC song “Highway to Hell.”
• UK intelligence said Thursday that Russia’s invasion remained stalled due to fierce resistance.

Ukraine on Wednesday published a video it said showed an artillery barrage of a Russian military post outside of Kyiv, set to AC/DC’s song “Highway to Hell.”

The video was shared on Facebook by the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi.

Zaluzhnyi wrote that the artillery attack had created: “a highway to hell for the command post and support point of the 35th Army of the Eastern Military District of the Russian Federation.”

The aerial footage appears to have been recorded by a drone, in common with other Ukrainian footage of attacks. It shows vehicles and barracks being blown up amid thick white smoke.

The scene is a forested area that Insider could not immediately identify or geolocate. Reporters and military analysts shared the footage on social media but also did not give a location or further details.

Russian forces have struggled to advance on Kyiv and other crucial targets in Ukraine. The invading troops “have made minimal progress on land, sea or air in recent days and they continue to suffer heavy losses,” the UK’s Ministry of Defense wrote in an intelligence assessment early on Thursday.

“Ukrainian resistance remains staunch and well-coordinated. The vast majority of Ukrainian territory, including all major cities, remains in Ukrainian hands.”

Ukraine’s armed forces said on Thursday that Russian forces had lost 444 tanks and 1,435 armored personnel carriers since the start of the conflict on February 24.

Neither Russia nor other countries have confirmed those figures. Russia acknowledged the death of about 500 troops in early March but has given no further figures in the weeks since.

On Wednesday, The New York Times cited US officials estimating the latest Russian death toll at about 7,000, a figure it said was conservative.

The Week

Ukrainian forces and volunteers handed Putin one of his ‘most comprehensive routs’ in a small town

Peter Weber, Senior editor – March 17, 2022

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine has largely stalled on all fronts,” Britain’s Ministry of Defense said in a public intelligence assessment early Thursday. “Russian forces have made minimal progress on land, sea, or air in recent days and they continue to suffer heavy losses. Ukrainian resistance remains staunch and well-coordinated. The vast majority of Ukrainian territory, including all major cities, remains in Ukrainian hands.”

One Ukrainian town, Voznesensk, is still in Ukraine’s hands because Ukrainian soldiers and local volunteers repelled a Russian attempt to capture it, in “one of the most comprehensive routs President Vladimir Putin’s forces have suffered since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine,” The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, based on reporting in the strategically located southern town of 35,000.

“Judging from the destroyed and abandoned armor,” the Ukrainians “eliminated most of a Russian battalion tactical group on March 2 and 3,” killing an estimated 100 Russians and capturing or destroying 30 of 43 Russian tanks and other vehicles, the Journal reports. “The Ukrainian defenders’ performance against a much-better-armed enemy in an overwhelmingly Russian-speaking region was successful in part because of widespread popular support for the Ukrainian cause — one reason the Russian invasion across the country has failed to achieve its principal goals so far.”

Conservatively, more than 7,000 Russian troops have been killed since Putin’s Feb. 24 invasion, “a staggering number amassed in just three weeks of fighting,” The New York Times reports. “Pentagon officials say a 10 percent casualty rate, including dead and wounded, for a single unit renders it unable to carry out combat-related tasks,” and “Russian casualties, when including the estimated 14,000 to 21,000 injured, are near that level.”