Kevin Ryan, UnHerd: Why Putin will use nuclear weapons
All the signs suggest Russia has made up its mind
However you try to spin it, the drone strikes that struck Moscow’s wealthiest neighbourhoods on Tuesday night represented a grim turning point in Putin’s flagging campaign against Ukraine. The surprise attacks — which killed eight people, and for which Kyiv has denied all responsibility — were the first against Russian civilians since the war began. They were also the most significant incursion into Russian territory since the Second World War.
Putin was quick to brand the strikes a “terrorist” act, while a rattled Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenaries, gave war chiefs a dressing-down for their inability to prevent three of eight drones from evading Russian air defences. Yet while this all provided a morale boost for the Ukrainian war effort, the question of retaliation hangs in the air.
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Update: In Ukraine, Russia is nearly down to its nukes (Jonathan Sweet and Mark Toth, The Hill)
WNU Editor: The two commentaries above firmly believe that Russia's army is failing, and that Putin's only salvation is using nuclear weapons.
I disagree.
What I see is a Russian army focused on conducting a war of attrition, using its advantages in air superiority and firepower to degrade and bleed what is left of the Ukraine army.