Vladimir Putin suffered yet another humiliating defeat in his still-disastrous invasion of Ukraine. The Russian leader has been roundly criticized for sending inexperienced troops to the front lines (a Russian prosecutor has called the mobilization “illegal”), and those unprepared forces did what anyone could’ve predicted they do: Ran at the first sight of trouble.
While attempting to secure a key supply route in Vuhledar, Ukraine, Putin’s forces were reportedly clueless on what to do thanks to a lack of advanced planning, which resulted in an embarrassing and costly failure instead of delivering a “very important success” for Russia. Via The Daily Beast:
“Russian troops likely fled and abandoned at least 30 mostly intact armoured vehicles in a single incident after a failed assault,” the intelligence assessment stated. Footage shared by a pro-Kremlin Telegram channel appears to show Russian troops abandoning the tanks, at least one soldier running around on fire, and other tanks dragging troops across the ground. The news of Russia’s sloppy attack comes as Moscow prepares to mobilize 300,000 to 500,000 troops for a new offensive nearly one year into the war, according to Ukrainian intelligence.
This latest failure arrives as Putin continues to fight off increasing reports of a potential coup and widespread criticism over his use of conscripted soldiers and convicts to staff his faltering military, which has spent nearly a year getting absolutely humiliated by Ukraine forces. People are also calling Putin a crab on the internet, and he reportedly hates that a whole bunch. Now’s not a good time.
(Via The Daily Beast)