Counting Russia's Losses | Is Ukraine Invasion Vladimir Putin's Biggest Mistake Ever?

#ukrainerussiawar #ukraine #russia #kyiv #putin #europe #NATO #USSR

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is causing big losses. Not just to Ukraine but also to Russia. While Ukraine's loss of life and property is obvious, there are growing murmurs about how Russia has Already Lost This "War". For starters, many reports claim that by going to war, Vladamir Putin has tacitly acknowledged that his multiyear policy of coercion and bullying of Kyiv has failed. Russia’s hopes of keeping Ukraine in its sphere of influence without the use of military force have been dashed.

And this invasion of Ukraine, may be, it has the backing of historic geo-political reasons to justify it but it is dividing the world down the middle on who is right and who is wrong and the fact is, that there is suffering all around. Indians stranded in Ukraine due to Russia's invasion are being beaten up, while trying to cross the border and get a safe passage into Romania or Hungary. Some are complaining of lack of support from the Indian authorities even as Vladimir Putin is putting Russia's nuclear forces on high alert.

On the other hand, Talks between Ukraine and Russia have started at the Belarussian border, offering a ray of hope for all this to end soon. But before that happens, Russia is already at the centre of international criticism. In a tersely worded opinion peice, a professor of political science at Rutgers University in Newark, Alexander Motyl, has enlisted how Russia is losing.

He says, Until Vladimir Putin lunched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, Feb 24, he was winning his standoff with the West. He had compelled the United States and Europe to take his demands seriously; he experienced the pleasure of being treated as the leader of a great power; and he had succeeded in intimidating the Ukrainians as well as Russia’s other neighboring states and the wider world.

Now, to solidify his victory, all he had to do, was to recognize the independence of the so-called separatist republics in the Donbas region of Ukraiune, acknowledge that Ukraine’s chances of joining NATO were nil, and continue his creeping subversion of Ukraine in the expectation that, sooner or later, it would drift back into Russia’s orbit.

And then he blew it all by invading Ukraine, he says.

Overnight, Russia became a pariah state. The West has already imposed a wide range of sanctions with more expected to come. And it's effects on Russia have already started to show. Even as we speak, the Wall Street Journal reports that Russia's central bank has raised its key interest rate to as much as 20% directly from 9.5%, as Western sanctions sent the Russian ruble into a nose-dive and threatened to batter the nation's economy.

The European Union, for the first time, will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons, in a show of support for Ukraine. The EU is also banning Russian planes from its airspace.

Western governments said they would cut off a number of Russian banks from the Swift network, an international payment system. The U.S., the EU, the U.K. and Canada also said they would take measures to prevent Russia’s central bank from deploying its foreign reserves to support its currency and economy.

Overall, it's not looking too good for Russia as its Ruble and Financial Markets Are Hammered by Sanctions. And Who will suffer from this? The Russians.

Meanwhile, he says, Ukraine continues to hold its capital Kyiv, as its citizens are rallying to defend their Homeland. Meanwhile, Germany is re-Arming to Counter Threat From Russia

Alexander Motyl further writes in his piece that international opinion has almost unanimously condemned Putin’s war of aggression, and thousands of his own citizens have expressed their opposition to the war in demonstrations and petitions.

Видео Counting Russia's Losses | Is Ukraine Invasion Vladimir Putin's Biggest Mistake Ever? канала Reviewron [Ronak Kotecha]