We are getting credible reports about China sending food to Russian troops. Food. Analysts talk about this as a way of "providing aid to the military without providing military aid", but what we should focus on is the sad fact that such aid is even needed. Putin's miscalculations and his lack of connection to reality has now gone so far that his regime is unable to provide even the most basic support for the army he sent into Ukraine, and it should be rather obvious that the Russian soldiers are not welcomed as liberators if they can't even find food.
Successful military leaders know that an army needs to be fed to march and to fight. A starving army is a losing army. Putin's hunger for power means little to his soldiers, and even less when real hunger sets in. The news that Putin needs help from China to feed his own troops in a campaign of his own planning and execution is a sign of weakness, a sign of incompetence, a sign of disrespect for his troops and disregard for the fundamental requirements of warfare.
Asking China for help with weapons and settling for help with food is also a sign of desperation. Putin is out of friends, out of options, and out of time. Judgment may be imminent, and it will be harsh.
