Lost

Russia has lost the initiative in their own attack on Ukraine, and are now relegated to responding to Ukraine's actions. The Russian military command appears lost on what to do, and lots of Russian soldiers have been lost in the most literal sense possible: tens of thousands of troops have lost their lives in Putin's utterly failed war. The remaining Russian soldiers appear lost to despair.

Putin has lost the war, and a fitting phrase to describe both him and his "military special operation" would be "dead man walking". He might not literally die from this, but he has lost his grip on the situation and on reality, and his life in politics will soon be over.

Another fitting quote is "Sic semper tyrannis". Sadly, John Wilkes Booth made that phrase infamous by uttering it in reference to Abraham Lincoln, who was by no means a dictator, but it remains true. Dictators inevitably lose touch with reality, become blinded by their own ego and fall hard. Putin is no exception.

"What was all that back there?"

The Russian front in Bachmut is collapsing, and Russia is rapidly losing the small amount of territory they managed to gain very slowly over the past few months by accepting an insane amount of losses. Now that their brittle line defense is broken and troops are fleeing in panic, Ukraine has retaken a lot of ground. Furthermore, with one flank deeply pierced, the Russian positions are vulnerable.

I don't know if this was a deliberate strategy from Ukraine, but it is brilliant nonetheless. They allowed Russia to make small and slow advances in one strategically unimportant area, at a huge cost in Russian lives and ammunition, and then more or less undid it all in one day with a swift, piercing counter-attack that caught the Wagner Group completely by surprise.

This is demoralizing and humiliating both to the Russian troops, to their commanders, and to the state-level Russian leadership. I am not comfortable with asking for more of this, because it has caused thousands of deaths, but at least it looks like the fierce and bloody battle over Bachmut is finally starting to go the right way.