Joat42 wrote:I was thinking about the announcement that the occupied territories of Ukraine are about to hold a vote if they should join Russia. The voting will of course show that all "citizens" are entirely in favor of this.
If we also consider that Putin has been threating doom and gloom on anyone attacking Russia it is very clear this is a manufactured excuse to ramp up the war and sell it domestically. And now Putin have gone and initiated a limited mobilization which actually doesn't sit that well with the populace (the number of searches on how to leave Russia exploded yesterday), if he also can claim that Russian territories (aka annexed Ukrainian territories) are being attacked he probably can limit the backlash somewhat that comes from the mobilization.
This limited mobilization is expected to garner about 300,000 troops and here we come to another problem - Russia have already expended a lot of equipment and ammunition so I do wonder how they are going to equip these troops. Perhaps this is why Russia purchased stuff from North Korea.
This is just another few brush-strokes where Putin keep painting himself into a corner and it won't end well if he can't keep a lid on it domestically.
The referendum ploy must seem like a godsend to the Putz; for whom nothing seems to have gone according to plan.
Annex the fifteen percent of Ukraine you control, make them a part of Mother Russia, so any attack on them could be made to engender public support for the war.
The Ukrainians won’t attack his new possessions as he has waved his nuclear
“capability” at them!
Then with three hundred thousand new recruits coming in, dressed in surplus uniforms acquired from China, and armed with North Korean weapons…
repeat and rinse! Nibble them to death!
Of course this all depends on the Ukrainians rolling over, and just taking it, and not calling the Putz!
Based on the Ukrainians action these last months, wonder what the chances of that would be?
