@merlin.and.phoebe

Happy #gotchaday ❤️ Seven years ago today Merlin joined his forever home. Todays's News Putin tries to justify Ukraine invasion in Victory Day speech today... but has nothing to brag about. He has no victories. A pretty boring parade with no flyover, event canceled due to "bad weather" even thou it was a sunny day? Ummm... ----- Russians are celebrating Victory Day today, an annual event to mark the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II that has taken on added intrigue and import this year because of Russia's fight in Ukraine. Everyone was anticipating what Putin would say? This year's Victory Day comes amid widespread speculation, in both Russia and the West, that Putin is eager to declare at least a symbolic win in Ukraine. We say symbolic because what has he won for his people? Russia's military commanders need to achieve something -- anything -- after the humiliating defeats in the first two months of this war. The attempt to take Kyiv was repelled, the Russian fleet's flagship cruiser has been sunk by a country effectively without a Navy, and they have lost at least 15,000 soldiers -- far more than in all previous post-Soviet campaigns (Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, Ukraine 2014) combined. So where is this "victory"? Russia has already lost the war, whatever its military outcome. Even if victory is achieved in a military sense with the defeat of the Ukrainian military, a hostile insurgency is likely to continue tying down a large occupation force for a long time to come. A ravaged Ukraine with its infrastructure destroyed, its economy severely damaged and its population angry and resentful, cannot count as much of a prize. It seems that the whole world right now is against Russia. NATO and Europe have imposed harsh drastic sanctions that could take a long time to reverse. Russia has lost a lot of export and imports. The effects are slowly being felt by Russian citizens as they are being cut off from the West. Even the Russian oligarchs have been targeted. Banks are not lending money, more nations will stop buying Russian oil and gas, severe economic loses. So again I ask, where is this "victory"?