Over the past years I have written a number of blogs detailing the disastrous war vladimir putin started and continued against The Ukraine.
Today I am writing about this again, because Simon Watkins, writing for Oil Price US, via msn.com, has done such a complete job of encapsulating the extent of this disastrous war so far. Here is its title and first paragraph:
Russia is running out of soldiers, oil, and time
Over 1,600 days into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 10-day special military operation and the situation for the Kremlin continues to deteriorate. Since Moscow ordered its troops illegally into Ukraine on 24 February 2022, more than 450,000 of them have been killed, with another 1 million wounded or missing. Ukraine’s extraordinary development of its own military — including a stunning build-out of its drone capabilities — now means Russian monthly casualties have reached the critical negative replacement rate — meaning that there are more dead and wounded per month (over 30,000) than can be replaced through recruitment (around 27,000). And there are now 8 Russian casualties for every 1 Ukrainian casualty, up from a ratio of roughly 3:1 earlier in the conflict. Adding to its self-inflicted woes, Russia’s key oil and gas infrastructure has been under sustained attack from Ukrainian drones since early 2024, followed by an even deeper, highly concentrated blitz that began in August 2025. Since the start of 2026, Ukrainian drones have attacked Russian refineries at least 194 times, bringing total cumulative damage to nearly 43% of Russia’s entire operating refinery capacity. As bad as this is for Putin’s war, things are set to become very much worse very soon.
You might wonder how things could get much worse than what you just read. If so, you would do well to use the above link and read the rest of Mr. Watkins’ article, which provides the details. And, yes, they are very convincing.
I keep wondering how much longer putin can get away with the horror show he has visited upon his country. I keep wondering how long before someone – maybe among his own personal guard corps – takes matters into their own hands and tries to eliminate him.
How many more dead soldiers, how many more military conscripts, how much more disaster upon Russia, will it take before enough becomes enough.
So far, the answer, as Bob Dylan would say, is just blowing in the wind. I wonder when, if ever, someone will decide to try making it a reality.
I predict nothing. But any day an attempt to take putin out is made – whether successfully or unsuccessfully – will not surprise me in the least.
