Originally Posted by
Jet Set
There are a couple of things right now.
First, Zelenskyy. He used to be a comedian, has jewish roots. Was offered an option by the USA to be flown out of the Ukraine, and denied. Is holding up in Ukraine, fighting for the country, and barking at the indecisiveness of Europe and NATO. Going by what he has done at the moment, he is holding on pretty strong. The media might be painting it more rosy, but the fact is that there would be a lot of leaders that would have run away in the same situation. (This might be a reach, but the fact that he was a comedian might be off factor here. Look at how people were getting there news from The Daily Show & Colbert Report at some point.)
Putin, he is holding on strong. Showing no emotion whatsoever, and indeed just playing Civ on emperors mode. But it looks like his grip on emperors mode is slipping within his fractions. The once mighty Russian army looks like a shitshow. His vehicles get stranded because they are without fuel. The soldiers are demotivated. Plus I heard they are not getting food via the same supply routes of the fuel. This is way the convoy that was supposed to take Kyiv last week is still stranded (Just heard some Russian commander was killed there, he was easily picked off because he was throwing a scene.) and why Ukranians are picking up tanks left & right. What I also read is that the Russian air force is not all what everybody expected it to be. And their planes are easily being downed by US provided material. (Was is that Su-37 or something that was supposed to be this insane fighter, but they only built like 10 because of money and slow progress?)
What you also see, is that people are done with Putin within Russia. I think this could be one of the few things that could stop the war, a revolution from within Russia.
Europe is indeed heavily depended on Russian gas & oil. But Russia is also heavily depended on this money. Right now, for example in The Netherlands, people are more than happy to pay higher prices for energy from elsewhere or look for different options. For Germany I see this maybe leading to a revising of the plans for scrapping nuclear energy. Germany, au contraire to France, is trying to phase out all nuclear reactors by 2025. France is actually investing in them.
If Putin had only taken to the two separtist regions, nobody would have batted an eye. Now he has almost levelled an entire country, that does not want him, which has to be rebuilt. Is he going to open his own bankaccount or those from his rich friends form rebuilding Ukraine after bombing the shit out of it?