Putin's Battle for the Donbas will determine his fate.

 India TV News reports that,

"Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed a new commander, Alexandr Dvornikov (left), who would take care of the Ukraine campaign. The newly appointed general is known for his brutal nature and was dubbed the "butcher of Syria". (India TV News : 11 April 2022) (my emphasis)

Alexandr Dvornikov was given the task to, "to come up with a plan to annex Donbass from Ukraine." (ibid India TV News).

In the words of Lt. General Mark Hertling (right), during a CNN interview,

Lt. General Mark Hertling : "He knows the area in which he's serving, and the way he's conducted his combat operations in the past has caused him to ... he's received a lot of medals from Putin himself but he has also been the kind of executioner that we've seen prosecuting his kind of campaigns where there is an awful lot of civilian attacks, civilian destruction, chaos on populations both in Syria and in Grozny .. So this is the guy that is going to be asked to deliver success before the 9 May May Day parade in Moscow."  (CNN : YouTube : 10 April 2022) 

As the White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, also explains in a Fox News interview (10 April 2022),

Jen Psaki : "The reports we're seeing of a change in military leadership, and putting a general (Alexandr Dvornikov) in charge whose responsible for the brutality of the atricities inside of Syria shows that there's going to be a continuation of what we've seen on the grounds in Ukraine. And that's  what we are expecting". (Fox News: Youtube: 10 April 2022) (my emphasis)
 

Already, as reported by Al Jazeera,

"Russian missiles destroyed an airport in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro and five emergency workers were injured in the attack.
...
“There has been another attack on Dnipro airport. There is nothing left of it,” Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region, said on Sunday." (Al Jazeera : 10 April 2022) (my emphasis) (cf also: BBC News , Reuters )

And whilst Alexandr Dvornikov is starting his genocidal 'blitzkrieg' against the Ukrainian civilians in Dnipro, The Telegraph Online informs us that,

"Russia staged war games on Saturday in Kaliningrad — an enclave on the Baltic Sea sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania — Interfax news agency cited the Baltic Fleet Command as saying.
...
“Up to 1,000 military personnel... and more than 60 military equipment units were involved in the control checks,” Interfax news quoted the Russian Baltic Fleet Command’s press service as saying." (The Telegraph Online : 11 April 2022) (my emphasis)

Whilst these war games of Putin in Kaliningrad could be viewed as a 'maskirovka' diversionary tactic to deflect the eyes of the West from Alexandr Dvornikov's impending blitzkrieg in the Donbas, nonetheless it also ramps up a potential 'spill-over' into Lithuania, a NATO ally.

These Kaliningrad war games could also be directed against Finland and Sweden, who are on the verge of joining NATO.

As reported by Jennifer Hansler and Natasha Bertrand (left),

"Finland and Sweden could soon join NATO, moves that would likely infuriate Moscow and that officials say would further underscore Russia's strategic error in invading Ukraine.

NATO officials told CNN that discussions about Sweden and Finland joining the bloc have gotten extremely serious since Russia's invasion, and US senior State Department officials said the matter came up at this week's NATO foreign ministerial, which was attended by the foreign ministers from Stockholm and Helsinki." (CNN : 9 April 2022) (my emphasis)

As Finland and Sweden swiftly head towards joining NATO, the accelerating downturn of Putin's Russian economy is further compounding his fury against the failures of his army Generals to capture Kiev.

As explained in a BBC interview by Vladimir Milov (left), former Deputy Energy Minister in Putin's government,

Vladimir Milov : "[The effects of sanctions against Putin and his 'siloviki'] ... is being noticed. The basic shortages that we had are mostly the result of panic .... However, the worst is yet to come [....] So  I would say so far is just the very early stage ... there is more to come ... This is very alarming ... We haven't seen anything like that [effects of current sanctions] in ... like .. 30 years ...  We will see some real shortages, much sharper price rises in April ... May ... June ... and further down in summer ..." (BBC Talking Business : 9 April 2022) (my emphasis) 

In the same interview, Putin's former Chief Economic Advisor, Andrei Illarianov (right), explains,

Andrei Illarianov : "We have learned that for Mr. Putin, his territorial ambitions are much more important than anything else,  including the livelihood of the Russian population, the financial situation in the country, even the financial state of his government" (ibid BBC Talking Business) (my emphasis)

With Sweden and Finland fast heading into the arms of NATO, and the Russian economy and people beginning to feel the crippling effects of sanctions on their livelihoods and their jobs, Putin's pathological anger to ensure that he can hold a victorious May Day parade has led him to set in motion an impending bloodbath against both Russian soldiers and the  people of Ukraine in his Battle for the Donbas.

Putin's Battle for the Donbas will determine his fate.  

(to be continued)