More dangerous than ever, Putin is now treading water.

Expecting Putin to shake his fist at the West and at Ukraine during his Victory Day Celebration speech in Red Square on May 9, many politicians around the world were caught off guard by his rather subdued tones in trying to link the defeat of Germany in 1945 to the ongoing 2022 war between himself and Ukraine in the Donbas. 

• NBC News's Yuliya Talmazan: "Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to justify his war in Ukraine on Monday, blaming the West and linking the conflict to World War II but not announcing any escalation despite fears from Kyiv and its allies. (NBC News : 9 May 2022) (my emphasis)

• Aljazeera (Reuters) reported Putin announcing that : “Today, the volunteers of the Donbas, together with the soldiers of the Russian army, are fighting on their own lands. “I am now addressing our armed forces and the Donbas volunteers. You are fighting for the Motherland, for its future, so that no one forgets the lessons of World War II – so there is no place in the world for executioners, punishers and Nazis.” (Aljazeera : 9 May 2022) (my emphasis)
• BBC News : What happens in the Donbas, however, offers Putin only a choice between different types of defeat. If the battle reaches an autumn stalemate, he will have precious little to show for so much loss and pain. If the military momentum shifts and his forces get pushed back, even more so. And even if the Russians succeed in overrunning the whole of the Donbas and all across the south, they still have to hold those territories for the indefinite future in the face of several million Ukrainians who don't want them there. (BBC News : 9 May 2022) (my emphasis)

Disconcerting for Putin and his 'siloviki', Guy Faulconbridge (left) reported that,

"Russian satellite television menus were altered on Monday to show viewers in Moscow messages about the war in Ukraine: "You have blood on your hands", according to screenshots obtained by Reuters.
...
The photographs showed Moscow satellite television menus on Victory Day, when Russia celebrated the 77th anniversary of Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany, with every channel showing anti-war slogans.
...
The slogans appeared just before the Victory Day parade on Red Square at which President Vladimir Putin compared the war in Ukraine to the Soviet battle to defeat Adolf Hitler in World War Two." (Reuters : 9 May 2022) (my emphasis)

                                                 MSNBC : Rachel Maddow : 10 May 2022

We should now not underestimate the dangers that Putin's paranoid responses poses to what has happened on Russian satellite TV menus and on the continuing, and successful, push back against Putin's forces in the Donbas by the Ukrainian forces.

Sky News : YouTube : 9 May 2022

As reported by Tom Watling (left),

"Putin left devastated as Russian invaders obliterated in rare aerial frontline footage. Ukranian forces have destroyed Russian invaders and their equipment, new footage shows, as the defending military continue to repel Vladimir Putin's army." (Express : 10 May 2022) (my emphasis)

As also reported by Giulia Carbonaro (right),

"Russian troops in Ukraine appear to be rapidly retreating from the areas around Kharkiv while Ukrainian armed forces make significant advances north and northwest of the city, as shown by unverified maps tracking Moscow's invasion of the neighboring country." (Newsweek : 10 May 2022) (my emphasis)

In response, Putin's forces are focussing on repeating their 'blitzkrieg' against Mariupol on the port hub of Odessa.

As Reported by Michael Wasiura (left),

"On the morning of May 9, as part of the Moscow Victory Day festivities, Vladimir Putin placed flowers on the monument to World War II "hero city" Odessa. Later that night, a Russian attack that included the use of hypersonic "Kinzhal" air-to-surface missiles struck civilian targets in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa. At least one person was killed in the attack...... "Putin could not capture Odesa, and so he has started to destroy its infrastructure," Ukrainian Rada Deputy and Odesa native Oleksiy Honcharnko told Newsweek. " (MSN (Newsweek) : 10 May 2022) (my emphasis)

More disconcerting, however, as reported by Katie Bo Lillis and Michael Conte,

"The US intelligence community believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is likely to become “more unpredictable and escalatory” in the coming months, the nation’s director of national intelligence [Avril Haines] told Congress on Tuesday." (CNN : 10 May 2022) (my emphasis) 

Whilst Avril Haines may have discounted the idea that,

 " ... the intelligence community does not believe Putin would turn to the use of nuclear weapons unless he felt there was an existential threat to Russia" (ibid Katie Bo Lillis and Michael Conte)",

nonetheless  Russian State TV keeps threatening Nuclear Strikes—Should we be concerned? (Brendan Cole : Newsweek : 5 May 2022) (my emphasis)

"Hosts and panelists on Russian state television have always peddled anti-western rhetoric but the discussions justifying Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine have taken a more apocalyptic turn." (ibid Brendan Cole)

YouTube : 28 April 2022

 

Gravitas : YouTube : 4 May 2022

In light of the recent passing in the US Congress of, " ... $40 billion in additional military, economic and humanitarian aid to Ukraine to fight against Russia's invasion " (Kelsey Snell : NPR : 10 May 2022) (my emphasis)), Putin is more than backed up into a tight corner.

As reported by Tom Watling,

"US President Joe Biden said on Monday that he was concerned about Putin’s exit strategy in this war with Ukraine.
...
Speaking to a fundraiser in a suburb in Washington, Mr Biden said Putin was a “calculating man”.
...
But he added he did not think Putin knew how to get out of this conflict, saying: “I’m trying to figure out what we do about that”. " (Express : 10 May 2022) (my emphasis)

Putin is treading water! 

His increasing paranoia may push him over the brink as the vultures in the Kremlin begin to consider, "Life without Putin".

 (to be continued)