Putin has now reached "the point of no return"

That dyed-in-the-wool Soviet foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has let the 'cat slip out of the bag' by publicly announcing that,  

“It is not only about the DNR and LNR,” said Lavrov, referring to the regions by the acronyms of their self-proclaimed people’s republics, “but also the Kherson region, the Zaporizhia region, and also other territories,” he said." (John Psaropoulos : AlJazeera : 21 July 2022) (my emphasis) 

Good Morning America : YouTube : 21 July 2022

John Psaropoulos further reports that,

"A day before Lavrov’s interview was published, Igor Girkin (left), a former military commander who was involved in fomenting the Donetsk and Luhansk uprisings in 2014, wrote in favour of “the reunification of Novorossiya with the Russian federation along the line Kharkiv-Dnipropetrovsk-Kryvyi Rih-Mykolaiv-Odesa (all inclusive)”.
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Such a move would entail annexing all of eastern and southern Ukraine. Western Ukraine, Girkin suggested, could be annexed by Belarus. (ibid John Psaropoulos)

Against these empty belligerent remarks of escalation by Lavrov and Girkin, Gordon Corera reports that,

"Russia will struggle to maintain its military campaign and Ukraine may be able to hit back, the head of Britain's foreign intelligence service says.
...
"Our assessment is that the Russians will increasingly find it difficult to find manpower and materiel over the next few weeks," Mr Moore (right) [UK MI6 Chief] told the conference in Colorado. "They will have to pause in some way and that will give the Ukrainians the opportunity to strike back." (BBC News : 21 July 2022) (my emphasis)

As also reported by John Psaropoulos,

"Russia’s problems have not been confined to personnel. Ukraine has been [successfully] attacking Russian ammunition stores far behind the line of contact with increasing frequency since it started receiving HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems from the United States." (ibid John Psaropoulos: AlJazeera) (my emphasis)

And as I reported in my previous blog entry (18 July 2022),

"Vladimir Putin is deploying soldiers to the front line in Ukraine from notorious Russian prisons with a fierce reputation. Criminals from jails will bolster the ranks of the invading forces with the promise of almost £2,800 and their sentences scrapped if they comply." (Benjamin Lynch: The Daily Record: 17 July 2020) (my emphasis)" (Blog Entry : 18 July 2022)

Putin's army is now being forced to resort to sending criminals from jails to the Russian front lines, and the Russian army is fast running short of materials.

Zelensky's army is being fortified as the West continues to supply the Ukrainian army with the necessary armaments and supplies to strike back hard against Putin's invading Russian army.

As reported by Jack Wright (left),

• Britain will send hundreds of drones and anti-tank weapons and scores of artillery guns to Ukraine 
• More than 20 M109 155mm self-propelled guns and 36 L119 105mm artillery guns will be arriving shortly 
• In excess of 1,600 anti-tank weapons and hundreds of loitering aerial munitions will also be sent
  

MoD says weaponry will help bolster Ukraine's ability to defend against the Russian invasion (Mail Online : 21 July 2022) (my emphasis)

We also learn that, as reported by John Bacon, Jeanine Santucci, and Claire Thornton,

"A top U.S. military general says the United States and its allies are considering providing Ukraine with fighter jets, a decision that would sharply escalate the level of weaponry being sent to Kyiv.
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[US] Gen. Charles Brown (right), Air Force chief of staff, said the jets could come from the U.S. or its allies.
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"I can't speculate what aircraft they go to," Brown said in an interview at the Aspen Security Forum." (USA Today : 21 July 2022) (my emphasis) (full video: The Aspen Institute : YouTube 20 July 2022)

China's Xi Jinping is now caught in a serious dilemma as he eyes his possible invasion of Taiwan against the response of the US and the West to Putin's invasion of Ukraine..

As reported by Gordon Corera,

"[Mr Moore, the UK's MI6 Chief] revealed MI6 now devoted more effort to China than to any other single subject - the effort in this field having just moved past that devoted to counter-terrorism.
...
He said it was "important" to remind China's leadership of how an invasion of Taiwan could go wrong. He said China's leadership underestimated US resolve and power and this might lead them to miscalculate. "I don't think it is inevitable," he said when asked about a major conflict. (ibid Gordon Corera)

As also reported by Jesse Johnson (right),

"Japan underscored the potentially long-lasting impact of the war in Ukraine on the Indo-Pacific region in its annual defense white paper released Friday, devoting an entirely new section to the conflict and its implications for Asia.

The focus on the ongoing conflict thousands of kilometers away comes as Japan looks warily at military powerhouse China and its plans for self-ruled Taiwan, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warning repeatedly that "Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow.”

“If Russia's aggression is tolerated, it may give the wrong impression that unilateral changes in the status quo are allowed in other regions, including Asia,” the white paper said. “The international community, including Japan, must not tolerate such aggression.” (The Japan Times : 22 July 2022) (my emphasis)

Putin's war with Ukraine has attempted to up-end the international 'rule-of-law' in favour of an authoritarian, rather than a democratic, status quo.

Lavrov's recent announcement that,

“It is not only about the DNR and LNR,” said Lavrov, referring to the regions by the acronyms of their self-proclaimed people’s republics, “but also the Kherson region, the Zaporizhia region, and also other territories,” 

signifies that Putin has now reached "the point of no return".  

 (to be continued)