Ex-Nato chief warns; Putin could still use nukes

• Russian forces are continuing to suffer humiliating defeats in Ukraine.
• They are fleeing in large numbers from a strategically important city.
• Melitopol was taken by Putin’s forces earlier.

As morale plummets, Russian forces are continuing to suffer humiliating defeats in Ukraine and are fleeing in large numbers from a strategically important city.

One of the largest cities in the southern Zaporizhzhia area, Melitopol was taken by Putin’s forces early in the conflict, and its conquest was regarded as a crucial strategic success.

However, as the Ukrainian Army liberates occupied territory at an astounding rate, the city’s mayor, Ivan Federov, reported yesterday that soldiers were evacuating from the area and turning themselves in en masse.

Ukrainian soldiers have managed to retake dozens of towns since Moscow abandoned its major stronghold in the Kharkiv region of the northeastern Ukraine on Saturday.

According to estimates, up to 150,000 people were freed from Russian control last week when the “Kharkiv counteroffensive” made ground previously unattainable.

After being driven from the mainland, Kremlin forces are now reportedly regrouping in Crimea. Since the invaders’ morale is reportedly so low, Russia has stopped deploying new units to the front lines because voluntary soldiers are ‘categorically refusing’ to fight.

“The military command of the Russian federation has blocked the sending of fresh, previously formed troops into Ukrainian territory,” a Ukrainian general stated.

There are many volunteers who completely reject the idea of serving in combat because of the existing operational environment and their mistrust of higher command.

The common attitude toward their own injured deepens the issue. To expeditiously send soldiers back to the front lines of battle, Russian hospitals in particular purposely simplify diagnoses and the nature of war wounds while leaving no time for rehabilitation.

Many Russian soldiers have given up the fight after suffering defeats in Kharkiv because they “understand the futility of their situation,” but a presidential advisor claimed that the military has arrested so many Russian soldiers in recent days that there isn’t enough room to hold them all.

From their bridgehead in Kherson, 🇺🇦 attacked Northeast towards Davydiv Brid and to the West potentially capturing the settlements of Novohrednjeve and Mala Seidemynukha.

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Ternovi Pody is contested again after recently being recaptured by 🇺🇦. pic.twitter.com/abvlM58yBa

— Ukraine War Map (@War_Mapper) September 14, 2022

A nuclear demonstration strike might be ordered by Moscow, the former US official said, “either as a single strike over the Black Sea or as a strike targeting a Ukrainian military base.”

According to her, the action would be intended to “strike dread into the hearts of the Ukrainian people as well as the international partners and friends.”

The commander in chief of the Ukrainian military, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, stated in an article published last week that “there is a direct threat of the use, under specific conditions, of tactical nuclear weapons by the Russian armed forces.”

It’s also impossible to entirely rule out the potential of the world’s most powerful nations participating directly in a “limited” nuclear war where the risk of World War III is already plainly evident.

Nevertheless, despite the imminent prospect of nuclear devastation, many Ukrainians continue to be defiant, with both residents and soldiers showing little fear of the Russian military.

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