The seeds of doubt may be creeping into the minds of Russian citizens, regarding their country's ongoing war with Ukraine, amid the aftermath of the Ukrainian forces' recent success in defending the Kharkiv region.
Multiple reports from Ukraine had Russian troops dropping their respective weapons and fleeing the area last week, after the Ukrainian soldiers — who had advanced more than 30 miles in the first three days, and liberated approximately 1,150 square miles — mounted a supreme counteroffensive.
"[The Russian troops] came into our houses to take clothes so the drones wouldn't see them in uniforms," local resident Olena Matvienko told The Washington Post. "They took our bicycles. Two of them pointed guns at my ex-husband until he handed them his car keys."
On Russian state TV Monday, Boris Nadezhdin, a former member of Russian parliament, said it was "impossible" for Russia to overcome the Ukrainian offensive in Kharkiv.
"We're now at the point when we have to understand it's absolutely impossible to defeat Ukraine using those resources and colonial war methods with which Russia is trying to wage war, using contract soldiers, mercenaries, no mobilization," Nadezhdin said.
It's worth noting: Nadezhdin stopped short of directly blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin for Russia's military struggles.
What's more, Nadezhdin asserts that Putin must have been misinformed by his circle of advisers and military commanders.
"The president didn't just sit there and think, 'Why don't I start a special operation.' Someone told him that Ukrainians will surrender, that they will flee, that they'll want to join Russia. Someone had to be telling him all this," Nadezhdin added.
As Newsmax chronicled Sunday, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a Putin ally whose troops have been at the forefront of conflict in Ukraine, initially dismissed the loss of Izium, a critical supply hub, in a 11-minute message posted on the Telegraph app.
However, Kadyrov also conceded Russia's strategic campaign might not be going to plan.
"If today or tomorrow changes are not made in the conduct of the special military operation, I will be forced to go to the country's leadership to explain to them the situation on the ground," said Kadyrov.
Rebekah Koffler, a strategic intelligence expert and author of "Putin's Playbook," doesn't think Ukraine's recent counteroffensive will serve as a long-term deterrent to Putin's military plans.
"Many believe that Russia will now retreat, given that there are signs that the momentum on the battlefield may be shifting again in Ukraine’s favor," Koffler told Fox News Digital. "But it will be the opposite. Putin is cornered and when cornered, he fights back much harder.
"His psychological profile is such that he cannot accept defeat until defeat engulfs [Putin]. He also absolutely cannot afford defeat in Ukraine because his whole post-Cold war strategy for Russia hinges on the concept of re-integration of former Soviet states back under Russian control," Koffler added.
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