Russian military morale in tatters as troops take to the bottle – humiliation for Putin

The Kremlin strongman seems set to unleash his dogs of war on Ukraine any day now, as he looks to reshape the postwar European security order. He has massed up to 200,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders to the north, east and south, according to recent estimates. Intelligence analysts believe that the invasion will be conducted on two fronts – one from Belarus and another from the Donbas region.

Experts suggest that one of the goals of the attack will be to encircle and capture Ukraine’s capital city, Kiev.

The quickest route to Kiev will be from Belarus in the north, where up to 30,000 Russian troops have been carrying out military drills with Belarusian units.

However, the Russian tyrant’s plans could be in tatters, after reports of excessive drinking and low morale among Russian soldiers.

A local resident from the Belarusian town of Khoyniki located close to the Ukrainian border, told Radio Free Europe that troops had been forced to camp out in freezing conditions.

“The soldiers have settled in the surrounding forests,” the local said.

“They drink a lot and sell a lot of their diesel fuel.

“They are living in tents.”

Russian soldiers started arriving in Belarus in January, in preparation for military exercises that started on February 10.

Named the Union Determination-2022 exercises, the drills are scheduled to conclude on Sunday.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has called the Belarus exercises “the biggest Russian deployment there since the Cold War.”

In an ominous sign that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine from Belarus, satellite photos have once again shown the existence of a pontoon bridge across the Pripyat River.

The bridge is located less than two and a half miles north of the Ukrainian border and is situated inside Belarus’ Polesie State Radioecological Reserve.

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It comes as the British Prime Minister warned fellow Western leaders that a Russian victory in Ukraine could have disastrous consequences for the postwar order.

Mr Johnson told delegates at the Munich security conference that it was in “our collective interest that Russia should ultimately fail and be seen to fail.”

He added: “I believe that in preparing to invade Ukraine, a proud country whose armed forces now exceed 200,000 personnel, considerably more expert in combat today than in 2014, President Putin and his circle are gravely miscalculating.”