Andrew Bolt: Russia could soon suffer humiliating defeat

Russia planned to stroll into Ukraine and knock over its government in a few days. But instead Vladimir Putin is staring down a humiliating defeat.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has lost his war in Ukraine because he’s … Vladimir Putin.

That is, because he’s a tyrannical, distant thug who’s shut down free speech and surrounded himself with lapdogs.

So the bad guys lose again. Freedom wins.

That Putin has lost the war, despite having more tanks, jets and men, is now so clear that Russia on Friday announced a change of plans. It had clearly planned to stroll in and knock over Ukraine’s government in two or three days.

But a month on, it has not captured one big city and has lost an estimated 40,000 soldiers, dead, wounded or captured.

So on Friday, Colonel-General Sergei Rudskoi, deputy chief of Russia’s general staff, said tactics would change.

The invasion’s “main objectives” had allegedly been achieved – the Ukrainian army was “considerably reduced” – and now Russia would focus on “the main goal”, grabbing just Ukraine’s two most eastern areas.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has himself to blame for a looming loss in Ukraine.

That Rudskoi made this face-saving announcement was already a sign of turmoil.

His boss, Valery Gerasimov, has vanished since March 11.

Two top spy chief are also reportedly under arrest for intelligence failures.

But Putin really should blame himself. He wanted to believe Ukrainians would welcome him with roses as a liberator.

It seems no one dared warn him he’d be hated, and his troops welcomed with missiles.

Nor was Russian media, much of it state controlled, going to tell him that corruption by his close cronies was so bad that his soldiers had even been left without proper boots while Putin attended a big pro-war rally in a $20,000 Loro Piana jacket.

More tellingly, his troops have fought like the minions of a tyrant.

In his superb book, Why the West has Won, historian Victor Davis Hanson analysed nine defining battles, including Cannae, Poitiers, Lepanto and Midway, to argue that free men fighting for freedom can usually beat slaves fight for a tyrant. They’re more motivated and innovative.

In Ukraine, we’ve seen exactly that, particularly in the battle for Kherson airport. Ten times Russia tried to seize that airport, moving heavy equipment and helicopters to it. Ten times the Ukrainians blasted them to bits.

The Russians seemed under orders from the very top to take the airport regardless. Two generals were even sent to insist, and both also died.

That’s a sign of an army whose commanders are not trusted to make their own calls, knowing the conditions. This is how a slave army fights – and dies.