By Ed Sherdlu
Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24 in what his military promised him would be a one-week victorious blitzkrieg. Instead, 2½ months later, nothing is going right. Putin knows that to remain in power, the Russian people must see him as winning his ill-defined “special military operation” in Ukraine. As what the Mafia would define as the “boss of all bosses” in Russia, Putin has no official deadline for success but, in the minds of many Russians, major success is expected by Victory Day, May 9. The question now is this: What is Putin willing to do to demonstrate some sort of victory by that date? Would he go nuclear for a victory by Victory Day?
For Russians, May 9’s Victory Day is their Veterans Day, Memorial Day, and a little bit of our Fourth of July all wrapped into one. It celebrates the Soviet victory over Germany in World War II. To understand the significance of this day, remember that Russians call WWII the Great Patriotic War. That title is well-earned. In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, the United States lost about 420,000 people in Europe, Africa, and the Pacific. By comparison, 25 million Soviets lost their lives in defense of the Motherland. That’s 60 times our losses.
Despite the official Russian government line that their army is defeating fascists and neo-Nazis in Ukraine, the truth about the failure of Putin’s army is becoming well known. Although no one would dare tell Putin that something must happen by May 9, the Russian dictator is well aware of that feeling in the Kremlin and throughout Russia.
