Ukraine claims it has hit the pride of the Russian Black Sea fleet. Russia claims Ukraine had nothing to do with it and says there was a fire on board. This makes the incident even more ridiculous. If the Ukrainians did not hit it then the Russians have lost one of their best ships due to the incompetence of the crew… It may be unclear what happened to it, but the powerful ship has certainly been abandoned. Russia has lost another important item in its arsenal… Their war effort is looking ever more clumsy, disjointed, uncoordinated and haphazard.

Putin will never back down and needs some kind of victory to agree to any real peace deal. The less likely a Russian victory becomes the more likely the use of nuclear weapons becomes. Rather than having to admit defeat Putin will opt to drop nuclear weapons on Kiev and the rest of western Ukraine. He will not drop them in the eastern part, since that would endanger his own troops and Russia. Even western Ukraine could be too close to Russia’s borders to avoid undesired effects. But can we really be certain of anything? Russia’s military has proven itself to be so ineffective that we can expect any kind of irrational misstep…