Desperate Putin’s Russia heading for collapse as Donbas assault ‘flounders’

Videos of Russia’s kamikaze attack on Vuhledar released

Vladimir Putin’s latest attempt at securing a wartime victory in Ukraine ended in humiliating disaster.

The Russian military’s assault on the Donbas region has “floundered,” according to Britain’s Ministry of Defence.

The MoD said the Kremlin has lost around 200 armoured vehicles during its assaults on Avdiika over the past three weeks.

Russia has poured substantial military resources, including soldiers, artillery, and tanks, into an attack on the Donetsk city.

This comes as experts warn that a faltering economy and frustrated youth in Russia could spell the end of President Putin’s grip on power.

 

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The latest MoD intelligence briefing said: “In the south, the Ukrainian advance remains relatively static between the two main lines of Russia’s well-prepared defensive positions.

“Around the Donbas town of Avdiivka, a large-scale Russian assault has floundered on strong Ukrainian defences.”

Meanwhile, an analysis from Dominic Nicholls, the Telegraph Associate Editor, has suggested that the Russian youth could be the group to take down President Putin.

He said that the oligarchs and military officers had missed their chances to topple the Kremlin leader.

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Instead, Mr Nicholls said that the “cracks are starting to show” and that many economically active men are either outside of Russia or at the frontline.

He pointed out that the Russian Ruble is hovering at nearly 100 to the US dollar while the interest rate is at 15 percent.

He added: “Signs of the system struggling to cope are there if you know where to look.

“A shopping mall in Izhevsk has been converted into a weapons factory; bakers are quitting bread production because they’ve been told to make drones; office workers are asked to ‘volunteer’ to work in munitions factories after work. AvtoVaz, a carmarker, and Ozen, Russia’s Amazon, are employing prisoners.”

Russia has moved into a war economy, with its defence budget set to jump by more than 70 percent in 2024 – reaching about six percent of GDP.

More than 300,000 young Russian men have been mobilised for the war, prompting a number of employers to complain about staff shortages.

The shortages are made worse by the fact that nearly a million Russians, predominately high-skilled and well-educated, have fled the country since the invasion.

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