It does seem to me that the nuclear threats, Army Deputy firings, and manufactured victimhood narratives from the Kremlin have increased in tempo and volume in the last couple weeks, right around the time Ukraine finally started receiving the first drabs of massive US aid to the Kharkiv frontlines, and in the midst of many (a dozen or two?) successful drone strikes against Russian oil refineries.How does one know if Putin is close to defeat? By the frequency of nuclear threats.
Those long range refinery strikes have got to be hitting Putin where it hurts.
So, yes, I also read those signs as the Kremlin getting a bit desperate. Their massive push in Kharkiv is bogged down, and now appears to be having the legs cut from under it with the (now finally allowed by Washington) strikes on their rear supply areas. They are still making some slow and costly progress elsewhere, but I get the impression they put a lot of hope and resources into attacking the Kharkiv direction, and it is backfiring spectacularly so far.
With the constant whittling of their air defense, the new sanctions on the secondary banks now possibly slowing the backfilling of the invading army's materiel pipeline, Putin's rosy outlook, brought about (lest we forget) courtesy of the long and painful Mike Johnson/Donald Trump Spring of Shell Starvation ... may be rapidly getting a lot less rosy, and a lot more skunky.
(Feel free to reply with a picture of Putin holding his nose, if the Internet gods can provide.)
