The title says it all.
There have been many comments recently that May 9 is a critical date for Putin, and he must declare victory by then.
But why?
Sure it’s a nice symbolic date, it represents a huge historical victory, and I understand that Russia has a tradition of celebrating it in a big way.
But couldn’t Putin could use all that to his advantage, too?
He could announce , (like a bizzarro Churchill): “We, the great Russian empire, who defeated the Nazis on May 9 1945 are still the fighting to save the world from the Nazis in Ukraine. We shall prevail.”
It seems to me that making an announcement like that would remove the pressure of having to meet a deadline 3 weeks from now.
The only way for Russia to actually win (i.e conquer all of Ukraine) will be to drag the war out for a couple of years, till Ukrainians begin starving, That won’t happen by May 9th.
By whom? There are many comments that the leaders of the world are a race of alien reptiles. To the extent those comments are worth discussing it’s essential to know who the comments come from so one can track down the source of their delusions.
Not saying this is equally nonsensical, but no, the title doesn’t say it all.
I’ve been reading about how May 9th is a critical day for Putin’s war in the mainstream press for weeks now. It’s a common topic of respected opinionaters.
The Lizard People hypotheses hasn’t hit the mainstream yet, although I’m guessing it’s just around the corner.
That’s excellent input. It doesn’t say what the OP is hearing though.
It’s not a deadline to win the war – that will likely not happen by then – but to pretend Russia has won something. Something major. Something important.
Which seems perfectly plausible judging from the arguments made in the piece. So OP, are your commenters misunderstanding this columnist by reading and misinterpreting only the headline, or are they reading someone else?
My read is Russian offensive operations will cease by that date. Russia has not activated its full reserves and given the losses up to now, that’s a strong signal that they plan to be ‘done’ in a few weeks. Putin will announce victory on May 9th having ‘liberated’ Luhansk and Donetsk, and created a land bridge with Crimea.
At this point no treaties or agreements will be signed. The Russian forces will simply dig in, fortify, and fight a purely defensive battle for the foreseeable future until Ukraine and their allies have decided they’ve spent enough blood and treasure.
I suspect he’ll still declare victory and cease offense operations regardless of where they are on the ground and task his propaganda arm with some serious overtime. In all likelihood, the battle will have culminated before May 9th based on both the logistical and manpower requirements.
