“Lavrov may have fallen out of a window.”

If Putin’s scapegoat, Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, has disappeared it shows the “end of the regime is nigh”, says Russia expert Diane Francis.

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“Pokrovsk is bleeding Russia dry.”

Russia is losing 700-800 men a day as Ukraine manages to keep all supply corridors to the city open, says former British diplomat Cormac Smith.

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“They believe Russia has lost 350,00 casualties this years so far, and they are currently losing 1008 a day.”

Ukraine is eliminating Russian troops in Pokrovsk despite Putin’s propaganda trying to spin the opposite, says former British Army Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon.

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“When people raise objections to this, within the military, they are sent on what is in effect a suicide mission.”

Putin’s officers are engaged in “massive corruption”, diverting resources to the Russian army, but anyone who speaks out is eliminated, says former director of operations and intelligence for the British Secret Intelligence Service Nigel Inkster.

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“The fact that Russian economy relies of rent payments and internal corruption that comes form oil and gas industries will have an impact on the system.”

Pressures are piling up on Putin after Ukraine’s large scale attack hits 22 out of 38 large oil refineries, explains Chatham Houses’ Orysia Lutsevych. 

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“Russia is no more than a gas station with nukes masquerading as a country. If you get rid of the gas station part…there is a potential way of imploding the Russian economy.”

Russia may have to “live like North Korea for five years” as Europe and America turn their full attention to helping Ukraine, says Major General Chip Chapman.

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"Not to completely gainsay that this thing has any utility, but it feels to some a little bit like a vanity project."

Putin's nuclear powered missile test has done little to deter Ukraine's allies as questions remain about why Russia would want to launch a missile with a nuclear reactor on board, says Matthew Savill on Frontline for Times Radio.

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Putin is still "paranoid" about his meeting with Trump as he has "nothing to offer" the US president despite wanting control over Ukraine, and other former soviet territories, says The Times's Michael Binyon on Frontline.

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As Russia struggles to find ways to move armour and equipment forward Ukraine begins retaking settlements in the wake of Russia's failure to seize Pokrovsk, says The Institute for the Study of War's George Barros on Frontline.

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“Three years in, its entire year’s advance has been tiny.”

Russia is experiencing a “strategic catastrophe” as its military campaign “winds down” and resets for 2026, says former UK defence attaché Moscow and Kyiv John Foreman.

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“The Russians are still encircled…there’s not much hope that the Russians can break those guys out.”

The Ukrainian troops “open fire” on advancing Russians as they accidentally walk into an ambush point, says The Times’s Mixim Tucker.

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"A war of occupation from Russia is looking as impossible as it was looking by April 2022."

Ukraine's strikes on Russian oil infrastructure appear to have the green light from the US regardless of whether tomahawk is added to Kyiv's arsenal, sparking a major worry for Putin's regime, says The Standard's Robert Fox on Frontline.

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“By being so maximalist in his demands… we are much more likely to get into the scenario where Russia is feeling the need for a ceasefire.”

Putin will fail as he cannot sustain his war effort after facing economic and military problems, says former US ambassador Kurt Volker.

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“They never ever acknowledged the mistakes they made… and that’s what he’s getting at, and that’s a dangerous line for the Kremlin.”

Putin’s Kremlin is under attack from within after remarks made by former FSB officer Igor Girkin hit at the “poor management” of Moscow's high command, says Russia expert Mark Galeotti.

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"Ukraine has two strike campaigns going at the moment. One is economic warfare, which is targeting Russian oil infrastructure with an aim of degrading the export revenue and their ability to fund the war. The other campaign is targeting military operational and strategic targets."

The US is considering providing more support for Ukrainian strikes as Russia's oil industry appears to be severely crippled, Maj. Gen. Mick Ryan tells Frontline.

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“There are signs that Putin and co recognise that their days in power are probably numbered.”

Putin is preparing for his, and other elderly colleagues, “departure” as he appoints family members into the Kremlin to eradicate disloyalty in his government, says head of Foreign Policy at the New Eurasian Strategies Centre John Lough.

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“That is, if not a game changer, it’s an eye opener.”

Calls to shoot down Russian aircrafts could bolster Nato to deter Putin, says The Times’s writer and security specialist Edward Lucas.

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