SR,

I have viewed most of the material you have linked to. I am perfectly aware of the huge advantage the Russians have enjoyed over the Ukrainians in artillery and the gains they have made. However, the long-term campaign assessments extend far beyond the short-term battlefield gains.

Russia's special operation has largely stalled and recent gains have come at a huge price in men and materiel. Russia even with its large defence industry is losing tanks, vehicles and manpower at a rate larger than it can match without a general mobilisation. Russia is close to exhausting people to conscript in occupied Ukraine and the number of young men that have disappeared has not gone unnoticed by parents. Whereas Ukraine is getting more equipment with greater lethality from the west.

With the delivery of the HIMAS and the 155mm howitzer longer-range precision equipment, the balance on the battlefield is shifting. Russia's logistics (never a strong point) have been severely limited by the accurate fire as the destruction of Russian materiel is consistent and increasing.

While Putin at this point is not losing the war, he is certainly not winning. Already his army is showing signs of exhaustion, and there is no sign that with the ever-tightening sanctions that Russia can keep on absorbing these losses for years.

Without a decisive victory, Putin is screwed.

Depends where you get your news shadowminister,
if you rely on western news which comes straight out of Ukraine and is one-sided or The Kagan family's Institute for the Study of War, then you'll get a slanted view of whats going on.
A lot of what western citizens are being told is mistruths, in order to bolster enough support to keep them backing the war.

You say Russians are losing, then why did they shell the Antonovsky Bridge?
Is that an offensive or defensive action do you think?
http://www.kyivpost.com/russias-war/vital-bridge-attacked-in-kherson-as-ukrainian-army-goes-on-counter-offensive.html
How are they going to wage this big counter-offensive to take back Kherson if they destroy the bridge they need to cross to attack Kherson? It's all crap for the benefit of western citizens.
Don't forget their air force is destroyed.
They don't want the A10's they want MIG-29's but no-one is willing to give them up, that's why they're being offered F-16's because they can't get anything else, and they will have to be retrained to fly them.

There's discrepancies in the numbers of casualties.
Ukraine says 15,000 Russians killed, and based on that number and a 4 to 1 'back of the envelope' ratio for wounded you get 75,000 killed and wounded. That number is more than half what Russia started out with, while Ukraine had over 650K troops
- But even Britain says about 6000 Russians killed, so you actually get around 30k killed and wounded for Russia total.

What's happening at the moment is that Ukraine wants to do a big counter-offensive in Kherson, in order to stop an upcoming referendum in which Russia will officially claim the territory, also money and weapons from the West is starting to dry up. All this will be a sideshow if US starts something in Taiwan.
Also, although there is disagreement on the issue, Ukraine bombed its own Azovstal NAZI's because they had been talking too much to the Russians about how their commanders forced them to fire on civilians, so they blew them up, to shut them up.

Europe is starting to fracture, come winter they will be in serious trouble. The German economy is getting closer to collapse, and their might be protests when things get worse, the West has gone begging for fuel from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela etc but hasn't got any and are using their strategic reserves.

It's likely the G7 will eventually pay for the East-Med pipeline.

Sanctions have done way more harm to the West than it's harmed Russia, they are making more from energy exports than they were before the war started, though the strengthened ruble isn't exactly doing any favors.
Russia and China have started a new reserve global currency with others BRICS countries, and not many countries as the West hoped have backed the West.

I watch a couple of YouTube channels at the moment
(Listed below in order of most watched)

http://www.youtube.com/c/AlexanderMercourisReal/videos
http://www.youtube.com/c/AlexChristoforou/videos
http://www.youtube.com/c/TheDuran/videos
http://www.youtube.com/c/CRUXnews/videos
http://www.youtube.com/c/DefensePoliticsAsia/videos
http://www.youtube.com/c/TheNewAtlas/videos
http://www.youtube.com/c/iEarlGreytv/videos
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUnc496-PPmFZVKlYxUnToA/videos

- Better info than what you'll get from websites or the tv

AC,

Once again quoting BS.

Most of Kherson is on the west side of the river. Blowing the bridges stops the reinforcement of troops in the area and gives them nowhere to retreat. It is a precursor to a counterattack.

Russia is selling nearly as much oil as it was before but at a $30/b discount with the oil price now only $20 higher than it was pre-war. 83% of its gas sales were to Europe via pipeline which has now dropped by 70% this gas presently cannot be sold elsewhere.

Also, most other commodities sales have dropped and any tech or arms has dropped to zero.

Casualties are about 75000 killed or seriously wounded and tanks and vehicle losses are in the 1000s

Ukraine is getting stronger all the time, and Russia is bleeding out.

"Most of Kherson is on the west side of the river. Blowing the bridges stops the reinforcement of troops in the area and gives them nowhere to retreat. It is a precursor to a counterattack."

No it's not. The city of Kherson is on the Western side of the river, but the large majority of land is in the east, and FYI I've seen vehicles crossing the damaged Antonovsky Bridge already.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kherson_Oblast
How would they attack the larger eastern side to prevent the coming referendum if they blow up those bridges themselves?
Maybe most of the citizens of Kherson Oblast are on the western side, I'm not sure, but they will never cross and take the eastern side now without air cover if those bridges are gone.
It's not the only bridge crossing anyway, there's also a railway bridge 2klms upriver.

"Casualties are about 75000 killed or seriously wounded and tanks and vehicle losses are in the 1000s"
That's a back of the envolope number based on a 4 to ratio of killed to wounded and Ukraine 'claims' they've killed 15000 Russians.
The UK says 6000 which equals 30000 in total.

Beyond all this, it seems clear now that Putin was completely justified in invading Ukraine.
It seems clear the west planned for Ukraine to join NATO, just as they are planning to recognise Taiwan as independent, and cause a stink there as well.
These are the conclusions both Russia and China have come to, based on US belligerent actions.

As Russia Advances in Donbass Crisis Heats up in Kosovo; EU/UK Major Retreat on Russia Oil Sanctions
http://youtu.be/ZdeBTmhroM8

West eases efforts to restrict Russian oil trading as inflation and energy risks mount
http://en.portnews.ru/news/333133/
EU to soften sanctions on Russian banks to allow food trade
http://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/eu-soften-sanctions-russian-banks-allow-food-trade-2022-07-19/

- The US wants Russian oil to stabilize soaring prices, but it also doesn't want Russia to be handsomely paid for it.