Ukraine/Russia Update 1,336….Putin Bets the Farm on a Win That Looks Doubtful….

This ‘war’ has been going on for 1,336 days….

Russia is NOT gonna ‘WIN’ the conflict….

Putin IS going to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of his people in the effort..

Putin seems to be stuck…..

This while Ukraine hits on Russian oil facilities cut the amount of gas for the countries drivers…

Europe is shouldering the load and IS worried that Putin plans to come for it….Donald Trump vacillates between supporting Ukraine and begging Zelenskyy to just give up his country so he, Trump can get a Nobel Peace prize….

This Dog continues to feel that Putin HAS SOMETHING On Donald….

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has painted his meeting last week with Donald Trump as a success that yielded progress on acquiring new air defence systems, a contrast from reports that Trump had berated him with obscenities in the White House. In comments to the media on Sunday that were embargoed until Monday, the Ukrainian president described Trump’s message at the meeting as “positive”, even though Zelenskyy did not secure Tomahawk cruise missiles. As a result of the visit, Ukraine is now preparing a contract to buy 25 Patriot air defence systems in a major boost to its defences, Zelenskyy said. He was speaking before reports that the US president had pushed Zelenskyy to give up territory during their meeting, which sources described as more tense than initially disclosed.
Zelenskyy will travel to London on Friday for a meeting of the “coalition of the willing” before the expected summit between Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin in Budapest, amid mounting European disquiet over Ukraine’s exclusion from the meeting, Peter Beaumont reports. Zelenskyy said the aim of the London visit was to win security guarantees for Kyiv and there would be “many meetings and negotiations in Europe” this week. On Thursday Zelenskyy will travel to Brussels to attend a summit of the European Council, Reuters reported.
Donald Trump has said he thinks it is possible Ukraine can defeat Russia but that he is now doubtful it will happen. “They could still win it. I don’t think they will, but they could still win it,” the US president told reporters at the White House on Monday. Trump last month reversed his long-held position that Ukraine would have to concede land and could win back all the territory it has lost to Russia, but after a lengthy call with Putin last week, followed by a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump made another reversal and called on Kyiv and Moscow to “stop where they are” and end their fighting. Asked on Monday about his shifting opinion, Trump said: “I never said they would win it – I said they could. Anything can happen. You know war is a very strange thing.”
A new Russian attack on the Ukrainian border region of Chernihiv on Monday knocked out power to stretches of territory in the north of the country, including the main town outside the decommissioned Chornobyl nuclear power station, officials said. The local power company in the region, Chernihivoblenergo, said the latest assault targeted an energy site, but did not identify it. Yuri Fomichev, the mayor of Slavutych, which is 45km (28 miles) west of the Chernobyl plant in Kyiv region, said on Telegram that part of the town had lost power in the incident. Emergency crews were working on restoring power.
There is “broad support” among European Union member states for a new €140bn ($163bn) loan for Ukraine funded by frozen Russian central bank assets, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said. “It is crucial that we make progress on addressing the legal and fiscal modalities,” she said on Monday after talks by EU foreign ministers. The European Commission has put forward the plan for a “reparation loan” to keep financing Kyiv and is seeking to win over major doubter Belgium, where the bulk of the assets are held.
The cost of Britain’s contribution to a post-ceasefire stabilisation force for Ukraine would be “well over £100m”, the defence secretary, John Healey, has said after a speech in London. Dan Sabbagh reports that Healey said he had already brought forward millions in spending so that a “multinational force Ukraine” led by the UK and France could be ready to deploy quickly if peace talks produce a ceasefire. “Peace is possible, and if President Trump can broker a peace, then we will be ready to help secure that peace for the long term. That requires us to invest and prepare our forces to be ready to deploy.”
Russian lawmakers said they had drafted a law mandating life imprisonment for anyone involving minors in sabotage and lowering the age threshold for criminal responsibility for such crimes to 14. The chairman of the lower house’s security committee, Vasily Piskaryov, said a bill introduced into parliament on Monday and backed by 419 out of 450 deputies would increase the security of the state. Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia has crafted a series of laws that give state security agencies extensive powers to detain those accused of misrepresenting the war or opposing the state…..

More…

ISW...Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment October 20, 2025

US President Donald Trump’s October 17 meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly ended with Trump supporting a ceasefire on the current frontlines and not Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demands that Ukraine cede territory in Donetsk Oblast to Russia.
Kremlin voices clarified Russia’s position on negotiations following Western reporting about the October 17 Trump-Zelensky meeting in order to reiterate that Russia remains committed to addressing the alleged “root causes” of the war and is unwilling to agree to a ceasefire.
The Kremlin is priming the Russian people for a full victory in Ukraine whatever the cost — a domestic effort that is at odds with Putin’s reported willingness to make territorial concessions.
The Kremlin is leaning into its cognitive warfare effort to portray Russian forces as relentlessly advancing and a Russian victory as inevitable. This effort aims to obscure the reality that Russian forces are only making minimal gains at disproportionately high manpower costs and that Russia is unlikely to obtain its strategic objectives by force in the short- or medium-term.
Russian officials are also attempting to falsely portray ongoing limited Russian operations in the Kherson direction as the start of a new major Russian offensive in the province.
The Kremlin is attempting to use all available informational avenues to convince the United States, Europe, and Ukraine to acquiesce to the Kremlin’s demands by convincing them that a Russian victory in Ukraine is certain when it is anything but.
Kremlin officials are attempting to present Ukraine as the obstacle to peace to obfuscate how Putin himself has been impeding the process by insisting that Ukraine cede more territory than Russian forces currently occupy.
Ukrainian forces recently advanced in the Siversk direction. Russian forces recently advanced in the Velykyi Burluk direction.

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Ukraine/Russia Update 1,336….Putin Bets the Farm on a Win That Looks Doubtful….

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