[Teeth53]

Putin army is Ukraine now is in General Surovikin hand. He the first person to be officially named by Russia as the commander of the entire military operation in Ukraine. The 56-yr-old war veteran boasts a chilling resume, having previously played a key role in Russia’s operations in Syria and earning himself the nickname “General Armageddon”.

But experts and insiders have painted an opposite picture, with Russian history and culture professor 
BBC said. The General had earned a reputation as “a brutal, very tough and unpleasant individual”.

Prof Waldron also claimed his appointment indicated things weren't going well for Putin’s invasion.

“You don’t change your military commander unless things aren’t going to plan,” he said. “Changing the commander here may bring in a different ethos but whether it makes a difference to the capabilities is questionable.”

That sentiment was echoed by Mason Clark, a Russia expert at the Institute for the Study of War, who told CNN “an individual commander is not going to be able to change how tangled Russian command and control is at this point in the war, or the low morale of Russian forces”.

He added that Russia was running out of alternatives, and that “there isn’t a good Kremlin option if Surovikin doesn’t perform or if Putin decides that he is also not up to the task”.

“There aren’t many other senior Russian officers and it’s just going to lead to a further degradation of Putin plan for Russian war effort.

Russia attacked Kyiv with "kamikaze" drones on Monday, according to Ukrainian officials, who repeated their calls for Western allies to supply Ukraine with more advanced air defense systems. The deadly attacks come after Moscow fired hundreds of missiles at civilian targets across Ukraine last week.

Drones have played a significant role in the conflict since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, but their use has increased after Moscow acquired new drones from Iran over the summer.

It’s not that Belarus has a mighty army – it doesn’t. The prospect of Ukraine’s long northern border becoming a passageway for Russian forces for the second time this year, for Ukraine’s already stretched forces. Ukraine and Belarus share a 1,000-kilometer frontier, much of it sparsely populated and thickly forested. After seven months of war, the Ukrainian military has suffered attrition just like its enemy: moving forces to defend its northern flank would stretch forces fighting

At the moment, the Ukrainian army is conducting offensives in the east and south while holding off Russian forces in parts of Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia.