Vladimir Putin is convinced his country is strong enough to secure total victory in Ukraine. But the Russian leader is forgetting two crucial things about the current geographic dynamic.

On July 1, former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov was convicted on charges of embezzlement and money laundering and sentenced to 13 years in prison in a high-profile case that exposed rampant military corruption widely blamed for Moscow’s military setbacks in Ukraine.

Russia’s transport minister allegedly shot himself in the head on Monday just hours after President Vladimir Putin dismissed him from his post, investigators said.

The Kremlin's grip on the Russian elite appears to be closing ever tighter as two major figures of Russian business and security structures were detained in the past few days. Konstantin Strukov, a billionaire running a gold mining empire,

Roman V. Starovoyt, the transport minister, had governed the Kursk region before Ukrainian forces occupied part of it in 2024.

Unlike before, when you could get these jobs, get rich, get promoted from regional level to federal level, today, that is clearly not a career path if you want to stay alive,” Nina Khrushcheva told the BBC.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it would take time to clarify what weapons the United States is supplying and will supply to Ukraine after President Donald Trump said Washington would have to send more arms to Kyiv.

The Kremlin responded on Tuesday to President Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States will supply additional weapons to Ukraine, stating it will take time to fully understand what kind of military aid is actually being delivered.