Putin can present Russian troops' defensive crouch as victory – military expert Svitan

He expressed his opinion on Espreso TV. 

“There are some points that indicate that Putin may announce the suspension or reformatting of the so-called 'special military operation'. The enemy forces still have offensive capabilities for a few weeks. And then the Russians will go into a complete blind defense. Accordingly, the Russian Federation will want to highlight this in a positive way, so they may come up with something related to the stop of the 'special military operation' as a result of the completed tasks,” the military expert commented.

Roman Svitan explained that it is not logical that Putin would announce the termination of the 'special military operation' and the beginning of war; Putin would definitely not announce war and simultaneously go on the defensive.

“In Russia, they will try to present the transition to a deaf defense as a 'victory,' and this requires something like a cessation of hostilities. It is more likely that they will declare the cessation of the so-called 'special military operation' or transform it into some other mechanism, but not into a war, for sure,” Svitan said.

• On May 8, Captain Valerii Shershen, a spokesman for the Joint Press Center of the Tavriisk Defense Forces, said that the Russian forces were losing motivation, and the losses were causing panic among the Russian military.

• The report of the Institute for the Study of War also states that Russia is unlikely to be able to conduct coordinated defense operations along the entire frontline.