Originally Posted by
NutLoose
The World should see this and wake up to what is happening.
W. T. Sherman's observation about the nature of war applies here.
From that extensive analysis at ISW: (caveat, mostly Ukraine based sources inform the analysis)
The Ukrainian Resistance Center claimed that Ukrainian partisans discovered a network of pro-Russian collaborators in occupied Kherson Oblast on July 5. The report indicated that this network of collaborators informs occupation forces about Ukrainian activities, which suggests that Russian authorities are continuing to leverage pro-Russian sentiment to extend control over occupied areas. However, the Ukrainian Resistance Center also claimed that Russian authorities have failed to find enough collaborators to form an occupation government in Kherson Oblast and are therefore installing officials directly from Russia. This claim is consistent with previous reports that proxy leadership in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) has imported several Russian public administration officials to the DNR government to shape its policies under a Russian framework. Despite the number of Ukrainian collaborators in Kherson Oblast, Russian occupation authorities likely prefer Russian officials in administrative roles to align occupied areas with the Russian system on an administrative level. This phenomenon may indicate that the Russians are preparing to annex the occupied territories directly to the Russian Federation rather than establishing one or more independent statelets.
The Russians, provided that this summary is accurate, are taking a "we are here to stay" position.
Originally Posted by FUMR
It's time the west confronts Putin's Russia head to head whatever the consequences. Not doing so will make those consequences inevitable in the end anyway!
There is a limit to what sanctions (which were applied in the 2014 case, and were also applied for this war) can do as a form of political leverage. More importantly sanctions take substantial amounts of time to have the effect of bringing a party to the table. I suspect that this limit of effectiveness has been reached, but there may still be some pressure points worth prodding.
The related post about the pipeline being shut off for 30 days looks like a counterattack in terms of economic warfare. (ORAC, thanks for the link) So does this measure, reported by ISW at the link.
Russian authorities continued to consolidate control of Ukrainian energy assets. The Ukrainian Resistance Center reported on July 5 that Russian authorities intend to restaff the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) with Russian employees, likely mostly from Rosenergoatom. The Ukrainian Resistance Center claimed that Russian authorities intend to disconnect the NPP from the Ukrainian power grid by the end of September, which indicates that Russian authorities intend to fully divert Ukrainian energy to the Russian Federation.