The media is a complete circus; twitter is even worse. TBH I don't think there are (nor can be) any 'actually good' sources of public information in this mess, but speaking personally, I've on-and-off followed some Ukrainian bloggers, although a probably biased section in that they're all pretty much anti-Zelensky (ok, not all of them were such during his election, as some only turned against him when it became clear Ze had no intention of peace in Donbass). I really can't remotely keep up this stuff anymore, even watching at double speed; e.g. Sharij alone now streams around 8 hours a day—he's was good EU-based journalist (but worse politician) that has several reporters working for him, but damn.
The media, both regular and social, is definitely a massive circus, but the tactical situation doesn't change much regarding the strategic aspect:
A) Something went REALLY wrong with the Russian logistics/organization, and capital letters aren't enough emphasis for how wrong it went and how much of a shitshow the operation has been until now.
B) The virtual absence of the Russian Air Force and the, well, very sub-par level of the airborne operations (with airborne troops being apparently used as more regular forces but with their superior training) indicates some awful execution of plans considering that invasion plans of Ukraine must have been written and improved yearly for twenty years at least.
C) The RIA article indicates pretty clearly that the
short-term objective of the war is the full annexion of Ukraine in Russia, something that is beyond what the fuck insane optimism even if the operation didn't turn into a shitshow from Day 2.
D) Foreign governments are now openly evaluating the Russian military and government as a virtual non-threat if Georgia is actually filling its candidacy for the EU, which has now become an openly hostile military alliance against Russia, considering the candidacy process will literally last years and that Georgia has no land border with EU.
This is an insane move unless they are highly confident that Russia will not be a threat to Georgia in the next decade.
E) The diplomatic movement around Russia looks less like "sanctions" and more "vultures turning around a dying prey" with a large part of the Russian foreign currency reserves frozen or unavailable.
F) The Ukrainian population has been quite galvanized and is showing strong morale, making a peaceful annexion
de facto impossible.
G) The EU is going all-in on gutting as many economic ties with Russia as possible and tries doing it as fast as realistically possible, even if it implies spending a shitton of money to do it.
H) Finland is openly in favour of joining NATO.
I) Germany is rearming and debating the reintroduction of conscription.
J) Guns, missiles, intelligence and people (including highly-trained soldiers such as technically deserting French Foreign Legionnaires) are joining the fray just to inflict as much damage as possible to the Russian forces.
K) The Russian government feels the need to punish with up to 20 years of prison the very act of protesting against this war.
L) F to I combine to apply constant losses in men and equipment to the military for the inside while simultaneously imposing higher demands from it for the outside.
M) The only realistic alternative to the sanctions is to fully integrate Russia's economy with China's, and I doubt anyone seriously believes this is a survivable move considering how China acquires everything of value in terms of intellectual property before leveraging its much higher population and financial resources to outcompete the plundered country.
I don't know about you, Vorpal, but these facts makes me look at the situation and reach the conclusion that no matter how it goes on the ground now, Putin is in a situation that has no winning scenario. The news, memes or twitter are, well, irrelevant unless these facts can be removed somehow. Trying to endure with all of these is a clear recipe for national catastrophe.
And I think I must emphasize D very much: the Georgian government, whose country was pretty much assraped by Russia quite recently, literally bet their country's continued existence and probably their own lives on the notion that Russia will not be a threat to Georgia not for a few weeks, not for a few months, but for a good decade. That is... a strong assessment they made, and they are ready to bet it all on it.