Frontline: The War in Ukraine and Global Security

“This is bread and butter operations for the US coastguard and the US military forces involved, they can do this in their sleep.”US military forces managed to seize the Russian-flagged oil tanker in a “simple takeover”, says former royal marine James Glancy.

“Is anything really unravelling at a speed on the Ukrainian side, with such significance on the Russian side that we’re likely to get to some point where either Ukraine collapses or Russia collapses. The answer to that is no.”Putin’s belief that he is “operating at pace” is far fetched as the small Russian advances fail to make any major breakthroughs, says Major General Chip Chapman.

Putin's claims of taking Kupiansk resulted in Russian humiliation as a Ukrainian counter offensive has left one hundred of Kremlin's troops trapped in the centre, says Jimmy Rushton on Frontline.

“The Russian people have a high degree of apathy when it comes to Putin.”Putin’s grip on the Russian people is vulnerable to just “snapping” as they wake up to impacts of oil shortages, says former US special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker.

“One by one we can take you out.”Ukraine is “causing Putin pain” by taking out Russia’s oil infrastructure and strategic bomber fleet, says former Air Vice Marshal Sean Bell.

“They’re time limited.”Putin has failed to gain more than 0.9 per cent of Ukrainian territory this year, but has lost 400,000 Russians in the process, says Scott Lucas.

Russia's attempt to surge to put pressure on Kyiv over peace talks is coming at a high casualty cost, says Maxim Tucker the Times' Ukraine correspondent.

“The frontline has not collapsed, despite what they want us to believe.”Ukraine’s MOD says they have taken back about 20 per cent of Pokrovsk, says former British Army Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon.