In terms of the current situation, Putin¡¯s situation is somewhat bad.

The blind-looking NATO doesn¡¯t seem to let go of Russia¡¯s intention of sending large numbers of troops to the border.

At the cusp of this storm, news also came out in Russia that one of Putin's "hardcore" allies suddenly announced his resignation!

This news can be described as a bolt from the blue. Could it be that he was afraid of abandoning Putin at such a critical juncture?

Just a few days earlier, Russia and Belarus held a large-scale strategic-level joint military exercise "West-2025" ended, causing great shock in the international community.

Although Russia and Belarus have repeatedly stressed that this joint military exercise is defensive in nature and does not target any third country, some European countries, including Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, don't think so, and they even maintain a high degree of alert.

It is worth mentioning that in this joint military exercise, in addition to India, Bangladesh, Iran and other countries sending military personnel directly to part of the training, other 23 countries sent delegates participated in the observation, including the United States, Turkey and Hungary, the three NATO member states.

The reason to invite NATO member states to attend, obviously, is that Russia wants to "show muscles" in the west, through joint military exercises to increase deterrence.

However, Putin may be disappointed, as it is unknown whether the deterrence has improved, but Russia has indeed met with a tough ¡°reaction¡± from the West.

Just after the end of the "West 2025" joint military exercises, the United States, France, Britain, Canada, Estonia and Latvia - about six NATO countries - announced that they will hold two-week joint "Flash" military exercises starting on September 18 local time.

According to relevant news, 3,000 military personnel will be invested in this NATO "Lightning" military exercise. The main purpose is to practice the rapid delivery of troops and the ability of allied forces to jointly respond to threats.

Since the Lightning exercise is almost seamlessly linked in time with the Russian-White ¡°West 2025¡± exercise, NATO¡¯s move is also seen as a targeted action against Russia.

Obviously, this move by NATO is indeed somewhat beyond Putin's expectations.

What Putin didn't expect even more was that Poland actually announced that it would expand its military at this time.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk recently issued a statement saying that to make the Polish army the largest and best-equipped army in Europe, plans to expand the current 200,000 troops to 300,000.

Now Poland is like a "frightened bird".

It should be noted that they have had multiple experiences of being divided in history, especially with Russia for a long time, and have always had a ¡°sense of insecurity¡± about themselves.

Moreover, Poland is at the forefront of NATO¡¯s eastern wing and directly borders with Belarus, and the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has exacerbated this sense of crisis.

Their defense budget in 2025 is 186.6 billion zlotys (approximately RMB 335.5 billion), accounting for about 4.7% of GDP, far above the NATO standard of about 2%.

Poland also recently purchased thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, self-propelled artillery, rocket guns, and a hundred AH-64 Apache armed helicopters, and F-35 fighter jets, which is enough to illustrate its determination to expand its armed forces.

There are also new moves on the Ukrainian side at this time.

On September 17, local time, Ukrainian President Zelensky announced that Ukraine will receive the first batch of $1 billion worth of military aid, which includes "Patriot" air defense missiles, high-mobility rocket artillery systems launchers, and so on.

Of course, since Trump has said earlier that he will no longer hold money for Ukraine, the money for the military aid is all paid by European countries.

Obviously, whether Russia, Ukraine, or the NATO behind Ukraine, have all been successful, only waiting for each other to show up.

And this time, Trump¡¯s attitude also produced a 180-degree reversal.

On September 18, when Trump was interviewed by media reporters on Air Force One, he openly declared that "the time is not yet ripe" for a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and he also said, "At the right time, if I need to take action, Tough measures will be taken."

In addition, he criticized both Russian and Ukrainian sides, saying that Putin ¡°really disappointed me¡± and summarized the conflict as ¡°the war between Biden and Zelensky¡±.

Beyond the words, Trump has revealed the attitude of not wanting to do the "wrong head", after all, the conflict was Biden during the term, what does it matter to me?

Of course, for the sake of the so-called overall situation, he still called on all NATO member states to stop buying Russian oil and completely drag them down economically.

This series of speeches is enough to see what Trump thinks.

It is impossible for the Russian-Ukrainian conflict to a short-term ceasefire, in which case the United States should be ready to take action against Russia at any time.

This is not good news for Putin. If the United States really enters the game directly, it will undoubtedly add insult to injury.

More than three years have passed since the conflict broke out in 2022. Although the Russian army has some advantages on the front line, Russia as a whole has reached the verge of exhaustion.

Some ¡°practical¡± officials inside Russia believe that the conflict should be settled through diplomatic negotiations and that appropriate compromise can be considered.

Obviously, this part of the people¡¯s opinions are opposed to that of Putin.

As early as more than a month ago, Putin reiterated the conditions for a ceasefire, the most important of which is that Ukraine is not allowed to join NATO and all Ukrainian troops must withdraw from the Donbas region.

Obviously, this Zelensky won¡¯t promise, so if, according to this portion of Russian officials, Putin made the appropriate compromise, it would no longer prevent Ukraine from ¡°going north.¡±

It is well known that the threat posed by NATO¡¯s eastward expansion to Russia was enormous, and it was on this basis that the conflict broke out, which now leaves Putin a compromise?

On September 18, Putin signed an order to remove Dmitry Kozak from the position of Deputy Director of the Russian Presidential Office.

Shortly thereafter, Russian President¡¯s press secretary, Peskov, issued a statement saying that Dmitry Kozak resigned voluntarily, and that Putin signed a dismissal order only after he filed his resignation.

You know, Kozak is the "hardcore" of Putin's government. He began to advise Putin in the late 1990s. At the peak of his career, he served as the deputy prime minister of the Russian government, and he also served as a full-time representative of Russia's policy toward Ukraine. He has deeply handled Ukrainian affairs.

Seeing this resume, using the word ¡°left arm right arm¡± to describe the importance of Kozak to Putin, I think it would be more appropriate.

It is believed that Kozak resigned because he disagreed with Putin on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, as some previous remarks show that he was more inclined to resolve differences through negotiations.

This personnel change is very likely to expose the problems existing in Russia's top leaders, that is, the difference in attitudes towards the Russia-Ukraine conflict.