Hey, Russia — it’s Putin, stupid!

No, there are not, as Russian state-controlled media ludicrously assert, “English-speaking” soldiers on the front lines in Ukraine’s Donbas region pushing Russian military forces to the rear, or in certain places, back to the border. False narratives or excuses cannot explain why, according to retired U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, NATO-empowered Ukrainian soldiers are “routing Russian forces and collapsing Russia’s northern Donbas axis.”

Nor can canceling an entire Ukrainian nationality. Rodion Miroshnik, ambassador to Moscow from the Luhansk People’s Republic, laughably attempted to do just that, proclaiming on Russia-1, “Ukraine no longer exists.” His hypocrisy — and by extension, Vladimir Putin’s — is not lost on London, Brussels or Washington, especially when he feebly claimed that Ukraine is now just an “English-speaking tribe,” implying that Russians soldiers are fighting Americans and Englishmen. We remember Putin’s own childish use of “little green men” as a farcical cover story during Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014.

No, Putin’s “special military operation” is not being routed — yet again — by NATO in and around Izyum, Russia’s erstwhile key northern bastion in the Kharkiv Oblast. Rather, it is Ukrainian soldiers, equipped and trained by English-speaking countries, alongside their allies who have opened fresh cans of whoop-ass and are inflicting a beatdown of Putin’s military forces in the Donbas.

Not that this is new. There has been one constant since Putin’s illegal invasion began in February: Russia’s military forces have been forced to retreat and regroup, time and time again. These are not merely tactical battlefield retreats, but of entire theaters, including Kyiv.

Hiding behind propaganda will no longer work. Putin has been exposed as an “emperor with no clothes,” forced to rely upon haggling with Iranian and North Korean surrogates to purchase drones and, according to the New York Times, “millions of artillery shells and rockets.” Saturating social media with disinformation and excuses about why Russian ground forces are failing cannot mask the images of abandoned equipment and reports of Russian soldiers surrendering. Ukrainians — despite Putin’s attempts to pretend they do not exist — are a determined population who refuse to be bullied. They will continue to fight for their freedom and independence.

The West is onto you, Mr. Putin — and it is only a matter of time until the Russian people are, as well. You should fear Elon Musk and his Starlink network, a satellite communications system that Moscow cannot block. Even Telegram is a lurking threat to the regime. Both can — and should — be very effective in broadcasting throughout Russia a simple but deadly message about Putin’s regime and its ownership of his failures in Ukraine: “Hey, Russia — it’s Putin, stupid!”

Instead of Russian victory parade tanks rolling down Khreshchatyk Street in the Ukrainian capital, or elsewhere for that matter, cracks are appearing inside and outside the Kremlin. Municipal deputies in St. Petersburg have called on the State Duma to try Putin for treason. His gulag in the face of failure in Ukraine — and habit of tossing dissenters out windows — are losing their fear factor.

Fissures are also breaking out in Russian state-controlled media. Denial in Moscow about the reversals in Ukraine had run cow pasture deep, but no longer. Putin’s top media cronies, including Evgeny Popov and Vladimir Solovyov, are, according to Julia Davis, a leading Russian media expert, now “worried.” The Ukrainian mouse is chasing the Russian bear — and the intensifying panic is not only destroying morale among Russian troops in Ukraine but also seeping into state-controlled media.

They cannot help but notice what Petraeus reported: “Ukrainian forces have penetrated Russian lines to a depth of up to 70 kilometers and 3,000 square kilometers of territory in the past five days since September 6th — more territory than Russian forces have captured in all their operations since April.” Crimea’s sunbathing Russian tourists can attest to Putin’s failings as well.

Beating them up may buy Putin time, but it will not buy him deliverance. Yes, after Solovyov was (likely) assaulted for “worrying” publicly on Russian state-controlled media, he (once again) toed the line, reminding viewers on Russia-1 that Joseph Stalin shot people who panicked and that NATO needs to be “punched in the nose.” But this is a game of Whac-A-Mole.

Boris Nadezhdin is openly speaking out against the war, calling for — as translated by Davis — for “peace talks to end the war.” So too, Russian filmmaker and Putin propagandist Karen Shakhnazarov. Per Davis’s translation, he acknowledges Putin suffered a “defeat” in Donbas, that Russia is facing a “difficult situation” and “battling a powerful adversary,” and that Putin “cannot end this war.”

The gig is up. No amount of Olga Skabeyeva, known as Putin’s state TV “iron doll” — offering up nuclear weapons as teddy bears on Russia-1 will stop Russians from waking up to the realization that Putin and Russia are losing, and as the brave municipal deputies in St. Petersburg stated, he must go.

Mark Toth is a retired economist, historian and entrepreneur who has worked in banking, insurance, publishing and global commerce. He is a former board member of the World Trade Center, St. Louis, and has lived in U.S. diplomatic and military communities around the world, including London, Tel Aviv, Augsburg and Nagoya. Follow him on Twitter @MCTothSTL.

Jonathan Sweet, a retired Army colonel, served 30 years as a military intelligence officer. His background includes tours of duty with the 101st Airborne Division and the Intelligence and Security Command. He led the U.S. European Command Intelligence Engagement Division from 2012-14, working with NATO partners in the Black Sea and Baltics. Follow him on Twitter @JESweet2022.