The latest is that Putin will make a major address to the nation on the 21st. The Duma (parliament) will meet on the 22nd to pass the legislation Putin wants. (He has a 73% approval rating.)

February 23rd is a patriotic holiday, Defender of the Fatherland. So Putin will need to show something on TV.

Dima of the Military Summary channel cited Ukrainian sources who said they saw 50 buses of Wagner soldiers being moved maybe to Ugledar. Wagner is very good at taking down fortified positions. The Russian military is going to break the 50,000 man Wagner force into smaller units so they can take down a few fortified areas. This will give them fire control on several positions in the Donbass.

The Russians replaced all of the generals commanding the 5 fronts on the Donbass with younger generals. The youngest is 42.

The Russians will attack the Ukraine with drones and missiles until they can reduce Ukrainian air defenses so they can use their air power, 300 jets and 300 helicopters. I saw a video of Russian jets bombing the Ukrainians in Ugledar. That city means gift of coal. Soledar means gift of salt.

If the Wagner forces can complete the encirclement of 2 more Ukrainian positions after Bakhmut, the Russians can move 250,000 soldiers into a line from below Kharkov down to Kramatorsk and from there to Pokrvosk and Zaporozhye. That would cut off all supplies. No food, no diesel, no electricity and no ammunition.

A lot of the latest Ukrainian recruits were dragged off the streets and do not have much motivation.

There were 40,000 or so NATO troops in the Ukraine. 2,700 NATO troops have died so far. They might be motivated to surrender.

Putin does not have to give back the NATO troops until they return the $300 billion the EU and the US stole through sanctions. That money could be used to pay off war widows, to rebuild the Ukraine on both sides of the Donbass frontlines.

He will trade Ukrainian soldiers for Russians as he has done in the past.

The war might not be lasting much longer as Wagner stopped recruiting in prisons a few weeks ago.