Russian or Western narrative?

From the day Russia began the "Special Military Operation", the Western Narrative was that the Ukrainians, with advanced US weapons, had completely destroyed just about all of the Russian forces. The Russians were using Soviet era tanks and aeroplanes that were "outmoded and inept" according to the Western press, and easily destroyed by those advanced US weapons. In a few weeks, Russia had lost more than 80,000 dead and the rest badly wounded and/or captured, so just a handful of Russians sneaking where the Ukrainian military could not find them and shelling undefended cities and villages, doing a lot of damage to the civilian infrastructure but not doing any damage to the Ukrainian military.

The reporters in the Russian controlled areas produced many videos showing that the Russians were winning, slowly advancing and doing massive damage to the Ukrainian military. No actual Russian losses. The US had built a series of impregnable, mostly underground fortresses. No conventional bombs, no artillery shells, nothing could penetrate the layers of cement and steel, so the Russians had to starve out the Ukrainian military, and those fortresses were stocked with months of food and water, so all was going slowly, but the Russians were advancing. For six months.

Then, two weeks ago, Russia lost the entire oblast of Kharkov. Russia say they are now mobilising, and held referenda where four oblasts voted to rejoin Russia. The Western narrative was that armed Russians forced a few unarmed civilians to vote to join Russia, but the overwhelming majority of the Ukraine hate everything Russia. The Ukrainians see great prosperity and freedom in the EU and NATO and abject poverty and oppression in Russia. The abject poverty when Russia are selling huge amounts of energy to Europe sounded a bit unlikely, but the West insisted their reporters, who could see clearly from their desks in New York and London and Paris and Berlin, checked and verified the veracity of the Western narrative.

And then the Russians lost Liman, after holding it for 6 months.

So the Western narrative, that the Ukrainians have worn down the Russian military pretty much completely is starting to sound as if it might have some truth to it. Not, as they've been claiming for 6 months, that the Russian military were completely destroyed the first week, since that was obviously false, but the Russian claims of losing only 6,000 men is starting to look equally false. An oblast and a piece of another oblast, held for six months that the Ukrainian military could not make any progress, suddenly, the Ukrainian military are easily able to evict the Russians from part of the Ukraine, something they could not do for six months, but are now finding rather easy. If this continues, the Ukraine will eventually evict the Russian military from the entire Ukraine.

Two wins in two weeks might be less than they seem, but six months of nothing but losses by the Ukrainian military followed by two rather big wins indicate that something might have changed.

The West finally giving the Ukraine much more advanced weapons? The Russian forces slowly but steadily worn down until they no longer have the wherewithal to stop the Ukrainian counteroffensives they once easily stopped?

And what's happening to the Russian 'recall of reserves'? The Western narrative is that every man in Russia is hiding, trying to emigrate, knowing if they are sent to the Ukraine it is certain death. Could there be some truth in the Western narrative? A lot of obvious lies in the Western narrative, but could those lies contain a kernel of essential truth? The recall is going slowly, and the Ukraine are able to take more and more territory that was Russian-controlled for six months.

The reporters in the Donbass report that the ethnic Russians, being killed by the Ukrainians for 8 years, are desperate to be part of Russia, to have the protection of the Russian military from the Ukrainians who want to kill them, and they have video and a lot of evidence that this is correct, but we see no evidence that Russia still have the wherewithal to protect them. It is looking like the Russian force, easily able to stop Ukrainian counteroffensives for six months, was slowly being whittled down until they are no longer able to stop those counteroffensives, and Putin was hoping the referenda and promise of major Russian retaliation for any attacks would cause the Ukraine to pause.

Instead, the US, fearful of uprisings in Europe, destroyed the Russian pipelines. So now, even if ordinary Europeans could overthrow their governments (unlikely, since those governments are supported by the US military), they still won't have any gas to heat their homes, so no point. The German government will not allow Russia to repair the pipelines, since they are US puppets. So there will never again be any pipelines, no Russian gas in Europe, and the German economy destroyed. Europeans will have to use Norwegian, Qatari, and American gas, all much, much more expensive than Russian gas, so many won't be able to heat their homes, energy intensive industries must close or relocate to the US.

So US in, Russia out, and Germany down: NATO still successfully accomplishing everything they were intended to accomplish.