I have no idea about which news reports to believe. What does seem clear is that (1) Putin entirely underestimated Ukraine’s will to resist and (2) the will to fight on the part of the Russian troops is approximately zero.
Growing up as part of the post-WWII generation, I recall how we were taught to make fun of Italian military prowess. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized that a disinclination to die for Mussolini was not an indictment of the Italian young men of that era. The tragedy of WWII is that so many young German and Japanese young men were willing to die for evil regimes and wrong causes. If this generation of young Russian soldiers isn’t willing to die for Putin’s soaring ambitions, good for them.
There have been scattered reports of Russian troops killing their officers. I don’t know if they’re true. Even if one credits the reports, these seem to be a very few scattered incidents. But things can get interesting when that starts to happen.
William Shirers book desc6very well why the Italian military flopped in WWII. They were not motivated.
The italian upper class were Anglophiles and the lower classes were pro America. They disliked the French and despised the Austrians.
They didn’t have their hearts in that war
Well one Colonel was deliberately run down by a tank as a protest over troop losses.