Pootin supporters love hearing this, they can't handle the general reality of the war. You don't need one piece of information to be true to understand that Russia is struggling, here are some separate sources of info that you can use: 1. The fact that Ukraine has retaken large areas the Russia held. 2. The number of vehicles captured by Ukraine as Russians retreated. 3. The fact Putin did a mobilisation for 300,000 recruits 4. The numerous intercepted phone calls where Russian soliders describe to their family the dire state of their unit. Plus interviews with Russian pow's. 5. The files that reporters from reuters discovered in an abandoned Russian command post staring that some units were down to 20% of their forces.
Given the above, you can get a good idea of the state of the war. Compare this to how Russian state media describes the the situation, you'll realise they cannot be trusted.
With regards to who took out the NordStream pipeline, nobody has claimed responsibility but Russia has pointed the finger. I believe Russia is simply trying to break the unity the west has for their support for Ukraine/opposition to Russia. At this point, worrying about who took out the pipeline is not productive, better to just get on with alternate gas supplies.
