(EUROPA PRESS).- The Kremlin’s official discourse on the war in Ukraine, a “special military operation” in the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has begun to show some cracks as Russian forces have given ground against the Ukrainians on the combat front.
The Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, ordered a counteroffensive in the east and south of the country at the end of August, which has resulted in progress in key points. Moscow argued that the first withdrawals were tactical withdrawals, but Western analyzes agree that this is a turning point in the conflict.
The Russian government counterprogrammed the defeats with the announcement, on September 21, of a partial military mobilization that aims to recruit 300,000 reservists. That same day, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu acknowledged that they had already lost almost 6,000 troops, although the Ukrainian side raised the casualties to more than 60,000.
The Kremlin made an effort from the beginning to control the story, harshly persecuting media and dissidents who even dared to speak of “war” or “invasion”. Any criticism of the work of the Armed Forces can constitute a crime, to the astonishment of organizations that defend Human Rights.
“We have to stop lying,” the chairman of the Duma Defense Committee, Andrei Katapolov, proclaimed this week in a popular Internet program.
“We have to stop lying,” the chairman of the Duma Defense Committee, Andrei Katapolov, proclaimed this week in a popular Internet program. “Our population is not stupid,” said this former general, in an unpublished message since the beginning of the invasion on February 24.
The US intelligence services are also criticized in the circle closest to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Sources cited by the newspaper Washington Post They have confirmed a direct confrontation with Putin of one of his main advisers – without giving names – and have revealed a growing discomfort due to the lack of command and logistics that have been evidenced in recent months.
“There are many people convinced that this is not going well,” a Western source told the American newspaper, summarizing a supposedly increasingly recurring rumor among a certain Russian elite.
The UK Intelligence has recently warned that part of the reservists called up in recent days by Russia have received orders to join the Armed Forces with their own first aid package, given the apparent lack of resources on the part of the Russian authorities.
In addition, the Ukrainian reconquests have shown errors in the first line of combat by the Russian troops, such as in the strategic city of Limán, where they were practically surrounded. The pro-Russian leader of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, publicly acknowledged that the information coming from that area was “worrying”, before his followers completely lost Limán.
Reservists called up in recent days by Russia have been ordered to join the Armed Forces with their own first aid kit
The decline would be such that the Kremlin has already begun to authorize the related media to echo some rulings, fearing that the absolute praise of Putin will contribute to fueling the social discontent that has already been seen in the demonstrations against the call from reservists to ranks, according to the Bloomberg news agency. The OVD organization estimates that more than 2,400 people were arrested between September 21 and 26.
However, certain red lines remain, in such a way that direct reproaches against Putin or against the arguments that led him to order the invasion of Ukraine remain unheard. Nor is it expected that the strict information criteria that led to media such as the emblematic Novaya Gazeta to close until further notice.
The war in Ukraine is now in its seventh month and, with no sign of a military victory in sight, the diplomatic terrain seems difficult as well. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky this week issued a decree explicitly prohibiting negotiations with Putin, and Moscow has made it clear that it has no plans to make any political or military concessions in exchange for a hypothetical dialogue.
Russia’s completed annexation of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, illegitimate in the eyes of kyiv and the Western community as a whole, has added a new factor to the equation, to the extent that Zelensky has always said that it will not sign any peace that implies ceding to the neighboring country territories that, according to International Law, belong to Ukraine.
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