The withdrawal of Russian forces from a key Ukrainian city over the weekend caused furious complaints from an unexpected industry: official media that regularly praise everything Moscow does.
A series of humiliating military setbacks in recent weeks has posed serious problems for the hosts of political news and talk shows. accustomed to presenting a favorable framework for the Kremlin among Ukrainian advances.
Frustration over military setbacks has already been reflected in the blogs of official nationalists and analysts, but complaints have increased with the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the Kharkov region of northwestern Ukraine. Y the riots are now reaching state television and the pages of government-supported newspapers.
The increasingly critical tone adopted by the official press coincides with general malaise around a partial mobilization of reservists and with the difficulties that the government has in explaining how Russia can annex regions that are recaptured by the Ukrainians.
Matters
“The Russian defeats in Kharkiv (region) and Lyman, coupled with the Kremlin’s problems in carrying out a partial mobilization effectively and fairly, are radically altering what happens in the news spaces” says a report from the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.
On Sunday, after Ukraine took over Lyman, a logistically important eastern city for the Russians, Vladimir Putin’s allies in the media brushed off the laudatory tone and more directly criticized the military, saying that stricter measures were needed.
“What happened to Lyman on Saturday is a difficult challenge for us,” said Vladimir Solovyov, a prime-time news anchor on state-owned Russia 1 and one of the Kremlin’s most praised news on Sunday. make unpopular but necessary decisions and take action ‘‘.
Ukrainian forces recaptured Lyman the day after Moscow celebrated the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, including Donetsk. But 40% of that region, including Lyman, is in the hands of kyiv.
in the viewfinder
Now Ukrainian forces could continue to penetrate the territories that Moscow claims as its own. Further progress was seen on at least two fronts on Monday.penetrating into the areas that Russia wanted to incorporate.
The leader of Chechnya, a Russian region north of the Caucasus, attributed Lyman’s withdrawal to a general. Ramzan Kadyrov, a faithful ally of the Kremlin, said it on social media the incompetence of this general he was “covered by the joint chiefs of staff” and called for “the adoption of more drastic measures”.
An article from the popular official tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda presented a rather negative picture of the military. The message, released on Sunday, stated that Lyman’s Russian forces were serious supply problems and understaffing, poor coordination and tactical errors had been committed.
“It’s as usual,” said an unidentified soldier quoted in the article, a member of units that withdrew from Lyman to Kreminna, another strategically important city targeted by Ukrainian forces. Communication between the different units.
Posts from Russian war correspondents on the Telegram app also talk about the withdrawal from Kharkov and some express concern due to the possibility that the Ukrainians are now targeting Kreminna.
“Now it turns out that the Ukrainian armed forces have penetrated our defenses for 30 kilometers, in the direction of Lugansk, in two days. They do not allow (the Russian forces) to take up positions near Creminna. Incredible’Russia correspondent 1 Alexander Sladkov wrote on his Telegram channel, which has 940,000 followers.
News hosts and political programs of the state television channel Russia 1 on Sunday described the loss of Lyman as “something difficult” digest
Following the Kremlin line, Russian soldiers blamed NATO setbacks, saying it supplies arms and even fighters to Ukraine.
“(The occupation of Ukraine) is not a game, it has not been a game for a long time,” a soldier told a Russia 1 reporter in the Donetsk region. “This is clearly a meticulous offensive by the NATO army”.
Other journalistic personalities have adopted the same position. On Sunday Solovyov said on her show that Moscow “doesn’t face Ukraine, it’s over. We are dealing with the entire NATO blocwith the great power of its military industrial complex ”.
He added that “we shouldn’t expect good news” from the front in the short term. “We must have strategic will and patience”.
Source: AP
PB
Source: Clarin
