Questions began to be asked in Russia, where the BBC’s editor in the country, even the state media classified the week as ‘difficult’.
Russia’s main weekly state television newscast is normally expected to shout out the government’s greatest achievements.
However, the latest Sunday edition of the television show opened with rare acceptance.
- Maps showing territory reclaimed by Ukraine after the ‘lightning’ attack against Russia
- Ukraine says it tripled reclaimed area after attacking Russians
“At the forefront of special operations [na Ucrânia]this has been the hardest week ever,” said the tough-looking presenter Dmitry Kiselev.
On the Kharkov front, after the attack of the enemy forces outnumbering ours, the soldiers [russas] they had to leave the cities they had liberated earlier.”
Where it says “released”, read “received”. The Moscow government occupied these areas months ago – but after the Ukrainian army was struck by lightning, the Russian army lost a significant amount of territory in the north-east of the country.
Still, Russian state media gives the facts a bold face. Officially, what happened in the Kharkov region is not portrayed here as a “retreat”.
“The Ministry of Defense denied rumors that Russian troops fled Balakliya, Kupiansk and Izyum in disgrace,” the government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported in the latest issue. “They didn’t escape. It was a premeditated regrouping.”
A military analyst offers a different view in the tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets: “It is already clear that we are underestimating the enemy. [As forças russas] It took a long time for them to react, and the collapse came… As a result, we suffered a defeat and tried to minimize casualties by withdrawing our troops so that they would not be encircled.”
This “defeat” sparked outrage on pro-Russian social media channels and among “patriotic” Russian bloggers who accused the military of making mistakes.
A similar speech was adopted by the powerful leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.
“If there is no change in strategy today or tomorrow,” Kadyrov warned, “I will have to talk to the Ministry of Defense leadership and the country’s leadership to explain to them the real situation on the ground.”
Image: BBC
More than six months have passed since Vladimir Putin ordered a comprehensive invasion of Ukraine. In the days that followed, Russian politicians, commentators and analysts on local television predicted that the “special military operation” would end in a few days, the Ukrainian people would greet the Russian troops as liberators and the Ukrainian government would collapse as a home. your cards.
However, none of these predictions came true.
Instead, after more than six months, the Russian army is losing ground.
So a key question is: Will all this have any political ramifications for Vladimir Putin?
For more than 20 years, Putin has earned a reputation among the Russian elite as a winner, as he managed to get himself out of the most difficult situations – almost as if he were invincible.
He often looks like the famous illusionist Harry Houdini. Whatever knots or chains tied it, Putin seems to manage to escape every time.
But that changed after February 24 of this year.
The past six months have shown that President Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine was a massive miscalculation. Unable to achieve a quick victory, Russia was embroiled in a long and bloody offensive and suffered a series of embarrassing defeats.
When an authoritarian leader’s aura of invincibility wears off, he can get into trouble. Vladimir Putin knows Russian history, and it often doesn’t end well for past leaders who fought in wars and failed to win them.
The defeat of Japan led to the first Russian Revolution in 1905. Military failures in World War I led to the 1917 Revolution and the end of Tsarism.
However, publicly, President Putin has no intention of being a loser.
On Monday 9/12, spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “Special military operation [da Rússia] continues and continues until all tasks set at the beginning have been completed.”
Which brings us to the other key question: What will Putin do next?
It would be difficult to find someone who knows what Vladimir Putin is thinking and planning. Much of this may depend on how accurate the information he receives from military and intelligence chiefs is.
But there are two things we do know: the Russian president rarely admits to making mistakes. And it usually doesn’t support bends.
We are already seeing signs that other countries’ support for Ukraine is to blame for the failures on the battlefield, state media say.
“Ukraine, supported by NATO, has launched a counterattack,” Russian state television said.
There’s another troubling question that’s been in the background for months: If Putin doesn’t achieve victory with conventional weapons, will he return to Russia’s nuclear arsenal?
Just a few days ago, the Ukrainian military chief, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, warned that “there is a direct threat from the use of tactical nuclear weapons by the Russian armed forces under certain conditions.”
For now, there is no public sign of panic in the Russian government. State television speaks more positively, describing the Russian missile attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as “a turning point in special operations”.
Last Saturday in Moscow – as reports of Russia losing ground in Ukraine surfaced – looking relaxed Vladimir Putin unveiled a new Ferris wheel, the longest in Europe.
The Russian president seems to believe that “special operations” will work to his advantage, as is Moscow’s new charm.
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source: Noticias
