The Kremlin has warned Russians who are furious over their army’s recent losses in Ukraine to be “very careful” with their criticism as tensions grow between hardliners and President Putin’s government.
Russia has been forced to surrender almost all of the territory it held in the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine after a lighting counteroffensive by Kyiv that wrongfooted Putin’s invading army. Ukraine has recaptured 3,100 square miles of land since the start of the month, President Zelensky said, with Russia’s troops often fleeing in disarray.
The fiasco has prompted angry recriminations among nationalists and other enthusiastic supporters of the Kremlin’s invasion. Igor Girkin, a former officer in the FSB security service who led pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine in 2014, said recently that the scale of the setback in the Kharkiv region meant that Russia had “already lost” the war.
In a video posted to Telegram, Girkin predicted that the fighting would continue until “the complete defeat of Russia”. Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader, has also spoken out angrily over the army’s “serious mistakes” in Ukraine.
State television, which is usually notorious for its carefully scripted Kremlin propaganda, has witnessed furious debates. “Russia’s armed forces were clearly unprepared for the scale of this war,” Karen Shakhnazarov, a pro-Kremlin filmmaker, told a current affairs show.
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Boris Nadezhdin, a former MP, suggested on the same show that Putin had been misled by his advisers into believing that Ukrainians would welcome the Russian invaders as their saviours. Viktor Olevich, a political analyst, mocked the Kremlin’s insistence that the war was proceeding according to schedule. “Does anyone seriously believe that six months ago, this was the plan?” he said.
Although more than 100 opposition figures have been accused or convicted of spreading “fake” news about the war in Ukraine, a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison, the Kremlin has so far given hardliners a free rein to speak out about the army’s failures. Some, such as Girkin, who is wanted in the West over the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, are believed to be under the protection of highly placed defence officials. Yet the Kremlin’s patience appears to be running out.
“Critical points of view are currently within the framework of the law,” said Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman. “But the line is very, very fine. [They] need to be careful here.”
The situation presents a dilemma for Putin as Russia weighs up its next move in Ukraine. Cracking down on hardliners risks provoking a backlash, while continuing to allow them to speak out could lead to serious cracks within the establishment.
The Russian army’s retreat from northeastern Ukraine has also led to increased calls for a nationwide mobilisation of the country’s reserve forces — estimated at about two million men. Gennady Zyuganov, the leader of the Communist Party, called yesterday for a “maximum mobilisation” to fight what he called was “full-fledged war” against Ukraine and its Nato allies.
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As Russia tries to quell rising nationalist anger, it was revealed that as the war began Putin rejected a provisional agreement that would have kept Kyiv from joining Nato — one of Moscow’s key demands ahead of the invasion. Dmitry Kozak, the Kremlin’s chief envoy on Ukraine, advised Putin to agree to the deal, which could have avoided the biggest conflict in Europe since the Second World War. Putin rejected the proposal and ordered Russian troops to push further into Ukraine, Reuters said, citing sources. The Kremlin dismissed the report. “No such thing ever happened,” said Peskov. It was unclear if the deal for Ukraine to drop its plans for membership of Nato had Zelensky’s blessing.
The Kremlin’s troubles have been exacerbated by fighting close to its southern border between Azerbaijan, which is backed by Turkey, and Armenia, a Russian ally. There were also armed clashes today between troops at the border between two former Soviet states, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
On top of this, officials in Georgia have said they may hold a referendum to decide whether the country should launch a military campaign to recapture two breakaway regions that were recognised by Moscow as independent states in 2008.
