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Vladimir Putin and the defeats in Ukraine: Dictator under pressure

2022-09-11T16:19:52.433Z


The Kremlin forces are experiencing a military debacle in north-eastern Ukraine - now President Putin is being criticized unusually harshly: Russia's nationalists in particular are angry.


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Russian President Vladimir Putin

Photo: MIKHAIL METZEL / AFP

Ramzan Kadyrov is usually considered a close confidante of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a man of the rough.

But now the President of the Chechen Republic has been unusually critical of Putin's army.

The troops made mistakes in northeastern Ukraine, Kadyrov said in a voice message.

In other words, in the region in which the Russian armed forces had to withdraw from the advancing Ukrainians, sometimes in great haste, and lost almost 3,000 square kilometers of territory.

For example, a group of around 10,000 Russian soldiers had to retreat behind the Oskil River.

According to estimates by US military experts from the Institute for the Study of War, in less than a week Ukraine's gains have exceeded those of the Russians since April.

Kadyrov apparently fears that Putin does not understand the seriousness of this situation.

"If there is no change in the strategy of the military special operation today or tomorrow, I will have to speak to the leadership of the Ministry of Defense and the leadership of the country to explain the actual situation on the ground," said the 45-year-old in view of the spectacular counter-offensive the Ukrainian.

Kadyrov had himself sent Chechen troops into this war.

Now he criticizes the Russian Ministry of Defense and demands an explanation for the procedure.

The soldiers were not sufficiently prepared and he does not understand what strategy is being pursued, the son of former Chechen President Akhmat Kadyrov told Telegram.

Demanded resignation of Putin

Kadyrov is not the only one who seems to be distancing himself from Putin.

As Russia's troops in Donbass were losing village after village, Putin, who is the sole Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces, was in Moscow and inaugurated a Ferris wheel and sports center to mark the Russian capital's 875th anniversary.

Others spoke about the war in Ukraine, which cannot be called war in Russia.

Various military bloggers are increasingly classifying the withdrawal of Russian troops as a disaster, and some local politicians have also expressed criticism.

According to reports from Radio Free Europe, some politicians in Moscow's Lomonosovsky district are said to have called for Putin's resignation.

With his aggressive rhetoric, the President has taken Russia back to the Cold War era.

Seven colleagues from a district in St. Petersburg had already made similar statements, referring directly to the war, which they see as the reason for Russia's massive economic problems.

Apparently, in view of the defeat and the many dead Russian soldiers, who are euphemistically referred to as casualties in military jargon, increasingly nationalist-minded people dare to publicly criticize the president.

In a post on Telegram, a pro-Russian blogger criticizes the “billion-ruble party” in Moscow.

'What's wrong with you?

Not at the time of such a terrible failure," the post read.

The army suffers from a lack of equipment and does not have sufficient protective vests, thermal imaging cameras, a sufficient number of helicopters or first-aid kits.

"Today's salute in Moscow against the background of the Ukrainian offensive in Kharkiv looked blasphemous and insane," criticized another blog.

Many Russians think the celebrations are inappropriate.

The events are likely to put not only Putin himself under pressure, but also Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and other high-ranking politicians and the military.

It is time to punish the commanders who allowed such things, the New York Times quotes a pro-Russian blogger reporting from eastern Ukraine as saying.

Allegedly, when the Ukrainian military advanced, Russian forces did not even try to resist.

How the situation in political Moscow and in the east of Ukraine develops is likely to be inextricably linked.

Russia still occupies a good fifth of Ukraine's territory, including the Crimean Peninsula.

Despite the great success of the Ukrainian armed forces, in which some modern Russian tanks and numerous other heavy war equipment were captured, the war is not over yet.

Because the Ukraine faces the challenge of securing the conquered territory in the long term and continuing to secure supplies to the front that has moved eastward.

So far, little has been heard from the head of the Kremlin about the latest developments in Ukraine.

Most recently, Putin telephoned French President Emmanuel Macron about the critical situation at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.

Putin again blamed the Ukrainians for the shelling of the facility.

joe

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-09-11

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