Putin veils his intentions in Ukraine - pro-war community reacts 'unprecedented'

Created: 11/24/2022 10:57 am

By: Stephanie Munk

Putin is currently obscuring his goals in the Ukraine war: does he want to overthrow Zelensykj or “only” conquer parts?

Uncertainty is increasing in Russia.

News ticker.

• Pro-war community

  reacts with

  uncertainty

  : Contrary discussions are being held.

• This 

  news ticker on international reactions to the Ukraine war

   is constantly updated.

Moscow - Russia no longer wants regime change in Ukraine - this was stated by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday, November 23, claiming that he had "talked about it" with Putin.

Shortly before that, the deputy spokesman of the Council of the Russian Federation, Konstantin Kosachev, claimed the exact opposite: he demanded the complete capitulation of the Ukrainian government.

The US think tank "Institute for the Study of War" believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin is driving this confusion in the Ukraine war out of calculation - he deliberately wants to leave the world in the dark.

This should unsettle the West in its support for Ukraine.

"The Kremlin wants to induce Western countries to put pressure on Ukraine to enter into peace negotiations," according to an analysis by the institute on Wednesday (November 23).

What is Putin planning?

The Kremlin has made different statements about the Ukraine war.

© Imago/Russian Foreign Ministry

Pro-war community reacts with uncertainty - "War without a clear goal"

According to the experts, the fact that Putin is currently not speaking plain language is creating great uncertainty in Russia.

"The contradicting statements confused the pro-war community." Example: After Peskov's statement that they no longer want regime change, a well-known Russian military blogger sarcastically remarked "that Russia is waging a war aimlessly without a clear goal."

Putin's propaganda staff on Russian state television is also said to be unsettled by the Kremlin's ambiguous statements.

Recently there was a remarkable incident in a Russian political talk show: moderator and hardliner Vladimir Solovyov called for the use of nuclear weapons in Cherson in the show, but several invited experts vehemently contradicted him.

A nuclear deployment to defend incompletely occupied areas is irrational, stressed the political and military experts - and even argued that NATO poses no threat to Russia: "Such a rejection of common Kremlin points in such a forum is unprecedented," write the ISW analysts.

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With his cat-and-mouse game, Putin wants to keep several groups in line: the extreme supporters of the war, the more moderate forces, and also his people, who are being asked more and more by the Ukraine war - whether it's the loss of men, sons and brothers at the front, or the country's threatened economic collapse as a result of Western sanctions.

The experts believe that in reality Putin has not backed down from his original intentions of completely subjugating Ukraine: this was shown by a speech to Russian academics at the end of October, in which the Russian President continued to deny Ukraine any sovereignty and demanded full " denazification” of the country.

"Putin's demands amount to a regime change in Kyiv, even if he does not expressly call for this in his most recent statements," according to the ISW analysis.