Putin Is Waging War Against Russia Too

As a direct consequence of their country's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, over 300,000 Russians have been killed or wounded, and tens of millions more are economically worse off than they were on February 23, 2022. Although over 70% of Russian respondents continue to tell pollsters that they "personally support the actions of the Russian military in Ukraine," Kremlin-controlled propaganda has largely succeeded in preventing its audience from learning the truth about Russian forces butchering Ukrainian civilians in Bucha, or about the Russian military's use of Russian convicts as cannon fodder, or the ongoing Russian shelling of civilian neighborhoods in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Kherson.

There is every reason to believe that, if Russians were aware of why their armed forces were sent into Ukraine and what it has done in the nearly two years since openly attacking, they would be opposed. As late as December 2021, polling showed that only 8% of Russians supported "send[ing] Russian armed forces to participate in battles in Ukraine."

As a likely result of this fact, the Kremlin's domestic propaganda campaign in the weeks leading up to the invasion did not focus on concepts of patriotism, imperialism, or history, nor did it claim that Kyiv would fall "in three days." Instead, Russia's rulers prepared their population for war by claiming right up until the very end that there was no Russian invasion force positioned on Ukraine's borders and that war was anything but "imminent."

The lie worked. In September 2021, only 47% of Russians said that they "would like to see Vladimir Putin in the post of president after the end of his current term in 2024." Yet despite the sanctions, isolation, death, and destruction that Vladimir Putin has brought on his own country in the years since, in December 2023 an all-time high 78% of Russians answered that they hoped to see their president-for-life continue in office following the elections that are slated to be held this coming March.

Contrary to Kremlin officials' increasingly outlandish words, Putin and those around him do not act as if they are involved in an existential struggle against the "Collective West." Their invasion of Ukraine has left Russia's western border—the one with NATO–significantly less physically protected than it was. Instead, the Kremlin acts as if it understands that the real threat to the current regime's continuing rule is domestic. While its forward progress on the battlefield in Ukraine has stalled, its war against Russia itself has—thus far—proven to be a paradoxical success.

More than 100 Russian soldiers are believed to have been killed after footage appeared to show a training ground in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region being targeted with U.S.-supplied long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS. A volunteer with GeoConfirmed, an OSINT X, formerly Twitter, account that geolocates visual content from the Russia-Ukraine war, first shared a video of the attack. The source said the footage showed a "Ukrainian ATACMS strike, with 4 ATACMS, including one dud, hitting a Russian training area in Mozhnyakivka, Luhansk Oblast." Get the latest.

By Brendan Cole

Russia's military is redeploying its elite airborne (VDV) divisions from the southern front of Ukraine to boost its offensive in the east where Moscow's momentum is continuing, it has been reported.

Pro-Kremlin and Ukrainian sources said Russia's 76th and 7th airborne (VDV) divisions deployed to the Robotyne area in the Zaporizhzhia region in the summer of 2023 to handle Kyiv's counteroffensive have been sent to other parts of the front.

However, there is disagreement on where exactly the Russian divisions are being sent. Ukrainian military observer Kostyantyn Mashovets said Wednesday at least one battalion of Russia's 76th VDV Division from the Orikhiv direction in the Zaporizhzhia region to either the Luhansk front line or the Kramatorsk direction, both in the east.

But a pro-Russian Telegram channel said elements of the 76th VDV divisions had been sent to relieve the 104th VDV Division near the Ukrainian tactical bridgehead in Krynky, in the Kherson region.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Wednesday there was no observed confirmation of these redeployments though these reports were "significant" and "warrant closer study in the coming days."

The think tank assessed that Moscow may want to use the redeployments to support its offensive in the Donetsk region and to capitalize on Kyiv's vulnerability before it receives significant quantities of military aid just passed by the U.S. Congress.

Russian forces are trying to penetrate northwest of Avdiivka, which they captured in February, as they try to seize the strategically significant town of Chasiv Yar, which will be a steppingstone to other major cities in the Donetsk region.

The ISW said Russia redeploying units to the east would allow its forces "to intensify offensive operations and place Ukrainian forces under increasing pressure."

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that it would step up weapons production to deliver arms to the eastern front in Ukraine faster.

After meeting top military leaders Wednesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the aim was "to increase the volume and quality of weapons and military equipment supplied to the troops, primarily weapons."

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.

Ukraine had predicted that its forces would face a tough period, ahead of an anticipated offensive by Moscow at the end of May or the beginning of June as they await delivery of a tranche of American military aid.

Russian daily personnel losses also remain stubbornly high according to Kyiv, which said on Thursday that over the previous day, Moscow's forces had suffered 1,030 casualties, the sixth day in a row that its total of dead and injured had reached four digits.

It takes the total amount of Russian personnel losses over the war to 470,870, according to Kyiv.