Here’s what their responses say about the political factors weighing on Putin — and how that all might affect his response to the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
A surprise Ukrainian counteroffensive over the weekend appears to have caught Russia on its back foot — and could have consequences for Russian President Vladimir Putin both in the war and at home.
In just days, Ukrainian forces liberated more than 150,000 people and 3,100 square miles of territory in the country’s Kharkiv region from Russian occupation, according to Ukrainian government officials. Ukraine’s push forced Russian troops to quickly abandon key supply hubs and military equipment. Video circulating on social media shows some residents emerging from their homes and embracing Ukrainian soldiers. Russian forces have responded with strikes on critical infrastructure, but it’s unclear whether they will be able to regain their footing in the region.
As Russia reporter Mary Ilyushina tells Today, Explained’s Sean Rameswaram, Ukrainian troops overcame an exhausted and disorganized Russian army with the help of Western intelligence and weapons.
While it’s too early to say whether this breakthrough represents a turning point in the war, it does appear that it’s made some of Putin’s supporters skeptical of whether his “special operation” is actually winnable. Some have advocated for a more aggressive Russian response, even pushing for general mobilization and the use of weapons bought from North Korea. As Ilyushina says, the typically “unanimous choir of pro-Kremlin and state propagandist voices” was in disarray.
Today, Explained spoke to Ilyushina to understand those different responses, what they tell us about the political factors weighing on Putin, and how that all might affect his response to the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Below is an excerpt of the conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.
How embarrassing is all this for Vladimir Putin?
It is pretty embarrassing because his main brand, and the one that he’s been building for the past 20 years, is that he knows what he’s doing. He always gets the job done. In this case, we see even people who are extremely pro-Kremlin, extremely pro- this invasion, saying that they don’t like the way Russia has gone about this. We’ve heard from people like the leader of the Russian Communist Party saying that Russia is not really fighting anymore in a “special operation” and this is an actual war. And the very use of the word “war” to describe this mission has been essentially banned by Russia. People get fined or even jailed for talking about the war out in the open. They have to call it a “special military operation.” So we’ve definitely seen a lot of criticism coming from the very pro-Putin, very hawkish camp. That is a very new development that we’ll have to see whether that will push the Kremlin to change anything in the way they go about this invasion.
Tell me more of what we’ve been hearing in terms of criticism of this war in Russia.
Last weekend, just when the news broke that Russia lost a lot of this land and it retreated, the usually quite unanimous choir of pro-Kremlin and state propagandist voices was really in disarray. Some people chose to completely ignore the news because they didn’t know how to handle it. Some outlets, like the Kremlin’s official newspaper, just did not report on this at all.
