Russian President Vladimir Putin faced a new political challenge when the Armed Forces of Ukraine defeat the Russian army in a counteroffensive. It undermines his image of competence as well as power, which he had built for the past two decades.
On Sunday, the Russian military continued their retreat from northeastern Ukraine, which they held for several months. Russian state television reported that the retreat was a meticulously planned “regrouping operation”, praising the professionalism and heroism of the Russian troops. However, this submission didn’t do much to calm the anger of war supporters about the retreat at the front.
“Strength is the only source of Putin’s legitimacy. And in a situation in which it turns out that he has no strength, his legitimacy will start dropping toward zero”, said Abbas Gallyamov, a former speechwriter for Mr Putin who is now a political consultant living in Israel.
While Ukraine was able to liberate its cities and territories on Sunday, Russian President Putin escalated the violence of his campaign by pandering to pro-war voices on Russian TV and social media and launching missile attacks on Ukraine’s power plants.
The scale of the failure on the battlefield became more apparent and more evidence emerged of disunity within Russia’s ruling class. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov accused the Russian military of making “mistakes” and failing to explain the retreat to the public.
“The fundamental problem, analysts said, is that Mr Putin’s penchant for misleading his own people is catching up to him.”
See also: Ukrainian army recaptured almost the entire Kharkiv region in a quick counteroffensive, – ISW
