Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up LONDON, Sept 11 (Reuters) – Russian nationalists angrily called on President Vladimir Putin on Sunday to make immediate changes to secure a final victory in the Ukraine war, a day after Moscow was forced to abandon its main stronghold in northeastern Ukraine. The rapid fall of Izium in Kharkiv province was Russia’s worst military defeat since its troops were forced back from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in March. read more As Russian forces left city after city on Saturday, Putin opened Europe’s largest Ferris wheel in a Moscow park, while fireworks lit up the sky over Red Square to celebrate the city’s founding in 1147. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up In an 11-minute voice message posted on the Telegram messaging app, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a Putin ally whose troops have been at the forefront of the campaign in Ukraine, dismissed the loss of Izium, a critical supply hub. But he admitted the campaign was not going to plan. “If today or tomorrow there are no changes in the conduct of the special military operation, I will be forced to go to the country’s leadership to explain to them the situation on the ground,” Kadyrov said. Moscow’s near-total silence on the defeat – or any explanation of what happened in northeastern Ukraine – has caused considerable anger among some pro-war commentators and Russian nationalists on social media. As the defeats unfolded, the Russian Defense Ministry released video on Friday of what it said were troops being sent to the Kharkiv region. On Sunday, the defense ministry said Russian forces hit Ukrainian positions in the area with airborne troops, missiles and artillery. read more
MOSCOW SILENCE
Neither Putin, who is the supreme commander of Russia’s armed forces, nor Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had publicly commented on the defeat as of midday Sunday. “We are proud of Moscow and we love this city with its magnificent antiquity and its modern and dynamic pace of life, the charm of its inviting parks, lanes and streets, and the abundance of business and cultural events,” Putin told Muscovites. . Transcript of Kremlin’s congratulatory message. Putin, who described his shock at being told he was a KGB spy in East Germany that “Moscow is silent” as the Berlin Wall came down, said those killed in the Ukraine operation gave their lives for Russia. The Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. “They’re taking the piss,” wrote a prominent pro-war military blogger on Telegram who posts under the name Rybar. “Now is not the time to be silent and say nothing … this seriously damages the cause.” On Saturday, the ministry announced a “restructuring” that would pull troops out of Kharkiv to focus on the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine – a statement that drew further ire from many Russian military bloggers. Some of the pro-Kremlin war correspondents and former and current military personnel who have amassed large Telegram followings accused the ministry of downplaying the defeat.
DEFEAT?
Igor Girkin, a nationalist campaigner and former FSB officer who helped launch a 2014 war in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, compared the collapse of one of the conflict’s main front lines to the Battle of Mukden in 1905 – a devastating defeat in the Russo-Japanese War that sparked the Russian Revolution of 1905. Ukraine hailed its rapid advance, which has seen thousands of Russian soldiers flee, leaving behind stockpiles of ammunition and equipment, as a turning point in the six-month war. Girkin, who has been unrelenting in his criticism of the country’s top team, calling Defense Minister Shoigu “the cardboard field marshal”, has repeatedly said Russia will be defeated in Ukraine if it does not call for national mobilization. Nationalist anger over military failure is potentially a much bigger problem for the Kremlin than pro-Western liberal criticism of Putin: polls continue to show broad support for what Moscow calls a “special military operation.” As the capital celebrated Moscow Day with street parties and concerts on Saturday, rumblings of concern spread even to Russia’s normally servile parliament. Sergei Mironov, leader of the nominally opposition but Putin-loyal Just Russia party, said on Twitter that a fireworks display in honor of the holiday would have to be canceled because of the military situation. A message reposted on Telegram by prominent war correspondent Semyon Pegov referred to the celebrations in Moscow as “blasphemous” and the Russian authorities’ refusal to launch a full-scale war as “schizophrenic”. “Russia will become itself through the birth of a new political elite … or it will cease to exist,” he wrote. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Edited by Guy Faulconbridge and Catherine Evans Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
