Regional councils in the longtime leader’s home city of St Petersburg are among those who have urged the country to expel the 69-year-old. As Ukraine launched a successful counter-offensive against Russian-held positions in the Kharkiv region, MPs from St Petersburg’s Smolninsky district issued a statement calling for Mr Putin to be tried for treason. Dmitry Palyuga, one of the advisers, wrote on Twitter that the proposal was supported by most of the region’s deputies. “We believe that the decision taken by President Putin to launch the special military operation is detrimental to the security of Russia and its citizens,” he said. Criticism of the Russian president has also seeped into the debate on national state television. In a rare show of defiance, Boris Nadezhdin, a former liberal politician, told a Gazprom-owned channel that Mr Putin had been misled into thinking Ukraine would capitulate if he invaded. “We are now at the point where we have to understand that it is absolutely impossible to defeat Ukraine using these resources and the colonial methods with which Russia is trying to wage war,” he said. Mr Nadezhdin said Russia’s reliance on mercenaries and its failure to mobilize its reserves meant the country would struggle against a Ukrainian army backed by European arms. “A powerful army opposes the Russian army,” he warned. Although others were more cautious in their criticism, one Russian newspaper, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, went so far as to complain that the Kremlin had not commented for several days on “extremely worrying reports from Ukraine”. On Monday, the Putin regime tried to play down developments in northeastern Ukraine, where it is believed to have lost 3,000 square kilometers of territory in just five days. Moscow claims it simply ordered its troops to withdraw to “regroup”. Dmitry Peskov, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, insisted that Russia would continue the conflict until it achieved its goals. “The special military operation continues. And it will continue until the goals that were originally set are achieved.” The Russian president, however, did not voice his concerns about the performance of his troops when he presided over a televised meeting on the economy on Monday.
