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.

Russian forces continue to suffer high losses in Ukraine, according to Kyiv whose figures show a spike in casualties over the last three months that have been the highest in such a period since President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Wednesday that Russia had lost 890 troops over the previous day, taking the total since the start of the war in February to 349,190. So far in December, Russia has lost 19,150 troops, with November and October registering 28,550 and 22,920 troops respectively, according to Kyiv. This three-month tally of 70,620 is more than the previous three-month high of 67,270 in the first quarter of 2023 during the first distinctive spike in casualties.

The Institute for the Study of War's Tuesday update noted "confirmed advances" of Russian units northeast of Kupyansk in the northeastern Luhansk Oblast, and north of Bakhmut and southwest of Avdiivka in the Donetsk Oblast. Moscow's troops also "continued positional meeting engagements along the entire line of contact," the ISW wrote. Some of the most intense fighting along the 600-mile front is taking place in Avdiivka, a heavily fortified Ukrainian city that since 2014 has been at the forefront of Kyiv's battles with Moscow and Kremlin-controlled local separatists.

Frank has applied to Frankfurt am Main Higher Regional Court to confiscate the money belonging to the Moscow Stock Exchange subsidiary National Settlement Depository, which was sanctioned by the EU in June 2022, Der Spiegel reported. The German state has only frozen the funds and assets of sanctioned Russian individuals and companies that remain owners of the assets if they cannot dispose of them. But Der Spiegel described Frank's move as representing "a new dimension in the enforcement of international sanctions against Russia," according to a translation.

In a Telegram post, Ukraine's military intelligence directorate reported that mouse fever has spread through the ranks of the Russian troops "due to inadequate provision of winter clothing and a complete lack of medical care." The post did not indicate how many soldiers were believed to be sick. The infectious disease seemingly described by Ukraine is a type of hantavirus. 

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 revealed a number of "problems" within the Russian army, President Vladimir Putin has said.

Putin made the remarks on Tuesday during an expanded meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry Board at the National Defense Control Center in Moscow, as he outlined that the country must modernize its web of satellites.

Experts have said that Russia's Soviet-era satellite network, Glosnass, has shortcomings that are impacting the country's war effort in Ukraine, resulting in inaccuracies in their advanced weaponry.

"[The war in Ukraine] also revealed problems," the Russian president said.

"We need to seriously rebuild the communication system, use modern means of reconnaissance, targeting and counter-battery warfare much more effectively, and increase the capabilities of our satellite group, not only in the area of [the war in Ukraine] but also at the global level."

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry via email for comment.

Putin also said Russia needs to ramp up domestic production and supply of high-precision projectiles and various types of drones, as well as improve its air defense systems.

"I know that changes are happening, they are happening quite quickly, I will tell you more about it. But we still need to work on it, we need to consolidate this trend. The work of air defense also needs to be improved," Putin said.

"Our well-known Pantsir, Buki, S-300, S-400 systems work flawlessly. They are the best in the world, without any exaggeration," he said.

The Russian president told officials that arms supplies to his troops fighting in Ukraine had tripled this year, compared to 2022.

The revelation comes months after he said his forces lacked sufficient modern weapons for his ongoing invasion of the neighboring country.

Speaking during a meeting of military bloggers in the Kremlin in June, Putin said that during the war, "it has become clear there are shortages of many things—precision-guided munitions, communications equipment, aircraft, drones and so on."

"We have them, but unfortunately we don't have enough of them," he said.

Drones, "modern anti-tank weapons are needed, and modern tanks are needed," Putin added.

Ukrainian officials regularly provide updates on Russian military losses. On Thursday the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine said on Facebook that so far, Russia has lost 5,828 tanks, 10,825 armored personnel vehicles, 8,226 artillery systems, 932 multiple rocket launchers, 611 air defense systems, 324 aircraft, 6,342 operational-tactical UAVs, 22 ships/boats, 1 submarine, 10,919 vehicles and tankers, and 324 helicopters.