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.

Russia has continued to suffer high losses of equipment on the frontline in Ukraine, according to Kyiv's latest estimates. In its update on Thursday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that over the previous day, Russia had lost 21 tanks, taking the total losses of the vehicles since the start of the invasion nearly 23 months ago to 6,147.

By Kaitlin Lewis

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a warning to former U.S. President Donald Trump about what could lie ahead if Russia is allowed to succeed in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian leader was prompted by a journalist during the International Media Council at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday about his response to Trump's claim that he could bring an end to the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. The former president has yet to reveal any specifics on how he would fulfill his promise, but he has guaranteed that the war "will end immediately" if he is reelected to the White House in November 2024.

Trump's bid for reelection has also sparked questions about what the future of American aid for Ukraine will look like. The former president has shown opposition to continuing to provide support for Kyiv's military, and some of his closest Republican allies in Congress have blocked President Joe Biden's requests for additional aid.

Speaking to members of the media in Davos, Switzerland, Zelensky posed questions about what Trump plans to do in the event that Russian President Vladimir Putin expands his aggression outside of Ukraine, such as if Moscow decided to invade a NATO alliance member.

"Then the question is, what will Trump do after that, if after Ukraine, Russia occupies a NATO country?" Zelensky asked, according to the news agency Interfax-Ukraine.

"I mean, he decided that if you don't freeze the conflict, if you let Putin go all the way into Ukraine, then he will stop," he continued. "But Putin will not stop. So what will Donald Trump do in the United States after that? Because in that case, it means that Europe lost and lost the largest and most powerful army in Europe, because it lost Ukraine."

Newsweek reached out to Trump's press team via email on Wednesday for comment.

Several countries that are members of NATO have taken precautionary steps to prepare for a possible direct conflict with Russia in the coming years. German intelligence on the country's Council on Foreign Relations predicted in November 2023 that the alliance has roughly five to nine years to prepare for a war against Moscow. Meanwhile, Estonia's Foreign Intelligence Service said in a report last month that such a conflict is possible in the next three to five years.

Trump's reelection chances have sparked anxiety among some European officials about the West's ability to hold off Russia's aggression. The former president was accused last week of telling a high-level European Union official while he was in office that he would never enable the U.S. to help Europe if it came under attack.

While Trump hasn't addressed the claim publically, he failed to commit to staying in NATO during his second term when asked by Fox News host Bret Baier during a town hall last week.

"Depends if they treat us properly," Trump said. "Look, NATO has taken advantage of our country. The European countries took advantage."