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's deputy defense minister was arrested Tuesday evening on bribery charges, but some analysts have speculated the detainment of Timur Ivanov was a warning to his boss, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Russian President Vladimir Putin "doesn't sign off on that [arrest] unless he's sending a message to Shoigu, one that reads something along the lines of 'that could have been you,'" David Silbey, associate professor of history at Cornell and director of teaching and learning at Cornell in Washington, told Newsweek. Find out more.

By David Brennan

Ukraine's military reported another 1,040 Russian troops "eliminated" between Wednesday and Thursday, which if accurate would make that 24-hour period the deadliest for Moscow's forces since 1,050 were reported eliminated on March 22.

The latest toll brings the total number of Russian casualties claimed by Kyiv since February 2022 to 462,980. The figure is higher than U.S. estimates, which as of February were at around 315,000 Russian troops dead or wounded.

The Ukrainian military on Thursday also reported another 13 tanks destroyed for a total of 7,255 since February 2022, another 28 artillery pieces for a total of 11,836, and one more air defense system for a total of 772.

Newsweek cannot independently verify the Ukrainian figures and has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry by email to request comment.

A New York Times report in August 2023 cited U.S. officials as putting the Ukrainian death toll at close to 70,000. President Volodymyr Zelensky in February acknowledged 31,000 Ukrainians killed in action since the start of the full-scale invasion.

Russian forces appear to be sustaining significant losses as Moscow's plodding offensive grinds on along the eastern front. The Kremlin's troops are on the offensive around the captured Donetsk cities of Avdiivka and Bakhmut, while also pushing forwards in southern Zaporizhzhia Oblast and along the border of Luhansk and Kharkiv Oblasts in the east.

Ukrainian troops are resisting while grappling with a severe ammunition shortage, partially caused by the long delay to the U.S. $61 billion funding package, which was finally signed by President Joe Biden this week.

It was also revealed this week that the U.S. has already provided Ukraine with the long-sought-after long-range MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System—colloquially known as the ATACMS. Ukrainian forces have reportedly already used the weapon, including in a strike on a military airfield in occupied Crimea.

Ukraine is girding itself for an expected summer Russian offensive, preparatory operations for which are now ongoing. Among the possible targets for the fresh thrust is the strategic city of Chasiv Yar.

"Russian forces have been establishing operational- and strategic-level reserves to support their expected summer offensive effort, but likely have been doing so based on the assumption that even badly-trained and poorly-equipped Russian forces could make advances against Ukrainian forces that lack essential artillery and air defense munitions," the Institute for the Study of War wrote on Saturday.