While Russian troops slowly advance in Eastern Ukraine, questions loom as to how far President Vladimir Putin is planning to take his invasion of Ukraine. During a current press convention, Putin claimed that nothing has modified and every little thing goes in line with the plan: “I have formulated the overall goal, which is to liberate Donbas, protect its people and create conditions that will guarantee the security of Russia itself. That is all.” His intentionally obscure responses implied that Russian assaults in different elements of Ukraine had been meant “to distract” the Ukrainian management.
Some army specialists are satisfied that fierce Ukrainian resistance could also be insurmountable, so long as it continues to be aided by the continued Western assist. Appearing on the state TV present The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov final Friday, Andrey Gurulyov, State Duma deputy and a former deputy commander of Russia’s southern army district, confused that the West will proceed to produce Ukraine with each conceivable kind of weapons, “up to a nuclear bomb—just not to let us win.” He proposed re-creating the Cuban Missile Crisis, however this time with hypersonic weapons, with the intention to attain an eventual détente with the United States: “Our hypersonic weapons… should be brought to the near vicinity of the United States, with a flight time of no more than five minutes.”
Gurulyov candidly admitted: “That is the only scenario for us to be able to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine. Only a direct threat to the U.S. and the UK… will force all of them to the negotiating table… all of this is part of a greater plan of conducting not only a special operation, but World War III, which is for us the second Great Patriotic War.” He positioned nuclear blackmail as Russia’s golden ticket, urging the nation’s management “to seriously think through the plans of how we can painlessly get to the next crisis that will be our ticket to the future.”
Host Vladimir Solovyov opined: “Thanks to the idiocy of NATO countries, the world can anticipate hunger and a big war.” His fixed makes an attempt to discourage international assist for Ukraine by threats of nuclear assaults towards Western international locations have turn out to be so overplayed that even fellow propagandists routinely wince and roll their eyes. Solovyov, who’s reportedly buying army gear himself to assist Russia’s conflict towards Ukraine, is at the moment advocating whole destruction of the nation’s important infrastructure. His theatrical threats are ringing hole, however on the identical time, they’re elevating expectations.
On Monday, the Kremlin childishly declined to congratulate the United States on its Independence Day. Military professional Alexey Leonkov appeared on Solovyov’s present on July 4 proposing that Russia ought to declare the U.S. and its allies “state sponsors of terrorism” for serving to Ukraine deter Russian aggression. The host enthusiastically agreed and threatened that Russia would begin capturing down American satellites, which might result in a direct confrontation with the United States. Solovyov added, “I don’t know why we haven’t already declared them to be terrorists.”
While a lot of the world hopes for a speedy conclusion to Russia’s brutal conflict towards its neighbor, the Kremlin’s pet propagandists insist that the slaughter should proceed—and broaden. On Sunday night’s broadcast of Solovyov’s present, one of many program’s recurring company, Yaakov Kedmi, often known as Yasha Kazakov, an Israeli former politician and diplomat, insisted that Russia should take all of Ukraine and that nothing much less would do.
“If the results of this operation will be maximally close to the expectations of the Russian people, that will be a victory. If they will be far removed from that, it will constitute a defeat. Semantic somersaults, like claiming, ‘We set the liberation and security of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics as our goal,’ will be of no help. It will be regarded by the Russian people as a defeat. It doesn’t matter what created that anticipation of the goal, whether it was smart or not, that’s what they’re waiting for,” he mentioned. “If they have such expectations, any deviation from a complete and final victory over Ukraine will be seen as a loss, with consequences for Russia.”
Bringing up the remarks of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Kedmi mentioned, “He noted and others are pointing out an incredible support for Putin as a result of this operation. What is the basis for this support? Unshakable confidence of the Russian people that he will secure total victory. God forbid this trust would be broken or somehow damaged… The people won’t accept and won’t forgive anything less than a total victory. I’d like to remind you, based on Russia’s history, how the people reacted when the government didn’t meet their expectations. With the same force they supported [the government], they will stomp it into dirt… Anything less than Novorossiya [a proposed confederation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic] and the left bank of Ukraine will be a catastrophe. Not merely a defeat, but a catastrophe.”
Solovyov jumped in: “In that case, let’s be even more blunt. In reality, the goals were formulated in December of 2021. They are not limited to Ukraine, but demand that NATO’s infrastructure be returned to the boundaries of 1997-1998.” Kedmi concurred: “That was another one of Kissinger’s mistakes. As I’ve said before, everything that is happening in Ukraine is a prelude for the main confrontation, the main fight, which will determine the fate of the entire world, the fate of the United States, as well as Russia’s fate. This big battle will develop based on the outcome of the actions in Ukraine. Russia has no right to lose this big battle, or the battle in Ukraine, as defeat resembles death.” Solovyov concluded: “Defeat is death.”
The subsequent visitor, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, gave the impression to be seething about Kedmi’s feedback, which can point out that the Kremlin has certainly settled for a extra modest endgame in Ukraine.
She instructed him to talk to the Israeli authorities and management concerning the ills of “the Kyiv regime,” as an alternative of “fantasizing” concerning the needs of the Russian individuals. She claimed that there’s “a total unity” of common Russians with the nation’s authorities, with respect to their objectives in Ukraine.
Zakharova’s offended tirade tried to cowl up the truth that even the highest propagandists appear to be unable to determine the Kremlin’s closing goals, a lot much less the on a regular basis individuals. The newest ballot by Russia’s Public Opinion Research Center VCIOM shows that 38 % of Russians consider that the objective of the invasion was to disarm Ukraine, 20 % suppose that the purpose was to guard Donbas, solely 19 % consider Putin’s doubtful declare of “denazification” and 8 % suppose that Russia’s intent is to occupy all of Ukraine and take in it into Russia.
Instead of serving to Putin’s regime, the offended bluster by the state media’s propagandists solely highlights the senselessness of a battle that even Russia’s personal inhabitants struggles to know. The cartoonish guarantees of taking up the world fail to overshadow the truth that Russia’s economic system is descending into the abyss. No territorial features may ever justify the insufferable human toll.