MOSCOW – For months, Russia’s state media have asserted that the country only hits military targets in Ukraine, leaving behind the suffering the invasion has brought on millions of civilians.
On Monday, state television not only covered the suffering but flaunted it. It shows a lot of smoke and carnage in the center of Kyivalong with empty store shelves and a long-term forecast that promises months of freezing temperatures there.
“Do not have hot water; Parts of the city have no electricity,” announced one anchorman, describing the scene in the city of Lviv, western Ukraine.
The dramatic change is a sign that domestic pressure on Russia’s burgeoning war effort has escalated to the point where President Vladimir V. Putin believes a brutal show of force is necessary. – to his audience at home as well as to Ukraine and the West.
His military has come under growing criticism from war advocates for not being aggressive enough in its assault on Ukraine, a chorus that reached a climax following Wednesday’s attack. Seven in 12 mile bridge to the Crimean peninsula annexed by Ukraine – a symbol of Putin’s rule.
With the devastating escalation of the war effort on Monday, Mr Putin appeared to be responding, in part, to those critics, momentarily softening the cries of angry hardliners. with the humiliating defeat of the Russian army on the battlefield.
“This is important from a domestic political point of view, first of all important,” said Abbas Gallyamov, a Russian political analyst and former Putin writer. “It’s important to prove to the ruling class that Putin is still capable, that the military is good for something.”
But with his escalation, Putin also bets that the Russian elite – and the general public – actually see it as a sign of strength rather than a desperate attempt to inflict more pain on the people. often Ukraine in a war that Russia appears to have lost militarily.
“The reaction is supposed to show power, but in reality it shows impotence,” said Mr Gallyamov. “There’s nothing else the military can do.”
The attacks killed at least 14 people and wounded scores of others, while countless others in cities across Ukraine were spooked by dozens of rockets that were clearly targeted at the body. civil infrastructure.
After the attacks, some of the invasion’s harshest critics among Russian hawks declared that the army had finally done its job. Chechnya’s powerful leader Ramzan Kadyrov – who recently praised the army’s “incompetent” leadership – said in a Telegram post that he is now “100% happy” with the effort. war force.
“Run, Zelensky, run,” he wrote, referring to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Other cheerleaders of the war gleefully recalled Putin’s statement in July that Russia had yet to “start anything in earnest” in Ukraine.
“Now, it looks like it’s started,” said one of the talk shows on state television, Olga Skabeyeva.
Greg Yudin, professor of political philosophy at the Moscow School of Economic and Social Sciences, says Russian hardliners have been pushing this strategy for a long time. “Like, we have to make them submit,” he said of the hardline stance. “So to do that, we have to be really, really violent.”
Yudin said the attack on the Crimean bridge meant the Kremlin had “no choice but to give in” and escalate attacks on Ukraine.
Putin described the airstrikes as a response to Ukraine’s “terrorist acts”, seeing them as a one-time strike to prevent future Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory. In his hometown of St.
He made it clear that the attacks had occurred on the initiative of the military, an apparent attempt to spearhead the assertion that he was plotting the war effort in isolation.
“This morning, at the request of the Ministry of Defense and according to the plan of the General Staff of the Russian Federation, a large attack with high-precision long-range weapons in the air, at sea and on the ground was carried out against the Russian military forces. forces, military command and means of communication,” Putin said.
“If the efforts to carry out terrorist attacks on our territory continue, the measures taken by Russia will be very tough and their scale will be proportionate to the level of the threat to our country. with the Russian Federation. No one should doubt that.”
In his speech, Putin made a notable omission: He did not mention the West as the ultimate culprit in Saturday’s Crimean bridge explosion or other suspected Ukrainian attacks. . It’s a departure from typical Kremlin rhetoric that portrays Washington and London as the puppets behind the Ukrainian resistance.
This change is a possible signal that the Russian leader is interested in controlling the escalation of the war and that he does not intend to provoke a direct conflict with NATO.
However, the deadly and seemingly indiscriminate attacks, while satisfying the bloodlust of Russian hawks, present some risks for Mr. Putin, especially since they contradict the Kremlin’s claims that Russia is not targeting Ukrainian civilians and is simply conducting a “special military operation”. “
They could also put pressure on Mr. Putin to escalate further in the event of a further Ukraine attack or a successful front-line, potentially increasing discord among Russia’s ruling elites over how difficult it is to advance. push in Ukraine.
Indeed, pro-Kremlin figures, while commemorating the strikes, have struggled to explain the irrationality of the fiery attack on the cities that, in Mr. with Russian cultural heritage. Some justified the turmoil by blaming Ukraine and the West.
“It is bitter for us to witness missile attacks on one of the most beautiful cities in the world, our Kyiv,” said Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin commentator who often Regularly present on state television, writing on Telegram. “All responsibility for the attacks on Kyiv rests with the occupiers and their collaborators. That is, about Biden and Zelensky personally. “
Inside Russia, on Monday there were few voices calling for restraint. Even as hawks hailed the attacks, some complained that Mr. Putin did not go far enough; Dmitri A. Medvedev, the former Russian president and current deputy chairman of Putin’s Security Council, said on Telegram that the only way to protect Russia is to “completely dissolve” the Ukrainian government.
There are some signs that Mr. Putin is preparing for a broader war of escalation. On Saturday, he appointed a general known for his ruthlessness, Sergei Surovikin, to lead the war effort in Ukraine. And Putin’s closest international ally, President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus, announced on Monday that thousands of Russian troops will soon arrive in the country to form a joint military group with Belarusian forces. – creating the specter of a new threat to northern Ukraine.
Vladimir B. Pastukhov, a Russian political scientist and lawyer, said Mr. Putin’s escalating actions “go against his intuition” and severely limit his policy options. him by backing him into a corner.
Pastukhov, an honorary senior research associate at University College London, said in a phone interview: “All of Putin’s actions today are aimed at getting out of this nook from which to go. The only escape is the nuclear bottleneck. “In a sense, what just happened really increased the risk for him.”
In central Moscow, many said they were unaware of what had happened in Ukraine. People bask in the sunshine in the posh neighborhood around central Tsvetnoy Avenue or rush to work or appointments.
Some young people, more interested in social media, said they knew about the attacks in Ukraine but felt powerless to blame. Sasha, 19, a university student, said: ‘It’s terrible that people are killed for any reason. However, she continued, “In any war, both sides are responsible.”
In Russia, punishments for criticizing war – or even using the term war – come with heavy fines or prison sentences, so many Russians are wary of making comments that might imply negative about war.
Anton Troianovski reported from Berlin, and Valerie Hopkins from Moscow. Alina Lobzina Contribution reports from London.
