For months, Russian state media insisted it only attacked military targets in Ukraine, ignoring the suffering the invasion brought to millions of civilians.
On Monday, the mask came off. Russian state television showed gas lines in Ukraine, empty store shelves and a long-term forecast promising months of freezing temperatures there. And instead of focusing on the devastation of civilians in Russian-administered areas as they often do, news broadcasts in Russia show columns of smoke and carnage in central Kyiv.
“There is no hot water, part of the city has no electricity,” announced one anchorman, describing the scene in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.
The dramatic change is a sign that domestic pressure on Russia’s burgeoning war effort has escalated to the point where President Vladimir Putin feels the need for a decisive show of force. .
His troops have come under growing criticism from war supporters for not being aggressive enough in their assault on Ukraine, a chorus that reached a climax following Saturday’s attack on the bridge. 12 miles to Ukraine’s annexed Crimea – a symbol of Putin’s Rule.
With the brutal escalation of the war effort on Monday, Mr Putin appeared partly to be responding to those criticisms, momentarily softening the cries of hardliners angry with the defeat. humiliation 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 Army is good for something.”
But with his escalation, Putin is also betting that the Russian elite – and the general public – actually see it as a sign of strength, rather than in a desperate attempt to inflict more pain in a conflict. war that Russia seems to be losing.
“The reaction is supposed to show power, but in reality it shows impotence,” said Mr Gallyamov. “There’s nothing else the military can do.”
After Monday’s attacks, some of the invasion’s harshest critics among Russian hawks declared that the military had finally done its job. Chechnya’s powerful leader Ramzan Kadyrov – who recently demonstrated the military’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 the Ukrainian president.
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.
Mr Putin described Monday’s attacks as a response to Ukraine’s “terrorist acts”, seeing them as a one-time attack to prevent future Ukrainian attacks on its territory. Russian territory. In his hometown of St.
He made the point when he said the attacks took place at the initiative of the military, an apparent attempt to go against assertions 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 major 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 behind Saturday’s Crimean bridge explosion or other suspected Ukrainian attacks. . That is a departure from typical Kremlin rhetoric that portrays Washington and London as the puppeteers 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.
But 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.
Greg Yudin, a professor of political philosophy at the Moscow School of Economic and Social Sciences, said Mr Putin has come under pressure from the right, who are calling for further escalation. He said he expected that Putin “sooner or later” would raise the threat of potentially using tactical nuclear weapons.
In central Moscow, many said they had no idea what happened in Ukraine. People bask in the sunshine in the chic neighborhood of central Tsvetno, 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, penalties for criticizing the war – or even using the term war – come with hefty fines and even jail time, so many Russians are wary of making comments that are offensive. can have negative connotations about war.
Valerie Hopkins reports from Moscow. Alina Lobzina also contributed reporting.
