In Russia, they began preparing the population to acknowledge the impossibility of victory over Ukraine

Photo: Sefa Karacan / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

In Russia, publications have recently appeared in both tabloid and "expert" media, leading the public to believe that the current stalemate in the "SMO" can already be considered a victory in the war with Ukraine. And that even a defeat would be beneficial to Russia, writes The Moscow Times.

And the latest prominent threats — such as aggressive rhetoric calling on Western embassies to leave Kyiv, as well as increasingly massive and brutal missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities — may be an attempt to bring Washington and Kyiv back to negotiations, writes The Washington Post, citing European officials and analysts.

Even a professor from a Russian university, close to the leadership of the Foreign Ministry (as Western journalists usually refer to sources at MGIMO, which advises diplomats), told WaPo that the latest Russian threats and bombardments are a reaction to "the expansion of the geography of strikes by Ukrainian drones and missiles" and to the slowdown in the pace of advance at the front.

Putin, apparently, still believes that he can seize the rest of Donbas "within a few months" and, taking this into account, resume negotiations on ending the conflict, he said. But he added about the situation at the front: "We do not see this. May is ending, and it is clear that if no additional efforts are made, then we can only talk about stagnation."

Experts close to the Kremlin began to lead the public to the opinion that the suspension of the war along the current line of combat engagement can already be considered a victory.

This is written in an article titled "The Iron Prose of Reality" by Vasily Kashin, director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at HSE University. The publication appeared in "Russia in Global Affairs," which is invariably headed by Fyodor Lukyanov, who hosts sessions with Putin at the Valdai Club.

The war is currently being fought between opponents comparable in strength, and historically, such wars "very rarely led to the complete annihilation of one of the sides," writes Kashin.

In this case, the goals of the war must be adjusted, in which "there is nothing surprising; the fact itself does not speak of failure." Ideas that "we can quickly collapse the Ukrainian front if we 'mobilize, strain, strike with all our might'" must be discarded and forgotten,' Kashin insists.

An article with a similar message recently appeared in "Moskovsky Komsomolets" (though it was soon deleted).

It was "lost wars and humiliating truces that regularly led to new breakthroughs, reforms, and, surprisingly, new victories," it was asserted.

Examples given included, in particular, relations with the Golden Horde, defeats in the Crimean, Russo-Japanese, and other wars. After which "Russia, time and again, since the time of the yoke, chose the salvific path — to rein in rampant elites and give more freedom to the people."

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