As economic despair mounts, Russian official admits the country has had enough of Putin’s war on Ukraine. ‘We can’t even take one region’
Vladimir Putin is losing the Russian people as the economy and war machine go into reverse during Ukraine’s debilitating offensive.
On the economic front, Putin himself recently declared: GDP contracted in the first two months of the year. On the Ukrainian front, Russian forces suffered a major blow. net zone loss last month for the first time since 2024.
Not only did Putin defeat Ukraine after Russia launched a sudden invasion in 2022, but his forces also failed to take full control of the Donetsk region.
“That’s the general mood; you’ve been fighting long enough,” a Russian official said told Washington Post Last week, on condition of anonymity. “It seems to everyone that this has been going on longer than the Second World War, the Great Patriotic War, and at the same time we cannot take even a single territory.”
With Western military aid and innovations from Ukraine’s now-thriving domestic defense industry, Kiev has weakened Russia’s economy and military.
Long-range drone strikes deep into Russian territory have damaged major oil export hubs and “shadow fleet” tankers carrying sanctioned crude.
At the same time, new drone technology Provides battlefield advantage to UkraineIt helps withdraw Russian troops who are also deprived of Starlink internet connections, which are vital for their drones.
Tacitly acknowledging the growing threat from Ukraine’s drones, the Kremlin said on Wednesday it would significantly reduce the size of its annual Victory Day parade in Moscow’s Red Square later this month.
Putin’s approval has fallen
Meanwhile, ordinary Russians are grappling with high inflation caused by military mobilization and defense production, as well as the Kremlin’s crackdown on internet access to restrict the flow of bad news about the economy and war.
Even a survey by Russia’s state-owned pollster showed Putin’s approval rating falling to 65.6 percent from 77.8 percent at the beginning of the year, well above the pre-war level of 80 percent.
Realizing the growing economic despair, some Russian officials publicly addressed this dire situation.
Last month Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov said at a business conference: Economy “isn’t easy” and called for the reallocation of the workforce, which was limited because the war had created labor shortages.
“Of course, it is not easy to find staff and salaries are increasing,” he said. “But we still somehow coped with all of this because there were reserves somewhere in the economy. Our current records show that those reserves have been largely depleted; that is indeed the case, and the macroeconomic situation is significantly more difficult.”
