In the past 24 hours, Russian forces have reportedly left the towns of Velykyi Burluk and Dvoritshna, located in the north of the Kharkiv region.
Since the beginning of September, Ukrainian forces have recaptured 6,000 square kilometers. In recent days alone, forces have advanced between 70 and 80 kilometers, says the country’s president Volodymyr Zelenskii.
Criticism in the media
Since the start of the war, Russian TV channels have been quick to report on Russian progress in what is still referred to as a special operation in Ukraine.
But after the Ukrainians recently launched a powerful counter-offensive, the tone has changed among pro-regime channel commentators, Reuters writes.
On Monday, Vitaly Ganshev, a government official in the Kharkiv region appointed by Russia, was interviewed on Rossiya-24.
Ganchev said Russian forces in the province were now eight times outnumbered and said Ukrainian forces had received reinforcements from Western mercenaries.
TV presenter Dmitry Kiselyov opened the program on Sunday by saying it was a very difficult week at the front. He reported that Russian forces had been forced to flee “previously liberated areas” due to pressure from superior enemy forces.
Former politician Boris Nadezhdin called for immediate peace talks when he was a guest on a talk show on the NTV channel.
Nadezhdin said Putin was misled by his advisers into believing Ukraine would surrender immediately.
– It is absolutely impossible to defeat Ukraine with conventional methods of warfare, he said Nadezdin.
There are also signs of criticism in the newspapers.
Nezavisimaja Gazeta points out that the defense ministry has not commented on “extremely outrageous reports” from Ukraine towards them for days.
The newspaper adds that as Ukrainian forces are approaching Russia’s western border, the Russian military leadership has organized an annual exercise for 50,000 troops in the country’s far east.
Local politicians are asking Putin to step down
Local politicians from Moscow and St. Petersburg signed a petition asking Russian President Vladimir Putin to step down “for national security reasons”, relationships between others Moscow times.
“President Putin’s actions are devastating for the future of Russia and its citizens. We ask that Vladimir Putin resign as President of the Russian Federation “, reads the petition, published Monday on Twitter.
Ksenia Torstrem, elected representative of the Semenovsky district of St. Petersburg, posted the message on Twitter.
The petition was signed by 19 different local politicians from St. Petersburg and Moscow.
St. Petersburg is also the hometown of Vladimir Putin, where he began his political career.
It also came with an invitation for other local politicians to join in calling for Putin’s resignation.
According to Torstrem, 84 more will sign the petition and are now checking that the names are real.
He wants Putin for impeachment
The petition published today follows a decision last week in the Smolninsky district of St. Petersburg.
There, seven representatives – after a vote in the local district council – joined forces to write a letter to the State Duma, the only chamber in the Russian National Assembly, demanding that Putin be impeached.
They believe that the president has committed treason against the homeland.
According to the letter to the State Duma, they accuse Putin of being responsible for the young soldiers who died in the war, the destruction of the Russian economy, the expansion of NATO and Ukraine which received modern weapons from the West.
The seven who voted for impeachment were quickly called for police questioning, accused of dishonoring the Russian military. All have now been released, but many of them can probably expect fines.
Prison at risk
Dmitry Paljuga and Nikita Juferjev are two of the letter authors and posted the letter on social media. They were interviewed by the German broadcaster over the weekend German wave.
Paljuga says they are aware they are taking a big risk. Earlier this year, a Russian politician was sentenced to seven years in prison for spreading falsehoods about Russian forces. But he believes that the judiciary does not have the reasons to be able to judge them.
– There is no precedent for convicting someone for sending a proposal to a state chamber. Russian law rules out that possibility, Paljuga says and is adamant that they did the right thing.
– We do not see NATO expansion as a direct threat to Russia, but we try to appeal to different groups in Russia with different arguments, to convince them that the whole war must end, Juferjev tells Deutsche Welle.
They say many Russians are critical of the war in Ukraine and what is happening in Russia under Putin’s increasingly authoritarian rule. And that it is important to show people that there are politicians who share this.
– If they want to punish us, they will. But what should we do? Stay silent? He says
Even a local council in the capital Moscow has adopted criticism of Putin.
“Your views and governance model are hopelessly out of date and hinder the development of Russia and its citizens,” he says.
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