Russian state television broadcasts criticism of war

‘If this picture starts to transform into a humanitarian disaster, even our close allies like China and India will be forced to distance themselves from us’

‘There are more people [in Ukraine] and they’re more advanced in their weapon handling. We don’t need that. Enough already’

RUSSIAN state television has broadcast calls for Vladimir Putin to stop his war in Ukraine during a programme in which pundits openly likened the invasion to “Afghanistan, but even worse”.

Usually one of the Kremlin’s most reliable chief propagandists, Vladimir Solovyov had to interrupt guests on his prime-time talk show to stop their criticism of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking during a broadcast on Russia 1, state pundit Karen Shakhnazarov, a filmmaker, said the conflict in Ukraine risks isolating Russia.

“I have a hard time imagining taking cities such as Kyiv. I can’t imagine how that would look,” he told host Mr Solovyov. He went on to call for the conflict to be brought to an end.

“If this picture starts to transform into an absolute humanitarian disaster, even our close allies like China and India will be forced to distance themselves from us. This public opinion, with which they’re saturating the entire world, can play out badly for us...

“Ending this operation will stabilise things within the country.”

Kremlin state television is one of the few sources of information about the war for the Russian public after authorities restricted access to some social media sites and forced independent stations off the air.

Later during the broadcast of An Evening with Vladimir Solovyov, one of Russian television’s most-watched shows, guest Semyon Bagdasarov, an academic, said: “Do we need to get into another Afghanistan, but even worse?

“There are more people [in Ukraine] and they’re more advanced in their weapon handling. We don’t need that. Enough already.”

The reference to Afghanistan, a conflict that scarred the Soviet Union and still scars Russia, was particularly poignant. The USSR pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989, 10 years after it invaded, humiliated.

Historians have said that the Afghanistan failure, and the disillusionment that millions felt after it, helped bring down the Soviet Union two years later.

Thousands of Soviet soldiers were killed in the war that became deeply unpopular at home.

An irritated Mr Solovyov, who owns a villa in Italy which has been seized under European Union sanctions, interrupted Mr Bagdasarov.

The Kremlin relies heavily on state television to project the message that Putin’s so-called “special operation” to rescue Russian kinfolk of Ukraine from Nazis is going to plan. Russia has threatened to imprison anyone who criticises the war for up to 15 years.

Ukraine has fought a savvy media campaign that has included filming captured conscripts repenting for the invasion. News of the setbacks in Ukraine seems to be filtering back to Russia.

Over the weekend, a video emerged which showed mothers of soldiers angrily confronting a regional official and accusing the Kremlin of using their sons as “cannon fodder”.

An Evening with Vladimir Solovyov is not the only show that appears to be straying off-message.

On Zvezda, the Russian ministry of defence’s TV channel, a serving army officer was explaining to a talk-show audience how the country’s soldiers were dying in Ukraine.

“Our guys over there, from Donetsk and Luhansk, [are] dying and our country…” he said.

“No, no, no” interrupted the presenter who got up from his desk gesticulating and marched across the studio shouting “stop!”