Propaganda mission to shield Putin from blame

Frustrations are growing after Kherson becomes third major retreat of president’s Ukraine war

KREMLIN propagandists have rushed to deflect criticism away from Vladimir Putin as frustrations grow following the Russian army’s third major retreat in Ukraine.

Vladimir Solovyov, the Kremlin’s most high-profile mouthpiece, cut a subdued but stoic figure on a radio show shortly after Russian soldiers gave up Kherson city on Friday, describing the army’s flight as a military manoeuvre and a goodwill gesture.

“We’ve achieved colossal success but what then? We ended up with a gigantic frontline but we had only 300,000 ground troops,” he said. “And so we are sort of making goodwill gestures.”

Without naming anybody, Mr Solovoyv said “respected people”, and not Putin, had pushed failed strategies. “Punish those people who made those plans,” he said.

Just over a month ago, the Russian president welcomed the pro-Russia leaders of four regions of Ukraine that Russia had captured to the Kremlin to formally annexe the territories.

They held hands and chanted “Russia! Russia! Russia!” and Putin promised to defend them at all costs.

Now, though, his forces have retreated and given up Kherson, which had been touted as Moscow’s greatest prize in the war.

The Russian army also withdrew from outside Kyiv in March and fled from Kharkiv in September.

In each case, the Kremlin’s propaganda channels have stepped up a gear to deflect blame away from Putin.

In a stage-managed video this week, General Sergey Surovikin, Russia’s top commander in Ukraine, and Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister, discussed the order to withdraw 30,000 men from the right bank of the Dnipro River because of supply difficulties. “The most sensible option is to organise the defence along a barrier line along the river Dnipro,” said Gen Surovikin.

As for Putin, he has remained aloof. As Russian forces were completing their retreat from Kherson city, the Kremlin posted a video of him with the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences, flipping through a brochure which described its development plans.

Most ordinary Russians will accept the Kremlin’s line that sound military doctrine, and not poor tactics or planning, dictated the withdrawal.

But some are losing patience, and pointing out that after the Kremlin’s chaotic and unpopular mobilisation order in September, a military defeat is hard to stomach.

“People try to avoid the topic because it is not what they wanted to hear,” a woman living in Moscow said via the Telegram social media channel. “A lot of people are beginning to understand that the propaganda is a lie.”

This is reflected in a private poll for Newsweek that said support in Russia for war in Ukraine had dropped to 51 per cent from 66 per cent in April.

Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, described the surrender of Kherson as a “strategic failure”. “Ordinary people of Russia must surely ask themselves: ‘What was it all for?” he said.

Yesterday, Alexander Dugin, known as the high priest of aggressive Russian nationalism, described Kherson as a Russian city and said that its surrender was a disgrace. He also suggested that Putin should be replaced as Russia’s leader.

“We give the ruler absolute power to save all of us … but what if he isn’t doing this?” he said. “How to get out of this situation? Immediately move from a sovereign to a commissar dictatorship.”