South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Kremlin facing pressure at home
Ukrainian attacks making reality of war more apparent
Nearly six months into the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin still refers to its invasion as a “special military operation” while trying to maintain a sense of normalcy at home.
But a series of Ukrainian attacks in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, is puncturing that narrative.
As Ukrainian attacks mount in the strategically and symbolically important territory, the damage is beginning to put domestic political pressure on the Kremlin, with criticism and debate about the war increasingly being unleashed on social media and underscoring that even what the Russian government considers Russian territory is not safe.
On Saturday, Russian authorities said local air defenses shot down a drone above the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. Oleg Kryuchkov, an aide to Crimea’s governor, also said “attacks by small drones” triggered air-defense systems in western Crimea.
“Air defense systems successfully hit all targets over the territory over Crimea on Saturday morning. There are no casualties or material damage,” his boss, Sergei Aksyonov, said on the social network Telegram.
But while images of anti-aircraft fire streaking through the Crimean sky ricocheted across social media, the reality of war was becoming more apparent to Russians — many of whom have rallied behind the Kremlin’s line, hammered
home in state media, that the “special military operation” to save Ukraine from Nazi domination is going according to plan.
“People are beginning to feel that the war is coming to them,” said Andrei Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, a research organization close to the Russian government. “I think this is serious.”
Ukraine has been engaged in a campaign to target Russian forces on the Crimean Peninsula. The attacks in Crimea appear to have begun in earnest on Aug. 9 with a strike on the Saki air base in which eight fighter jets were destroyed.
Kortunov said the Kremlin is likely to view the
Ukrainian attacks as “irritating,” showing Ukraine’s ability to threaten Russian lives deep behind the front lines. But it remained unclear how — or if — Putin would respond, even as pro-Kremlin commentators called for retaliation.
Russia continues to retain military superiority and the recent strikes in Crimea haven’t resulted in territorial gains for Ukraine. But they appear to have dealt a psychological blow to Russia, undercutting the previous perception of Russian invincibility in a peninsula that exerts a strong hold on the Russian psyche.
Crimea is more than a pivotal military base. A sun-splashed resort and staging ground for Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine, Crimea has symbolic resonance for Putin, who has called it Russia’s “holy land.”
Crimea is where czars and Politburo chairmen kept vacation homes, and where Putin is said to have built a multibillion-dollar estate. As home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, it also helps Russia exert control over the sea.
On Telegram, one of Russia’s best-known state television hosts, Vladimir Solovyov, shared a post describing the attacks in Crimea and in Russian regions near the Ukrainian border as “some kind of surrealism.”
“Are we fighting or what are we doing?” the post asked.
While the military impact of the attacks may be minimal, there are mounting signs that local people are becoming unsettled by them, prompting officials to issue reassurances about their safety.
“I understand that many are worried,” the Russian governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said Saturday on his social media page. “But that is exactly what the Ukrainian Reich” — a reference to Russia’s false characterization of Ukraine as a Nazi state — “wants to achieve.”
In an interview over a messaging app on Saturday, one resident of Sevastopol said she had never imagined that she would live to see the events of the last six months. She said that her solution was to try to continue living her life and to avoid the news.
“When you read the news, chaos erupts in your head,” said the woman, Elena, 34, who requested her last name be withheld for her security. “You get the feeling that all around you everything is exploding and burning and that you are in hell.”
In a reflection of the challenges Moscow faces, the Russian state news media also reported Friday that the Kremlin had replaced the commander of the Black Sea Fleet after a series of setbacks that include the loss of its flagship vessel, Moskva, in April.