​A Russian military reporter appeared live on the “Russia-1” TV channel to report on the situation in the Donetsk region, which borders Kharkiv, from where the Russian armed forces fled in chaos last week.

“What are people’s requirements? They are afraid that they will be abandoned, like the people of Kharkiv and Kyiv,” says military journalist Oleksandr Sladkov regarding the announced withdrawal of Russian troops from the region of the Ukrainian capital at the end of March. At the same time, the Ministry of Defense of Russia announced the withdrawal of its forces from the Chernihiv region.

“There was no such thing before! But people here are afraid again,” he says, referring to one of two regions in eastern Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin used as a pretext to launch his invasion in late February.

It will be recalled that Putin recognized the sovereignty of pro-Russian separatists in the east of Ukraine over the entire Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and not only over the territories they controlled before the invasion.

Investigative journalists Meduza wrote last month, citing several sources close to the Kremlin, that Putin was considering whether to continue the annexation of occupied Ukrainian territories or wait for the “liberation” of the entire Donetsk region.

All Meduza wrote on Monday that the Kremlin postponed the organization of referendums on the annexation of the occupied territories due to the Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kharkiv.

Covert interference on Russian television

Returning to Sladkok, he then asked in his speech that “if we conduct a tactical maneuver there (Kharkiv), and we conducted a tactical maneuver in Gostomel, then where else is a tactical maneuver expected from us?”.

A military reporter here seems to be drawing a direct parallel between the withdrawal of Russian paratroopers from the strategic Gostomel airport outside Kyiv in the early days of the war with the Russian Defense Ministry’s announcement on Saturday of a “regrouping” of forces from Kharkiv “for reinforcements.” efforts in Donetsk region”.

The defeat of the Russian paratroopers during the battles to capture Gostomel airport was the first major victory of the Ukrainian armed forces in the war, which blocked the landing of troops in the immediate vicinity of the Ukrainian capital.

“I can’t right now… I have about 20 things about flaws, but I’m not going to voice them right now. It’s hard, it’s hard,” concluded military journalist Oleksandr Gladkov.

Kremlin propagandists went to the mountain

His comments came at a time when Russian television began looking for scapegoats for the collapse of the front in Kharkiv, an unprecedented situation in the case of previous failures of the Russian armed forces.

For example, in the days following the sinking of the Moscow flagship in April, Kremlin propagandists vacillated between calling for Ukraine to be punished and following the propaganda line held by the Russian Defense Ministry that the ship sank in rough seas after an explosion at a military ammunition depot.

In some courts, this led to funny situations, when retaliatory measures were demanded against Ukraine for the sinking of the “Moscow”, although even those who demanded them seemed to say that the ship sank due to weather conditions in the Black Sea.

In the case of the recall from Snake Island issued at the end of June, Russian broadcasters followed the propaganda laid down by the Kremlin that it was ordered “as a goodwill gesture” towards Ukraine in the context of the discussions. about unblocking Ukrainian ports so that Kyiv could resume their grain exports.

But now the Kremlin propagandists seem to be demoralized, the scale of the failure of the Russian army is so great that it cannot be hidden, especially since Ukrainian troops have already begun to approach the border with Russia in this region located in the northeast of Ukraine. .

The leader of the pro-Russian separatists talks about the “difficult” situation at the front

On Monday, the leader of the pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk region, Denys Pushilin, spoke about the “difficult” situation at the front, but assured that the Russian troops are “dealing with” the situation.

“The situation remains difficult. The enemy is trying to damage critical and civilian infrastructure,” he said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel. He accused the Ukrainians of “massive bombing” and storming of the city of Lyman, located in the district he heads.

He also said that “forces are advancing”, without specifying whether it was Russian or Ukrainian forces.

The Russian front in the Kharkiv region, north of Donetsk, collapsed last week catastrophically after the Ukrainians launched an offensive there a week after announcing a long-awaited counteroffensive in the south of the country.

It turns out that one of the reasons for the resounding successes of the Ukrainian armed forces is precisely the fact that military officials in Moscow have transferred troops to the Kherson region in southern Ukraine to defend the front leading to Crimea.

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