“Power is Putin’s only source of legitimacy,” says Mr. Abbas Galyamovformer press secretary of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putinwho now lives in Israel and works as a consultant.

talking to The newspaper “New York Timeson the occasion of combat offensive of the Ukrainian army in the southeastern part of the countrysaid: “In a situation in which he will be powerless, his legitimacy will begin to crumble“.

Sunday they were completed. 200 days since the beginning of the multilateral Russian invasion of Ukraine. The news, however, was not flattering for the Kremlin: quite the contrary.

Ukrainian army, realizing one lightning counterattacksurprised the Russian army and recaptured at least 3000 square kilometers in his area Kharkivbut also in Donetsk, and 500 square kilometers in Kherson.

The newspaper “New York Times note that the collapse of the Russian troops – over the weekend – creates a new challenge for President Putin: it undermines the image of his power, the one he has built for two decades.

On Sunday, the Russian military continued its retreat from positions in northeastern Ukraine that it had captured and held for months. Russian state television news reports say it was a carefully planned attack. “recovery operation”praising the heroism and professionalism of the Russian troops.

Kyiv but the international media also spoke (even) about the disorderly retreat of the Russian army, which was caught by surprise by the Ukrainian attack.

The NYT notes that the Russian retreat has angered supporters of the war. Putin has also come under fire from his allies, such as the leader of Chechnya. Ramzan Kadyrovwho publicly acknowledged that the “special operation” was not going according to plan.

Internal tremor

At the same time, Putin faces another problem: Municipal councilors of 18 districts of Moscow and St. Petersburg they called on the Russian president to resign. The appeal was published by the municipal councilor of the region Semenovsky Petersburg Xenia Tortsiom.

“We, the municipal councilors of Russia, believe that the actions of President Vladimir Putin are detrimental to the future of Russia and its citizens,” it says.

Last week his city council Smolninskoe in St. Petersburg, by his decision, he asked the deputies of the State Duma (lower house) to bring charges of high treason against the President of Russia for declaring war on Ukraine and therefore resign. Seven municipal councilors voted in favor, three abstained.

The next day (September 9), the municipal councilors who had signed the petition were summoned to the police station, where they administrative prosecution for “slandering” the Russian military.

On the same day on the official website of the municipal council of the district Lomonosovsky Moscow published an appeal by deputies of the city council to President Putin with a request to resign. In their appeal, the advisers stated that for the good of the country, the government must change, and pointed out that after the second term of the Russian president, “everything went upside down.”

Ukrainian advance

The Ukrainian army said they had recovered 500 square kilometers of land by Russian troops within two weeks of a counterattack in the Kherson region (south), the first quantitative assessment of Ukraine’s successes. “Our progress in these two weeks is very convincing,” said the military representative in the south. Natalia Gumenyukand added: “We have vacated about 500 sq. km, mainly the villages of Vysokopole, Belogorka, Sukhi, Stavok and Mirolyubovka.

For its part, Russia said it had bombed areas in the Kharkiv region that had been recaptured by Kyiv forces in recent days in a surprise counteroffensive. “In the zones of the communes of Kupyansk and Izyum, militants and equipment of the nationalist Kraken formation of the 113th mechanized brigade of territorial defense and the 93rd mechanized brigade were hit,” said a representative of the Ministry of Defense.

Third stage of the war

Meanwhile, in an interview with Monde, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Alexey Reznikov said that the war in Ukraine entered the “third stage” and Ukrainian military successes will have a snowball effect until the defeat of the Russian army.

“The counter-offensive campaign is the third stage,” he said, as Kyiv forces are rapidly advancing into the country’s eastern and southern regions and are said to have reclaimed 3,000 square meters of territory since early September. ” the first The war phase was meant to contain the Russians. Secondlyto strike a balance between them and us at the front, to stabilize the front and test their endurance,” he added.

“Our employees made a plan depending on the equipment that we received from our partners – we started using mobile artillery systems. Himars cut the enemy’s logistics lines, destroy his fuel and ammunition depots, etc. This is third stage of the war that began in the south and north in the Kherson and Kharkov directions,” he stressed.

Ukraine’s goal: “liberation of all occupied territories, including Crimea (annexed in 2014), Lugansk and Donetsk. Our border guards will set up their posts on the Russian-Ukrainian border, where they were in 1991,” he added.

In addition to the “complete liberation” of Ukrainian territories, Kyiv is demanding a “completely clean roadmap for paying Russian reparations and establishing their responsibility for war crimes committed since the beginning of the February 24 invasion.” “

When asked about the possibility of a protracted war, Reznikov did not make any predictions, but only commented: “It will look like an avalanche, it will start to roll, roll and become more and more, more and more … And he will see how the second largest army in the world will give a signal to retreat.

20 villages in 24 hours

According to his report BBCDuring last week’s counter-offensive in the Kharkiv region, Ukrainian forces outnumbered the Russians by eight to one, a senior Russian official in the region said.

OUR Vitaly Gadchevspeaking on Russian television, he said that the Ukrainian army captured the villages in the north and crossed the Russian border.

OUR Ukrainian army claims to have been caught in the last 24 hours at least 20 villages in the northeast of the country.