On this occasion, it was not Vladimir Putinotherwise Nikolai Patrushevsecretary of the Security Council and probably the closest adviser to the president of Russia Currently, the person in charge of taking stock of the war in Ukraine on the occasion of an anniversary. When the third month of the Russian military attack against the neighboring State is completed, this almighty leader, considered the main exponent of the hard wing within the Kremlinhas granted a long interview to the publication Arguments and Facts from which it follows, on the one hand, that Moscow wager at this time for a conflict long-lastingand on the other, that your country has not given up any of the objectives that it set itself at the beginning, summarized in the vague expression of “denazify“The Ukrainian state.
The words of Patrushev, a man who constantly appears in the pools of potential successors to Putin every time he rumors arise about his state of health, surely they will drive analysts crazy, being deliberately ambiguous regarding the materialization of that objective. They could very well mean that the so-called Russian “special operation” in Ukraine continues to aim to bring about the collapse of the Volodymyr Zelensky or even to take control of some of the big Ukrainian cities like Kharkiv either Kyiv, on which military pressure in recent weeks has been considerably reduced. Of course, the only sure thing about everything said by Putin’s most relevant adviser is that the war will continue over time and that, at this precise moment, Russia is not contemplating any scenario of negotiation. “Reason, historical reason is on our side… we don’t have to comply deadlines; Nazism must be eliminated 100% or else it will rise again after a few years in an even more monstrous form.”
Long-term goals aside, this sort of conflict infinite that Patrushev raises in the interview, to this day, is being developed mainly in a very specific scenario, the donbaswhere Russia is concentrating all the military effort. The immediate objective is the conquest of the entire Luhansk province, managing in the process to surround the Ukrainian forces defending the towns of Lisichansk and Severodonetsk, the last of this territorial demarcation in the hands of the Government of KyivAs confirmed by the Governor Serhiy Gaidai. “The enemy is concentrating its efforts on carrying out an offensive to encircle (these two cities); the intensity of the (artillery) fire in Severodonetsk has increased multiple times; they are simply destroying the city,” he said.
Wins for both sides
At this point on the war front, both sides attribute victories. While Gaidai claims that the Ukrainian troops have expelled their enemies from a small town to the south, the pro-Russian militias maintain that they have managed to gain control of Svitlodarsksouth of Bakhmut. The increase in war activity is being felt throughout the Donbas region. There is no day in which bombings are not registered in Bakhmut, which in recent days have affected both military and civilian targets, including the only mosque in the town.
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The russian invasion Ukraine has constituted an earthquake of gigantic proportions for the entire European security architecture. Countries that have been flaunting their neutrality for centuries, such as Swedenor states that during the cold war of the 20th century chose to avoid joining any military bloc such as FinlandThey are knocking at the door of the NATO after feeling in danger. Patrushev has also referred in his interview to the entry of these two states into the Atlantic Allianceand after describing NATO as a “completely offensive” organization and maintaining that “joining it” implies the “transfer of national sovereignty to Washington”, the official has promised response measures in the event that the organization “deploys military infrastructure” in the two Scandinavian countries: “Russia will consider it a direct threat her safety and will be forced to react”.
The current political leaders in Russia consider that the conflict gives them an opportunity to give a change of direction on the domestic front and radically stop the progressive assumption, in recent years, of values such as democracy, freedom or tolerance on the part of a part of the Russian population, in particular the younger generation. In this sense, Patrushev has advocated increasing the weight of patriotic education in the country’s schools. “To the theme of the heroism of the Soviet people in the years of the great patriotic war (the name given to the second world war in Russia) little time is devoted to it in history lessons; and in books it is often treated superficially”, he criticized, establishing in the process a link with current times. According to his opinion, “pedagogues” must play a “fundamental” role in what he described as “hybrid warfareagainst your country.