After the retreat from kyiv in April, after the rout of Kharkiv and Lyman last September, the abandonment of Kherson is another failure for Vladimir Putin’s army. But if the previous defeats had caused a wind of panic to blow in Moscow, this time things are different, at least in the posture.
If the announcement by the Russian Minister of Defense of the ” grouping » of his forces present in Kherson on the other side of the Dnieper river was broadcast, this Wednesday, live on Russian television, since then, the state media treat this information with astonishing discretion. Just a few words in some television news, most often to comment on the construction of new defensive lines in the Crimea and east of the Dnieper. In others, not a word.
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On their social networks, the great figures of the Kremlin propaganda minimize in unison this retreat. They present it as a tactical maneuver “, a decision ” difficult but necessary », some draw a parallel with the retreats of the Russian army during the Napoleonic wars. In short, do not panic, even less criticism.
Ultranationalist figures in unison with Putin’s discourse
More surprisingly, the most enraged figures of the ultranationalist camp, those who had denounced in sometimes very violent terms the previous failures of the Russian army, such as the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, or the head of the private military company Wagner, Evgueni Prigojine , joined in this soothing discourse.
It is undoubtedly there finally that is the specificity of the defeat of Kherson compared to the previous failures of the troops of Moscow. No sudden collapse of the front this time, but a retreat which had long since become inevitable and which Russia had had time to prepare. If not on the military level, at least on that of communication.