Latest news with #Sumy
Telegraph
25 minutes ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Putin's biggest threat is not from liberals but the nationalist Right
Despite intensive U.S. efforts to broker a ceasefire and staggering battlefield casualties, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues unabated. earlier this week, a Russian drone and missile barrage killed at least 21 civilians in Kyiv, and Russian forces have accelerated their ground offensives in Sumy and Donetsk Oblasts. President Vladimir Putin's unwavering commitment to his maximalist ambitions in Ukraine has polarised Russian society. A March 2025 Levada Centre poll revealed that 59 per cent of Russians support the initiation of peace negotiations, and that figure soared to 76 per cent amongst Russians under the age of 24. Nonetheless, there is a vocal ultranationalist minority that is continuing to stoke the flames of war with Ukraine and perpetual conflict with Nato. Since Ukraine announced support for a thirty-day ceasefire in Jeddah on March 11, Russian ultranationalists have urged Putin to reject peaceful negotiations and escalate the war. Former Kremlin advisor Sergey Markov cautioned Putin against accepting a ceasefire unless it was paired with an arms embargo on Ukraine. In an April 2025 interview with ultranationalist outlet Tsargrad, fascist philosopher Alexander Dugin declared: 'Let's be realistic: we need to bet on our own strength and prepare for a new round of confrontation.' Dugin's target was the European Union and he argued that Europe was already preparing for war with Russia. Despite countervailing pressure from business-minded elites like Russia Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) chief Kirill Dmitriev and oligarch Vladimir Potanin, Putin's actions have aligned closely with the pro-war camp's agenda. Putin's stalling tactics have convinced the US to stop negotiating with Russia for the time being and the Russian military has stretched the frontlines to capitalise on Ukraine's war materiel constraints. The recent destruction of Russian strategic bombers via Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb has only strengthened Putin's intransigence. Why is Putin aligning with Russia's ultranationalist minority, even though doing so leads to tighter sanctions and only marginal offensive gains? Like many of the mysteries surrounding contemporary Russia, the answer can be found in Putin's understanding of Russian history. While Western experts have paid extensive attention to the threat of popular unrest and liberal dissidents like the now-deceased Alexey Navalny to authoritarian stability in Russia, history shows that the biggest threat to Putin's regime comes from the ultranationalist right. Tsar Nicholas II's suppression of the total war rhetoric of conservative philosopher Ivan Ilyin, and ultranationalist firebrand Vladimir Zhirinovsky's rise from the ashes of the 1993 constitutional crisis, are cautionary tales for Putin. The abortive June 2023 Wagner Group mutiny reaffirmed to Putin the significance of the threat from militant ultranationalists. Through acts of repression like Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin's assassination and MH-17 perpetrator Igor Girkin's imprisonment, Putin has mitigated the immediate danger posed by ultranationalists to his regime's stability. He has co-opted the Russian Orthodox Church, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and hawkish regional governors to ensure that an ultranationalist bloc does not consolidate. The militarisation of Russian society means that this is only a temporary fix, and ultranationalists could try to topple Putin if the war ends on unfavourable terms for Russia. As ultranationalists saw Russia's cessation of the 2008 Georgian War that left Mikheil Saakashvili in power and the the 2015 Minsk II Accords with Ukraine as gestures of appeasement of the West, the onus is on Putin to pursue total victory. The challenge for Putin is that he has few available escalation cards. The recommendations that Russia's most hawkish voices have pushed since the Ukraine invasion began in February 2022 are suicidal. If he pursues general mobilisation, he risks widespread socioeconomic unrest and the destruction of the current stealth conscription system that provides Russia with the manpower it needs to prosecute the war. If he gambles with tactical nuclear weapons use, Russia will likely destroy its partnership with China and image in the Global South. This means that Putin needs to appease ultranationalists by doing more of the same: indefinitely stalling a ceasefire and intensifying Russia's war against Ukrainian civilians. As it would take Russia 152 years to occupy all of Ukraine at its current monthly rate of advance, this strategy will not completely satisfy Russian ultranationalists. While Putin wields dictatorial power in modern Russia, his grip is weaker than it appears. This is why Putin needs to appease ultranationalists at the expense of peace in Europe and the lives of hundreds of thousands of his own people.
Arab News
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Zelensky appoints new ground forces chief
KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Voloydmyr Zelensky on Thursday appointed Gennadiy Shapovalov as commander of the country's ground forces, replacing a previous commander who resigned following a deadly Russian strike on an army training ground. Shapovalov worked as a military aid liaison in Germany and previously commanded Ukraine's southern military district. In his evening address, Zelensky said he hoped Shapovalov would bring 'real combat experience' to the role and called for changes in the Ukrainian army, which is struggling to hold off Moscow's forces more than three years into Russia's invasion. 'Changes are needed, this is a mandatory issue,' Zelensky said in his evening address. Moscow's forces have been advancing across the front line for over a year and have been making inroads in Ukraine's Sumy region, which the Kremlin had not occupied since the start of the war. Peace talks on ending the conflict have stalled in recent weeks and Kyiv's biggest ally, Washington, is now focusing its attention on the Middle East. Russia says it is open to a peace settlement but Kyiv has accused Moscow of deliberately sabotaging talks to prolong the fighting.
Al Arabiya
2 days ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Russia says captured another village in Ukraine's Sumy region
Russia's army said Wednesday that its forces had captured another village in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region, where Moscow has stepped up its offensive in recent weeks. The Russian troops captured Novomykolaivka in Sumy, a settlement around four kilometers (two miles) from the Ukraine-Russia border, the defense ministry said on Telegram. The advance of Moscow's army comes as peace talks have stalled and as Russia rejects the unconditional truce demanded by Kyiv and its European allies. Ukraine has dismissed Russia's demands as 'ultimatums.' Russia first tried to capture the regional capital Sumy at the start of its offensive in 2022, before being pushed back in a Ukrainian counter-offensive later that year. In 2024, Kyiv used the Sumy region as the base for its own armed incursion into Russia's western Kursk region. After recapturing the Kursk territory earlier this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his army to once again advance across the border to push back Ukraine's forces. Sumy is not one of the five Ukrainian regions that Russia claims to have formally annexed. Russia's defense ministry said Wednesday that its troops had also captured the settlement of Dovgenke in the Kharkiv region.
Arab News
2 days ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Russia says captured another village in Ukraine's Sumy region
MOSCOW: Russia's army said Wednesday that its forces had captured another village in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region, where Moscow has stepped up its offensive in recent weeks. The Russian forces captured the settlement of Novomykolaivka in Sumy, Moscow's defense ministry said on Telegram.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: Russian drone factory attacked, 1,000km away in Tatarstan
Ukraine's military said on Sunday it had attacked a Russian drone factory in the city of Yelabuga in Russia's Tatarstan region. The target is around 1,000km from Ukraine. The Ukrainian military general staff said the factory produced, tested, and launched drones at Ukraine, in particular against energy and civil infrastructure. Videos on social media showed an explosion said to be at the factory in Yelabuga, also known as Alabuga, which builds Iranian-designed Shahed drones. The Russian local governor confirmed the attack. Russian forces hit the Kremenchuk oil refinery in Ukraine's Poltava region with missiles and drones, Russia's defence ministry said on Sunday. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, denounced the attack on the central Poltava region as a vile strike against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, which he said occurred 'after the Americans asked us not to strike at Russian energy facilities'. Ukrainian officials said the strikes mainly hit energy, agricultural and civilian installations. Russian forces have advanced in northern Sumy Oblast and near Kupyansk, Siversk, Chasiv Yar, and Toretsk, according to the Institute for the Study of War. Russia's defence ministry claimed on Sunday that its forces had taken control of the village of Malynivka in the Donetsk region, known in Russia as Ulyanovka. Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Ukrainian forces had recaptured Andriivka village in north-eastern Sumy as part of a drive to expel Russian forces from the area. Neither side's claims were independently confirmed. The Ukrainian office for the return of prisoners of war confirmed on Sunday that Russia had returned 1,200 bodies to Ukraine as part of continuing exchanges. A building used by Boeing in Kyiv was badly damaged in a recent large-scale Russian air attack, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing two Boeing employees, three Ukrainian officials and the head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine. There had been 'no operational disruption', Andriy Koryagin, deputy general director of Boeing's operation in Ukraine, told the newspaper, and none of its employees were harmed.
