02 June 2023, Friday, 11:49 512

Anxiety over war against Ukraine growing in Russia – ISW

Редактор: Roman Vaniyan

The reaction of representatives of the Russian government and the media to the events in the Belgorod Oblast of the Russian Federation indicates that the aggressor country is growing anxious about the war against Ukraine.

This follows from a statement by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The governor of the Belgorod Oblast, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said that "there were no enemies in the territory of the region" during the attempt to carry out the raid, but the geolocation footage shows that Russia's Freedom Legion's fighters were allegedly operating in the territory of Russia.

"The responses of Russian officials and military bloggers to the limited operation in the Belgorod Oblast indicate that in the Russian information space, there is an increased anxiety about the war in Ukraine," analysts believe.

Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Vladimir Putin is constantly informed about the situation in the Belgorod Oblast and that the president of the Russian Federation awarded the head of the Shebekino District, Belgorod Oblast, Volodymyr Zhdanov, with the Order for Courage for responding to the situation at the border.

According to the ISW, Gladkov agreed with the authorities of several Russian regions to receive 1,200 people during the evacuation. The region's governor also announced the evacuation of 200 children by Russian officials to the Penza Oblast, as well as the evacuation of another 600 children to the Kaluga and Yaroslavl Oblasts, planned for June 3.

"These evacuations, reports of Putin's alertness, and the Defense Department's characterization of the raid as an attempted 'invasion' of Russian territory suggest that the Kremlin is attempting to use these limited operations to support ongoing information operations aimed at portraying the war against Ukraine as an 'existential' and gain domestic support for a prolonged war," the report said.