Russian President Vladimir Putin (70) is apparently planning an attack on his own country to convince the Russian people of his war against Ukraine.
The Kremlin is currently spreading propaganda about an imminent attack on Russia’s Belgorod region, which is just 35 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, according to a recent analysis by military experts at Washington’s Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank.
For example, Leonid Petrovich Reshetnikov (75), retired Russian lieutenant general and former director of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (SVR), reports on Telegram about the alleged invasion of Ukrainian troops in Belgorod. “An offensive is actually being prepared, maybe not one, maybe two. Maybe a raid is being prepared.”
No strategic interest in an invasion of Russia
According to ISW experts, this is pure propaganda. “Russian claims about an imminent Ukrainian attack on the Belgorod region are absurd and aim only to frighten the public into further supporting the war.”
Because as a result of the partial mobilization in September and the military failures in Kharkiv, support for the “nonsense” war is falling sharply, especially in the Russian border regions. A “Ukrainian” attack – or a “false flag” operation by Russia – on Belgorod, near the border, should remedy this.
But Ukraine has no strategic interest in invading Russia, ISW refutes Russian claims. Moreover, the Ukrainian forces are not capable of carrying out an attack of this magnitude. Mykhailo Podolyak (50), adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (44), also warns on Twitter about the “false flag” operations.
“I don’t want to dramatize the situation”
The story of a Ukrainian attack on Belgorod not only benefits the Kremlin, Yevgeny Prigozhin (61), founder and financier of the infamous Wagner Group, also benefits from this fear. At the end of October, “Putin’s Koch” began building an independent fortress in Belgorod Oblast, which he calls the “Wagner Line”. In this way he wants to consolidate his role in the war again, writes the ISW.
The governor of Belgorod Oblast, Vyacheslav Gladkov (53), published on his Telegram channel photos of the construction of the fortifications. He himself has not yet spoken about a Ukrainian attack on the region and evaded the question on Telegram: “I do not want to dramatize the situation. In any case, we always consider several options for the course of events: optimistic, pessimistic and mild. We so prepare for different scenarios. I hope we don’t need pessimistic options, but we are actively considering them.”
Russians no longer feel safe in Belgorod
Because Belgorod is so close to the Ukrainian border, the Russian city and the oblast of the same name are heavily affected by the Russian war in Ukraine. More and more people are leaving the city and moving further inland. The situation is gloomy, says opposition activist Ilya Kostyukov, who lives in Belgorod, the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.
Projectiles repeatedly hit substations, oil depots, shopping centers and residential buildings in the city and in the villages near the border. It is not clear whether the shelling came from Ukraine or was part of Russia’s missile defense system. One thing is clear: the inhabitants of Belgorod no longer feel safe. So found food for the Kremlin’s propaganda.