The Russian president hopes to grow divisions and war boredom in the West

The war continues... and Putin pretends that life is normal

• Putin is determined to continue the war.

  Reuters

• Firefighters try to put out a fire that broke out in a car repair shop in Kyiv after it was hit by a Russian missile.

  AFP

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has crossed the 100-day mark of the war, which he refuses to name, and calls it another, and is determined to convey the impression that his business is going on as usual.

As his army was making its way to the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk days ago, Putin was giving an unusually short speech at a televised ceremony honoring fathers and mothers in large families.

meetings

Since the beginning of May, he has met, mostly online, with teachers, heads of oil and transportation companies, forest fire officials and heads of at least 12 Russian regions, many of them thousands of miles away from Ukraine.

Besides several sessions of the National Security Council and a series of calls with foreign leaders, he found time to speak and give a video speech to the players, coaches, and spectators of the All-Russian Night Hockey League.

rigid routine

What appears to be a rigid and boring routine fits with the Kremlin's narrative, that it is not fighting a war but merely a "special military operation" to bring a troublesome neighbor to his senses.

Despite his military's poor performance in Ukraine, its defeat in its two largest cities, and thousands of unreported casualties, Putin is showing no visible sign of tension.

In contrast to the run-up to the invasion on February 24, when he was denouncing Ukraine and the West in angry rhetoric, his rhetoric was specific.

The 69-year-old appears calm and focused, with all the data and details.

While acknowledging the impact of Western sanctions, he tells Russians that their economy will emerge stronger and better in terms of self-sufficiency, while the West will suffer the impact of higher food and fuel prices.

keep up appearances

With the war continuing unabated and no sign of an end, Putin faces a growing challenge to preserve the semblance of normalcy.

Economically, the situation will only get worse as sanctions intensify and Russia heads toward recession.

On the military front, Putin's forces have gradually advanced into eastern Ukraine, but the United States and its allies are stepping up arms supplies to Kyiv, including the recent announcement by the United States of providing Ukraine with advanced missile systems.

Western defense experts say that if the Russian offensive falters, Putin may be forced to announce a general mobilization of the reserve forces to bolster his depleted forces.

“This will involve more than a million people in Russia, and then (things) will of course become clear to those who have not yet realized that Russia is at war,” said Gerhard Mangot, an Austrian academic who met Putin and observed his behavior and policies for years.

Then it will become difficult to convince an audience that relies mainly on state media that is loyal to the Kremlin and is still ignorant of the scale of Russian setbacks and losses.

splits

But Mangot says Russia is not yet there, and Putin may take some encouragement from signs of weariness in the West.

The divisions are emerging between Ukraine's most hardline supporters (the United States, Britain, Poland and the Baltic states), and a group of countries, including Italy, France and Germany, who are pressing for an end to the war.

"Putin is counting on the longer this war continues, the more conflicts and divisions will emerge within the Western camp," Mangot added.

In these circumstances, peace talks with Ukraine have been stalled for weeks, and Putin shows no sign of seeking a diplomatic way out.

"He still believes that a military solution to this problem would be in his interest," said Olga Uelker, director of the Europe and Central Asia Program at the International Crisis Group.

Russia reveals that an area near the Ukrainian border was bombed

A Russian official revealed that the village of Teutkino in the Kursk region in western Russia, near the border with Ukraine, was bombed.

"There were no deaths or injuries," the governor of the Kursk region, Roman Starovit, said on the Russian social network VKontakte.

He explained that the bombing targeted a bridge in the town, but hit a residential building and a local sugar factory, as well as burning a car.

Pictures showed a railway bridge apparently destroyed by the bombing.

The bridge is used by the Russian military to deliver supplies to fighting forces in Ukraine.

Moscow - dpa

• Russia is making progress in Donbass, but Washington is escalating the supply of weapons to Kyiv.

• Putin shows no sign of seeking a diplomatic way out of the war.

• Despite the poor performance of his army in Ukraine and its defeat in its two largest cities, and the incurred thousands of unreported casualties, Putin is showing no clear sign of tension.

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