Victory and defeat, both at the same time, are conjured up in Russia.

On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin drew a line from breaking through the German blockade of Leningrad 80 years ago to his own current war.

Russia's victory against a Ukrainian "neo-Nazi regime" is "inevitable," the president said in a St. Petersburg armaments factory.

According to the Russian account, Ukraine, which resisted a just Russian defense, and its “Western curators” are to blame for all the war victims.

Frederick Smith

Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS in Moscow.

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That was what Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Friday at the Ramstein meeting of Ukraine's supporters.

Western tank deliveries could "change nothing fundamentally" about the fact that Russia will advance further and achieve its goals.

They only create new "problems for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people".

In the West, there is a "dramatic misconception that Ukraine could have any success on the battlefield."

Of course, the Kremlin's confidence in victory is contradicted by military developments.

In Ukraine, the recent capture of the largely destroyed small town of Soledar in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, which has now also been admitted by Kyiv, by Russian forces contrasts with the previous withdrawals of the invading troops in other parts of Ukraine.

Russia itself is also getting more and more caught up in the downward spiral of the war.

Several soldiers have already died in drone attacks on military airports in the Ryazan and Saratov regions.

There are repeated reports of shelling from areas like Belgorod on the border with Ukraine.

Reports from Telegram channels that at the beginning of this week five conscripts were killed when a military unit was shelled in the city of Schebekino, right on the border, were not officially confirmed.

Shrill threats against the West

But even state news agencies reported another incident from the area: Last Saturday, a non-commissioned officer set off a hand grenade in a former cultural center that is now housing soldiers.

According to the Telegram channel "Baza", he wanted to "gain authority in front of his subordinates".

Ammunition also exploded.

According to the latest information, seven soldiers were killed, all of whom were drafted into the mobilization.

The behavior of Putin's political personnel also bears witness to progressive brutalization.

One example of many was provided by Sergey Mironov on Friday.

The leader of the sham opposition party "Fair Russia - For the Truth" published a photo in which he wields a sledgehammer.

The owner of the mercenary group "Wagner", Yevgeny Prigozhin, gave it to him, Mironov wrote.

Apparently not as a threat - a "traitor" from the ranks of the mercenaries was recently killed with such a hammer in front of the camera - but as a thank you for Mironov calling "Wagner" "heroic" with regard to the capture of Soledar.

Mironov praised the sledgehammer as a "useful tool".

Because "with his help we will break through the entrenchments of the Nazis who want to destroy our country."