Russia could stop bombing Ukraine’s electric grid in exchange for territorial concessions, according to a top Kremlin official.
“It requires recognizing the legitimacy of Russia’s demands within the framework of the special military operation and its results, reflected in our Constitution,” Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president, wrote on social media. “Then the power supply situation will get better.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has amended the Russian constitution to add four eastern Ukrainian territories into the Russian state, an annexation maneuver that papered over the fact that Russian troops do not control the entirety of those territories. Ukrainian troops have conducted a steady counter-offensive throughout the fall, which forced Putin to seek Iran’s assistance in bombarding Ukraine’s electrical grid, as Russian officials mobilize Russian conscripts to slow the Ukrainian advance.
PUTIN: ‘NEW WORLD ORDER’ WILL COMPENSATE FOR RUSSIA’S LOSSES IN UKRAINE
“The aggressor becomes a terrorist. And Nazism becomes an example to follow,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday, while commemorating the anniversary of the liberation of Ukraine from Nazi occupation. “Today, Russia’s only tactic has become terror. Defeat is the only possible outcome of such tactics. Terror became a proof of their weakness and a test of our resilience.”
Putin held a public meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to declare that “the task of recruiting 300,000 people has been completed,” in the words of the defense minister, saying that the military is making an effort to send only trained conscripts to the fighting.
“We are paying special attention to that,” Shoigu said. “This is because it is necessary to send only well-trained and well-equipped fighters.”
The exchange is an apparent effort to allay domestic Russian frustration about conscripts being sent to the front lines without proper training or equipment. Some Russian families have reported that they received notification that their relatives were killed in action within 10 days of being drafted, and the conscripts themselves have published complaints on social media about their lack of training and outdated equipment.
“This was probably inevitable,” Putin said Friday, by way of explanation for what state media called “certain difficulties” in the mobilization. “I mean that such campaigns have not been held in our country for a long time. But nevertheless, we need to draw the necessary conclusions. We need to modernize the entire system of military registration and enlistment offices.”
Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, a key Putin lieutenant, is trying to rally Russia’s Chechen Muslim population to join the fight.
“This is a great jihad everyone should take part in,” Kadyrov said this week, while acknowledging that he is “deeply dissatisfied with today’s situation.”
Putin insisted Thursday that the “special military operation” is still going according to plan.
“We are witnesses to the events that have unfolded. They arose in the course and as a logical follow-up to the situation that has been taking shape up to this point,” he told the Valdai Discussion Club. “Of course, I am aware of the General Staff’s plans, but I do not think we should be discussing the details.”
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Zelensky is trying to acquire enough air defense systems from Western powers to shield Ukrainian cities from the bombardments.
“The second army of the world will become smaller and smaller,” he said, referring to Russia. “The losses of the enemy will become bigger and bigger. I am confident that enemy propaganda does not work, provocations do not work, threats do not scare. Any hard winter will not scare us as well.”
