Changing the war narrative. Putin: “We are defending our land”

The Ukrainian counterattack includes attacks on Russian territory. This is how officials in Kiev explain the bombings in Russia’s Belgorod region and the increasingly frequent cross-border incursions targeting civilian and military infrastructure, such as the Krasnodar hydrocarbons depot. But it is difficult to determine the impact of these measures on the war while Russian artillery continues to bomb Kiev (where 3 more civilians were killed yesterday, including a 9-year-old girl) and other major Ukrainian cities.

According to Dmitry PESKOVThe Kremlin spokesman said the special military operation would not be affected by cross-border bombing. “The president (Putin) is constantly aware of the situation in the region and keeps in touch with the local governor,” Peskov said, as if confirming that everything is under control. Even if we know that the truth is different: in the middle of the day yesterday, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement that it had rejected an “attempt to invade” Ukraine with tanks and troops. Which means, on the one hand, that something continues to happen in that gray area that is the border between Kharkiv and Belgorod, and on the other hand, that the Ministry must declare that the enemies have been “repelled.” Other times, a guerrilla action could have been defined by a handful of pro-Ukrainian Russians as a provocation, an infiltration operation, or even a farce, Moscow would not have attached importance to such events. But now yes, last week’s raids and drones that hit the capital’s buildings for the second time (near Putin’s house), burning refineries and the first internally displaced people help us understand that the situation is only so under control.

Still water Ready to turn into deadly whirlpools of management. Also because at every turn there is a Prigozhin ready to criticize, a Solovyev who accuses of weakness and a Medvedev who threatens a nuclear apocalypse. And the pictures published yesterday of the displaced Chebykino (Belgorod region), for example, did not leave indifferent Russian civilians living near the border, and the city’s chats on various social networks were filled with alarm and anxiety.
Soon after, the chief intervened. “There is no doubt that the Russian Federation will win the special military operation,” Putin was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency. But it’s not just a matter of dissuading the enemy, it’s the striking change of narrative: “We are defending our land.” Now the Kremlin has abandoned the role of the aggressor, and everyone will remember “Let’s take back our historical lands”, “Crimea is Khrushchev’s fault”, “Ukraine does not exist” … Now propaganda has turned decisively and it is a matter of resisting and surviving Western and NATO intervention. And he, moreover, does nothing to hide and meet in Moldova, at a short distance from the “safety line” that Moscow has long been conjuring.
But can the anticipation of the Ukrainian counterattack, which is consuming the media and some Western politicians, only feed on these attacks on Russian soil? The answer is no, on the contrary, those whom Sofri defines in Il Foglio as “paying spectators” (referring to military supplies) expect results. They want an exact copy of last fall’s counterattack, Kharkiv liberated, half of Donetsk recaptured. In short, a journey of victory, with the flags of Western countries on vehicles and weapons in full view, so that we know that the victory of democracy begins from afar.

It takes a long time Attacks on Russian soil might upset the Western allies. Washington has already said this: “We neither authorize nor participate.” The only person currently insisting on expanding the conflict is the government in London. Occasionally supported by various eminent personalities such as Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO, who declared yesterday regarding drones over Moscow: “Ukraine has the right to defend itself.”
The West wants “amphibians on the ground,” and wants to see them counterattack. Meanwhile, bombs continued to fall in Kiev, Odessa, Kherson, and for some time also in Belgorod.