In the last 24 hours, the Russian forces are said to have left the small towns of Velykyi Burluk and Dvoritshna, located in the north of the Kharkiv region. Since the beginning of September, Ukrainian forces have retaken 6,000 square kilometers. Only in the last few days have the forces advanced between 70 and 80 kilometers, claims the country’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyj. Criticism in the media Since the start of the war, Russian television channels have been racing to report on the Russian progress in what is still referred to as a special operation in Ukraine. But after the Ukrainians have recently launched a powerful counter-offensive, the tone has changed among the commentators on the pro-regime channels, writes Reuters. On Monday, Vitaly Ganshev, a government official in the Kharkiv region appointed by Russia, was interviewed on Rossiya-24. Ganchev said that Russian forces in the province were now eight times outnumbered, and he claimed that Ukrainian forces had received reinforcements from Western mercenaries. TV anchor Dmitry Kiselyov opened Sunday’s program by saying that it had been a very difficult week at the front. He reported that Russian forces had been forced to flee from previously “liberated areas” due to pressure from superior enemy forces. The former politician Boris Nadezhdin called for immediate peace talks when he was a guest on a talk show on the channel NTV. Nadezhdin stated that Putin has been misled by his advisers into believing that Ukraine would surrender immediately. – It is absolutely impossible to defeat Ukraine with conventional war methods, said Nadezhdin. There are also signs of criticism in the newspapers. Nezavisimaja Gazeta points out that the Ministry of Defense has failed to comment on “extremely outrageous reports” from Ukraine towards them for days. The newspaper adds that at the same time as Ukrainian forces are approaching Russia’s western border, the Russian military leadership has organized an annual exercise for 50,000 troops in the far east of the country. Local politicians ask Putin to step down Local politicians in Moscow and St. Petersburg have signed a petition asking Russian President Vladimir Putin to step down “in the interest of national security”, reports the Moscow Times, among others. “President Putin’s actions are devastating for the future of Russia and its citizens. We demand that Vladimir Putin resign as President of the Russian Federation,” reads the petition, which was published on Twitter on Monday. It is Ksenia Torstrem, elected representative for the Semenovsky district in St. Petersburg, who posted the Twitter message. The petition has been signed by 19 different local politicians from St. Petersburg and Moscow. St. Petersburg is also Vladimir Putin’s hometown, where he started his political career. It also came with an invitation to other local politicians to join the demand for Putin’s resignation. According to Torstrem, a further 84 will sign the petition and are now checking that the names are real. Want Putin for impeachment The petition that was published today follows a decision last week, in the St. Petersburg district of Smolninskij. There, seven representatives – after a vote in the local district council – joined forces to write a letter to the State Duma, the one chamber of the Russian National Assembly, demanding that Putin be impeached. They believe the president has committed treason against the fatherland. According to the letter to the State Duma, they accuse Putin of being responsible for young soldiers dying in the war, for the destruction of Russia’s economy, for the expansion of NATO and for Ukraine receiving modern weapons from the West. The seven who voted for the impeachment demand were quickly called in for police questioning, accused of dishonoring the Russian military. All have now been released, but several of them can probably expect fines. Risking prison Dmitrij Paljuga and Nikita Juferjev are two of the letter writers and published the letter on social media. They were interviewed by the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle at the weekend. Paljuga says they are aware that they are taking a big risk. Earlier this year, a Russian politician was sentenced to seven years in prison for spreading falsehoods about the Russian forces. But he believes the judiciary lacks grounds to be able to judge them. – There is no precedent for sentencing someone for sending a proposal to a state chamber. Russian law excludes that possibility, claims Paljuga and is adamant that they have done the right thing. – We do not see the expansion of NATO as a direct threat to Russia, but we try to appeal to different groups in Russia with different arguments, to convince them that this whole war must end, Juferjev tells Deutsche Welle. They say many Russians are critical of the war in Ukraine and what is happening in Russia under Putin’s increasingly authoritarian rule. And that it is important to show people that there are politicians who share this. – If they want to punish us, they will. But what shall we do? Remain silent? says A local council in the capital Moscow has also adopted criticism of Putin. “Your views and your governance model are hopelessly out of date and hinder the development of Russia and its citizens,” it says.
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Local politicians ask Putin to leave – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
