Now Putin is trying to avoid responsibility for his previous crimes by committing new ones—even more serious ones. Meanwhile, official propaganda deceptively presents Putin’s special military operation as Russia’s “existential struggle” or even as a global confrontation with the “satanic West.” In fact, this war is meaningless and destructive for Russia itself. According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as of February 19, the losses of the Russian army have already exceeded 400,000 people. But it is not only about the death of people whom Moscow is pushing for a criminal war. The final transformation of Russia into a dictatorship, which occurred after the beginning of the full-scale invasion, has already provoked mass emigration, the volume of which may amount to 1.3 million people. The militarization of economic, cultural, and political life, as well as growing international isolation, are all signs that Russia is deliberately turning itself into an exile state, incapable of productive and mutually beneficial cooperation with the world. This, and not the mythical “conspiracy of the Anglo-Saxons,” which Putin claims, puts an end to the future of the Russian Federation.
The Ukrainian website, UKRINFORM, in an important piece called 10 Facts about [the] Russian-Ukrainian War. The article documents Putin's neverending sewage pipe of lies used to justify the most obscene, genocidal crimes against Ukraine, all for the sake of protecting his dictatorship.
The key quote here is: 'this war is meaningless and destructive for Russia itself'. The death toll of 400 000 soldiers is staggering, and just shows that the Russian terror state places no value whatsoever on human life.
Remember that Putin told Russian soldiers that they would be greeted in Ukraine as liberators, that they were 'denazifying' the country, and that they would quickly gain victory. The Russian Orthodox Church backed these claims, and bathed them in pseudo-religious justifications.
All of these claims were complete lies. And that's precisely why Putin won't visit any of his soldiers on the war front. The lies and death toll are too obvious.
The Wagner Group terrorist chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, discovered far too late that the problem was the Kremlin. He paid for his disagreement with his life.
It is important for Westerners not to fall for these lies, especially the claim that Moscow seeks peace. Russia had the option for peace for at least nine years. Instead, Putin's Mafia regime planned for further war. Russia has the option right now to immediately withdraw from all Ukrainian territory and reinstate the Minsk Agreements. It has refused to do so. So it is Russia that is blocking peace, not Ukraine.
And, as this quote shows, Putin is destroying Russia for his own imperialist delusions. This is always the case with dictators.
