Leaked Kremlin documents point to rising Russian anger at Putin, Zelenskyy says
Zelenskyy showed documents placed on Putin’s desk. (Photo: Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Telegram)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said intelligence
had obtained documents that are landing on Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s
desk. The documents show projected levels of Russians’ dissatisfaction with
Putin “will continue to rise steadily.”
“They have already begun preparing him for the idea that
growing dissatisfaction cannot be stopped and that this indicator ‘will not
plateau’ by September, when parliamentary elections are scheduled in Russia,”
Zelenskyy wrote on social
media on June 14.
Zelenskyy said Putin is rarely given the full, unvarnished
truth. But even the documents that reach him “still allow conclusions to be
drawn,” he said.
The Ukrainian president also said support for Russia’s
ruling party is steadily declining, creating a need for even more
falsification. Ukrainian intelligence is also reporting a significant rise in
protest mood in Russian regions. Zelenskyy said the reports do not yet factor
in potential events in June, July and August, which “cannot help but have an
additional impact on the situation in Russia.”
“Fully justified pressure on Russia over this war will
continue and will increase, and not only our pressure. So Putin will enter
September with significantly worse numbers. Unfortunately, all the public and
private peace proposals we have made have been met only with words about
continuing his war,” Zelenskyy wrote.
He added that the trend of declining support for the
dictator in Russia will not change and that an agreement to end the war “will
probably have to be made with someone else.”
The Telegraph reported that a growing number of public
figures in Russia have broken with the official line to
criticize the authorities. In recent months, dissatisfaction with the
authorities in Russia has intensified amid internet shutdowns, the slow advance
of Russian occupation forces on the battlefield and long-range Ukrainian
strikes that have reached Moscow and St. Petersburg, the outlet reported.
On June 1, Bloomberg reported, citing sources, that
officials at Russia’s Finance Ministry and Central Bank had warned the Kremlin
that current projected spending on the war against Ukraine threatens to
dangerously increase the state budget deficit.
On June 10, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine surpassed
World War I in duration.
According to data from the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed
Forces as of the morning of June 14, Russia’s military losses since the start
of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine stand at an estimated 1,382,870 troops
killed and wounded.
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