Kremlin lets state media report some Russian losses in Ukraine: ‘There’s a hunt for those responsible’

Authorities hope to bolster support for Russian forces by shifting the reporting policy and reporting battlefield failures without government-sanction spin

With Ukraine fast gaining ground against Russia’s invading forces, the Kremlin has reportedly directed state media to start admitting to at least some of battlefield failures.

The shift in policy has unleashed a wave of public backlash involving top state TV anchors and online commentators – but criticism remains limited to Vladimir Putin’s defence minister and top generals, rather than directed at the president himself.

State TV reports have included details of Russian defeats on the ground without giving them a positive, government-approved spin, according to a Bloomberg report.

“We have to stop lying,” Andrey Kartapolov, a former general who now heads the Defense Committee in the lower house of parliament, was quoted as saying by the news agency. “Our people aren’t stupid.”

The motivation behind the change in coverage could be to bolster public support for Russia’s beleaguered forces, and to create a narrative that the country needs to get behind them to change the tide of the war.

It also reflects the concerns of Russia’s elite at large, even though questioning the original decision by Mr Putin to invade Ukraine remains forbidden.

“There’s a huge debate among the ruling class how to win this war now the army has shown it isn’t capable,” Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of the R Politik research group, told Bloomberg. “There’s a hunt for those responsible and efforts to get Putin to look for other solutions.”

The outlet reported that Mr Putin held two-closed door meetings with Russian defence correspondents, including ahead of his announcement to mobilise 300,000 troops to fight in Ukraine. Some of the correspondents came out of the meeting wondering if the president was receiving the true picture about the situation on the ground, reported Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources.

It comes as Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-appointed military-civilian regional administration in Kherson, berated the country’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu – urging him to “shoot himself” – as Russian forces were forced to retreat from several areas in the face of Ukraine’s successful counter-offensive.

He also blamed “incompetent military leaders” for the losses on the battlefield, saying that defence ministry consists of “mediocre and corrupt generals and marauders”.

Videos circulating on pro-Kremlin Telegram channels also showed newly mobilised Russian soldiers complaining about being kept in “cattle conditions”.

Artem Kovrignykh, a 20-year-old former McDonald’s employee, told independent outlet Astra that he was lined up in a group on Wednesday by a general who informed them they would be deployed in Ukraine the next day, but the men declined to go without training.

“We came to Belgorod region, where the training was supposed to take place. But instead of training, we were trying to survive,” he was quoted as saying by the Washington Post. “We put up our own tents and found our own food. At first we tried to discuss this with our officers. But no one listened to us. We got no answer.”

The video reportedly spread after a pro-Kremlin military blogger, Rybar, shared it with his 900,000 subscribers on the social media platform.

Igor Girkin, another hard-line military blogger and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer, criticised the chief of the Russian General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, on his Telegram channel as he predicted the dismissal of the defence minister.

The defence ministry “will finally answer for much of it did (or rather did not do) before and during the war,” he said, reported the Post. “And that means someone will be demolished. And someone big,” he added in an apparent reference to the defence minister.