Putin orders soldiers to intensify attacks before Russian presidential elections
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Russian soldiers have been ordered to up their attacks on Ukrainian forces ahead of Russia’s presidential election to bolster Vladimir Putin, an influential think tank has said.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Putin wanted his forces on the attack during “the most challenging” winter weather conditions to impress Russian voters.
“Russian forces are under pressure to fully seize and maintain the initiative into the early months of 2024 prior to the upcoming March Russian presidential elections,” the ISW said in an intelligence briefing.
Analysts have said that Putin wants to use his invasion of Ukraine as the centrepiece of his election campaign. He confirmed he would stand in the election on Friday at a medals ceremony in the Kremlin for soldiers.
Russian forces have been attacking the town of Avdiivka near Bakhmut on the front line in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region since the start of November 2023.
The Ministry of Defence has said that the battle is the deadliest of the year with Russia losing up to 1,000 soldiers every day. Witnesses have described the brutal disregard of Russian officers for their men, sending them to their deaths against dug-in Ukrainian positions.
But various Telegram channels linked to both Russia and Ukraine have said that Russia’s weight of numbers appeared to be paying off and they had regained some initiative in the region.
“Near Avdiivka, Russian Armed Forces units are continuing their operation to pincer the Ukrainian Armed Forces stronghold,” said Rybar, a high-profile Russian military blog.
Video from the battlefield shows that this Russian initiative has come at a high cost.
In one video, filmed by a Ukraine drone, the camera picks out two Russian soldiers dragging an injured colleague through a no-man’s-land hellscape of mud, destroyed trees, rubble and burnt bodies.
They tire of dragging their colleague and decide to leave him despite his protests. Without turning back, they walk away and stop for a rest by a tree stump.
A Ukrainian drone then kills one of the Russian soldiers. His blood splatters the other. He is momentarily stunned but then runs away.
