Russian pundit: Putin won’t live long enough to see end of Ukraine war

Vladimir Putin and his Kremlin insiders will not live to see any success in Ukraine if the war continues at its current pace, a Russian political scientist claimed on state TV last night. Sergei Mikheyev (pictured), former director of Russian research company Center for Current Policy Analysis, said on the Sunday Evening talk show: ‘If we keep proceeding in this manner and at this speed, you and I won’t live long enough to see any successes. And let’s be honest with ourselves – our leadership won’t live long enough for that either,’ he told host Vladimir Solovyov, who is one of Putin’s chief propagandists, live on air. ‘ Our position has severely worsened … We either move forward and stop imitating sovereignty and truly achieve success, or we retreat with a massive failure,’ he added. 

Mikheyev’s comments came amid a four-minute tirade in which he hit out at Russian military commanders and the Kremlin for what he described as their ‘silence’ in response to failings on the battlefield. He also warned that Russia could not possibly retreat, lest it be seen as weak. He later called for the armed forces to ‘create problems for the nations supporting Ukraine’ by launching long-distance strikes to demonstrate Russian ‘technological superiority’ and to stop ‘playing by the rules of the game that are forced upon us.’ Solovyov, who previously hosted a talk show called ‘Who is against?’ alongside Mikheyev in 2019, appeared to solemnly agree with many of his former colleague’s statements, but the rest of the panel looked shocked.

Mikheyev has long taken a hardline stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine and has openly declared his support for taking as much territory as possible in what he claimed was ‘historically our land’, lost due to ‘mistakes and betrayals.’ He also declared that Russia’s official goals would be shifted to align with whatever its armed forces could achieve. Appearing on another of Solovyov’s segments in May 2022, Mikheyev said of the invasion: ‘Let’s conquer whatever we can, then declare it a goal of the operation. Let me mention what our goals are. Unfortunately, the war will determine our goals based on what is achievable. That which we manage to secure will later be defined as our goals.’ Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers fire a self-propelled howitzer towards Russian positions near Bakhmut, Donetsk region.

‘I am fully convinced that [Ukraine] is our land, this is certainly our land. This is not about Ukraine and the country in which it may exist. This is historically our land, which turned out to be in this country because of mistakes, misunderstandings and betrayals.’ The political analyst’s latest comments come as the chief of Russia’s Wagner group of mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin (pictured), warned that the frontline in Ukraine will collapse if his troops are not provided with more ammunition. Prigozhin, whose organization has played a significant part in Russian military successes in recent months, said his ammo-starved forces were the ‘cement’ holding the frontline together and the last line of defense to win the war.

‘Today, Wagner is the cement that, as I’ve said previously, is holding the Ukrainian army in place – grinding it down, destroying it and preventing it from deploying to other regions and occupying other fronts. We’re also moving forward and the [Russian] army is forced to follow behind us to save face and prop up their reputation … If the Wagner group pulls back, then the following situation will unfold. It is clear that the front will crumble, the front will crumble for the Russian borders, perhaps it crumbles even further.’ Prigozhin (pictured) made the remarks in a four-minute-long video published over the weekend by a Wagner-linked Telegram channel.

Earlier last week he claimed his units had ‘practically surrounded Bakhmut’ – a focal point of the conflict in Donetsk where fighting has intensified in the past week with Russian forces attacking from nearly all sides. But yesterday he complained that most of the ammunition that his forces were promised by Moscow last month had not yet been shipped. ‘For now, we are trying to figure out the reason: is it just ordinary bureaucracy or a betrayal?’ Prigozhin asked on his usual press service Telegram channel. The mercenary chief regularly criticizes Russia’s defene chiefs and top generals, and last month accused embattled defence minister Sergei Shoigu and others of ‘treason’ for withholding supplies of munitions to his militia. Pictured: An anti-aircraft missile system moves along a road in a village, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the Donetsk region.

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