Nearly a month ago, Russia launched an attack on the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka. Despite the presence of a large number of Russian soldiers and tanks in the area, the front line barely moved The death toll on both sides is reportedly enormous.
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The Russians should have an advantage when it comes to the amount of artillery shells at their disposal, while the Ukrainians could benefit from being in entrenched defensive positions while the Russians advance.
Russian forces are trying to surround the city. On October 12, the situation looked like this:
On November 1, not much has changed:
– There is an abundance of video footage of destroyed vehicles, writes Andrei Filatov Update on Russian losses.
Filatov is a correspondent for Russian state channel RT (formerly Russia Today), and regularly posts messages on Telegram. It is said to be near the Avdijivka front.
In the update, the war correspondent describes the chaos. A lack of coordination and leadership is said to have led to some Russian forces advancing alone on the battlefield.
Other units arrived three hours late, and others did not show up at all. As a result, artillery struck our troops, causing heavy losses, Filatov writes.
It also describes a situation in which ancient weapons are used, and false success stories from the battlefield are told to higher-ups.
He concludes that liars and cowards are responsible for the lack of success.
Putin’s popularity is growing
But how much do the heavy losses and lack of progress in the Battle of Avdiivka affect Putin’s popularity? Not at all, as it turns out.
At the end of each month, the independent non-governmental Levada Center conducts opinion polls in Russia, where the goal is to reveal the opinion of the Russian people about the authorities, the situation in Russia and the war in Ukraine. Measurement was conducted through personal home interviews with 1,607 participants aged 18 years and older.
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The poll conducted at the end of October shows this support for Putin’s actions It rose from 80 percent in September to 82 percent now. Those who get news on Russian television are primarily those who support the president (95% of TV viewers responded that they support Putin), while support is much lower among those who primarily search for news on Telegram (81%) and YouTube channels. (65%). percent).
It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly why popularity has risen, but one theory is that Russians want to stand together when the country is on the offensive. When Putin chose to invade Karim in 2014 and launch a full-scale invasion in 2022, his recognition among the Russian people rose dramatically:
– It may be that they like to work and for something to happen, but it is also possible that the war in the Middle East strengthens Putin’s position in Russia, says Ukrainian writer and leader of the Norwegian-Ukrainian Society of Friends Jørn Sund Henriksen in the newspaper Ukrainapodden on Tuesday.
– The idea that there is “more and more chaos in the world,” and that “we should be happy to have a strong leader who keeps things in order,” plays well in Russian culture. It may also be that Russia has become increasingly totalitarian, that people do not want to answer questions honestly, or that there are fewer and fewer critical voices remaining in the country that have not escaped abroad. There are many things at play, but it’s interesting, says Sunde Henriksen.
Listen to the full episode here:
Why did Putin go to war? The Russians answer this
The percentage of support for “the actions of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine” also increased. From 73 percent in September to 76 percent in October. Here again, it is older respondents who trust news from television and who largely support the war.
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At the same time, there is an increase in the proportion of Russians who, if given the chance, would go back in time and stop the start of a “special military operation,” from 39 percent in May to 41 percent now. in October.
In response to an open-ended question about why survey respondents believed Russia chose to carry out a special operation in Ukraine, respondents responded:
- Protection/liberation of Donbass citizens (25%)
- I don’t know (23%)
- Eliminate fascism/Nazism (14%)
- Protection against aggression from Ukraine/Europe (13%)
- Private border insurance (12%)
- It is our country historically (10%)
- Response to NATO/USA (6%)
- Preventing World War III (2%)
- Financial interests (2%)
- Restoration of the Soviet Union (2%)
- Other (2%)
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