On the 100th day of the war, the Kremlin is still waiting to "achieve its goals"

IRYNA BALACHUK — FRIDAY, 3 JUNE 2022, 13:41

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Russian president, said that during the 100 days of war in Ukraine, the Russian occupiers had achieved "certain results."

Source: Russian propaganda publication RIA Novosti

Peskov's Quote: "The main purpose of the operation is to protect people in the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic. Measures are being taken to ensure and certain results have been achieved."

Details: According to a Kremlin representative, the occupiers allegedly "liberated many settlements from the pro-Nazi forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and directly from nationalist elements."

Also, according to Peskov, the Russian military, which is destroying entire villages and cities, allegedly "provided an opportunity for people to start a peaceful life."

Putin's spokesman said: "This work will continue until all the goals of the 'military operation' are achieved in Ukraine."

Details: At the same time, answering questions about the time of possible annexation of certain oblasts of Ukraine by the so-called "referendum", Peskov said that "there is no understanding of the time frame of possible referendums in the "DPR" [self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic], "LPR" [self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic], Kherson and Zaporozhzhia oblasts on becoming the part of the Russian Federation."

Why this is important: Russia attacked Ukraine on 24 February. Russian President Vladimir Putin expected to seize Kyiv and Ukraine in a few days. This was hinted at in various ways by the Russian leadership, also evidenced by various intelligence services; Russian soldiers who were captured confirmed this information - they were left without food in early March because they were given field rations for just a few days.

The Russian leadership justified its helplessness in the war with Ukraine by allegedly "caring for civilians" - they say they deliberately "slowed down the pace of the operation to reduce the number of civilian casualties."

At the same time, Ukraine has been resisting the occupying forces for 100 days. The Armed Forces of Ukraine were able to expel the invaders from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mykolaiv oblasts. Fighting is currently taking place in Luhansk, Donetsk and Kharkiv oblasts.

Russia has already lost about 31,000 troops and thousands of units of equipment in this war of aggression.

The Putin regime is hiding its losses in the war from its own people, continuing to "feed" them propaganda about "the Nazis and the liberated people of Donbas." Everyone who tries to protest against the war is quickly detained; letters from relatives of soldiers killed in Ukraine are not answered; Russia does not collect the corpses of the killed occupiers - they remain lying in refrigerated carriages in Ukraine.

On the eve of the 100th day of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin asked Russian state media not to focus on the duration of the Russian invasion.