Radu Hossu 🇹🇩🇺🇦
Putin said today, “What will we do when the SMO [Special Military Operation—ed.] ends? We’ll be worn down [...] Everyone is involved—women, children [...] Sooner or later, peace will be achieved; we must maintain our unity.” Essentially, Putin is implicitly expressing two things: 1. The near-total involvement of society in supporting the invasion of Ukraine; 2. If the invasion ends, there is a risk—felt even by the Kremlin—that Russia will implode; Putin is aware that only military actions and the inertia they create are holding the Kremlin together in a false unity. The moment the invasion ends, this entire construct will collapse under the weight of hundreds of thousands of russians trained to kill—who have spent weeks, months, or years in Ukraine—all suffering from PTSD and unprepared for the isolation that society has in store for them. Under the weight of an economy that certainly no longer knows how—nor can it easily return to—a civilian economy. Under the weight of the frustrations of a large part of the state apparatus that did not receive the benefits promised at the time of the invasion. Under the weight of a society that has been greatly impoverished and worn down. Such a collapse would lead not only to the end of Putin’s political life, but perhaps even to the end of his life. And that is unacceptable. So he will continue killing Ukrainians and Russians and hope that Europe will give in, that Trump’s America will fall, and that it will remain in his grasp. That he will succeed in shattering the unity of the Ukrainians, which would give him the chance to achieve his imperial goals. When you hear russia’s useful idiots screaming “we want peace, we want peace,” tell them to scream at the Kremlin. It has now been proven, by Putin’s own words, that russia and he himself are sole obstacles to peace.
