Russia’s spokesman Dimitry Peskov has admitted that “no one likes us” just as UK intelligence shared another scathing insight into Moscow’s war effort.
And this is just the latest indication war has not been going to plan for Russia for several weeks now, both on the frontline and internationally.
Ukraine has successfully reclaimed 54% of the land Russia seized during its invasion, meaning Moscow now only controls 18% of the internationally recognised areas of the European country.
On top of these military failures, Russia is clearly becoming increasingly isolated on the world stage – and the Kremlin is slowly starting to realise.
According to a translation from BBC Monitoring’s Francis Scarr, Peskov told reporters on Sunday: “No one likes us and they don’t really intend to start liking us.”
He then added: “And we don’t need them to.”
“But some countries do like us, though,” the reporter replied.
Peskov then seemed to backtrack, saying: “Some countries do, and probably most of them.
“When I said nobody, of course I meant the collective West.”
Ukraine’s allies have been increasing the sanctions against Russia ever since Moscow started to up the aggression towards Kyiv in February.
The European parliament has since declared Russia to be a state sponsor of terrorism, and Russian president Vladimir Putin has been widely accused of committing war crimes over the last 10 months.
And, in October, the UN’s general assembly also condemned Russia’s attempts to annex several regions of Ukraine through sham referendums, with just four countries – out of 182, excluding Russia – voting against the motion.
Only North Korea, Syria, Belarus and Nicaragua supported Russia, meaning some large supposed allies of the state, such as China and India, chose not to take part in the vote at all.
Peskov also tried to explain Russia’s recent withdrawals on the frontline on Sunday, claiming: ”We’re not moving, we’ve already arrived at the station called ‘confrontation’.”
He appealed for Russia “to be united” and “powerful” too, amid speculation that the domestic population is started to lose faith in the war effort.
During the same outing, Peskov made it clear that Russia had no plans to give up the so-called “special military operation” which triggered Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine back in February.
He suggested that the Kremlin still wanted to “protect” residents of the Donbas and south-eastern Ukraine, promising to “liberate” those areas.
According to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), this means – despite weeks of setbacks – Russia has no intention of withdrawing from the violent and blood war.
The MoD’s update on Monday explained: “Peskov’s comments suggest that Russia’s current minimum political objectives of the war remain unchanged.
“Russia is likely still aiming to extend control over all of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts.”
However, the MoD also speculated: “Russia’s strategy is currently unlikely to achieve its objectives: it is highly unlikely that the Russian military is currently able to generate an effective striking force capable of retaking these areas.
“Russian ground forces are unlikely to make operationally significant advances within the next several months.”
