Vladimir Putin’s leadership “is already being questioned” through his Kremlin colleagues, the Russian president’s former speechwriter told the Daily Express.
Abbas Gallyamov, who worked for Putin from 2008 to 2012, said the Ukrainian incursion could seriously undermine Putin’s authority.
He said: “The procedure for challenging Putin’s leadership is already underway and the failure in Kursk will accelerate the procedure.
“The more Ukrainians there are on Russian soil, the more powerful and profound the procedure will be.
“To expel them, Putin needs new troops, which he obviously does not have. That is why he wants to withdraw some of those already deployed in Donbass, but that means that his pressure there would weaken the whole. He hates this choice.
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He added: “As a true fan, he cares more about what he desires than what he wishes to preserve.
“For him, getting is more important. But for society, it’s different. They care much less about obtaining and preserving. A terrible contradiction. “
Ukraine has seized several settlements in Kursk thanks to last week’s stunning attack.
Putin has vowed to “drive out the enemy,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that his troops were still advancing into Russian territory.
He said: “We kept advancing in the Kursk region for a kilometer or two since the beginning of the day. “
Zelensky added: “From now on, all of us in Ukraine will have to act as united and well as we did in the first weeks and months of this war, when Ukraine took the initiative and began to change the scenario to gain advantages. “of our state.
“Now we have done exactly the same: we have proven once again that we, Ukrainians, are capable of achieving our goals anywhere, capable of protecting our interests and our independence. “
Kyiv’s forces attacked a border region in western Russia, according to the territory’s Russian governor.
The governor of the Belgorod region, Viacheslav Gladko, called the scenario “extremely complicated and tense” and that the Russians had suffered losses there.
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