September 17th 2023.
Sergei Shoigu, the Minister put in charge of Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion in Ukraine, was recently asked about the outcome of the war on state TV. During the past week, Ukrainian troops have made progress on the eastern and southern fronts of the battlefield, leading to great uncertainty in the Kremlin.
During the interview, Yevgeny Popov, a leading Russian propagandist and pro-Putin MP, asked Shoigu a seemingly loaded question: “Will we win?” While footage of his response was initially shared without his answer, it was later revealed that the minister shrugged and replied, “We have no other options.”
It is clear that Shoigu was nervous about the outcome of the war, and the fact that Popov was allowed to ask such a question on state TV is reflective of the lack of confidence that the Putin machine has about the war's ultimate result.
Shoigu had recently met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and the two countries were rumored to have been discussing an arms deal. Ukraine, in addition to gaining territory, has been striking Russia from behind the frontline. This week, a submarine and a large landing ship were destroyed by a Storm Shadow missile in the port of Sevastopol in annexed Crimea.
In his analysis for state TV, Shoigu admitted that the Russian forces were mostly on the defensive, but he stressed that they were still managing to destroy Ukrainian military equipment and personnel. He went on to say that their key task was to defend what they had to defend in the areas Ukrainian forces were trying to break through. He concluded by saying that their main focus was to destroy their enemy's equipment.
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