International press: The Kremlin believes that every Russian must suffer for Putin to win in Ukraine

The Kremlin has revealed that it hopes to breathe new life into its war, making ordinary Russians feel it as much as possible, comments the American publication The Daily Beast, Agerpres, on Sunday.

Sergei Kirienko, the first deputy head of Russia’s presidential administration, said in a speech to a national conference of teachers on Saturday that the war, which the Kremlin has so far stubbornly insisted on calling a “special military operation” must become a “people’s war”.

“Russia has always won any war when the war became everyone’s problem. We will definitely win this war: both the ‘hot’ war and the economic war and even the very psychological informational war that is being waged against us. But for that the war must be popular , so that everyone feels their own involvement. So that every person has the opportunity to contribute to our victory,” said Kirienko.

His comments sparked surprise on social media, where several commentators noted that this would be the first time the presidential administration has abandoned the absurd euphemism ‘special operation’, and others pointed out that millions of Russians have already fled the country in response to protest against the war.

Even while Kirienko was making these statements, the authorities in Belgorod, a Russian city located near the border with Ukraine, announced the erection of concrete barriers to apparently defend the region from a possible Ukrainian attack. And in Moscow, several media reported that local authorities have begun preparing air raid shelters in schools and hospitals, which seems to be more of a staging to fuel fears of an attack on the capital.

Meanwhile, just one month after Vladimir Putin summoned tens of thousands of citizens to face death for him on the battlefield, at least 41 newly mobilized soldiers have already been killed, according to a report made by Mediazona and the BBC. Among them are some who, according to the law, were not even eligible for recruitment, such as a Raiffeisenbank employee, Timur Izmailov, lured to the local military recruitment office and killed only six days after being sent to the front line.

Bizarrely, Kirienko insisted that the “most important battle” for Russia right now is the “battle for youth” – an odd priority given that thousands of young Russians have been killed to support Putin’s delusional war against Ukraine, experts say.

An anonymous Russian soldier’s phone call to his mother provides perhaps the most succinct answer to Kirienko’s vision of a “people’s war,” according to reporters at The Daily Beast.

“The bastards of the devil! This bastard government annoys me so hard! They are so stupid, I am shocking!”, He told her from the front line in Ukraine, according to an audio interception made and broadcast by Ukrainian secret services. “This is what will happen: half of the country will be closed, and the other half will go to war.”

After his mother tries to calm him down by telling him that Russia will soon take land from Poland, his son replies that it is Russia that should be worried because it will lose territory now.