‘It is a crisis’: Putin under increasing pressure from Ukraine war:

Russian President Vladimir Putin is coming under rare public criticism at home, a significant signal of how the pressures from the more than four-year war in Ukraine are hurting the country. 

Fuel shortages and rising inflation, high-profile attacks against Russian energy infrastructure and cities, and mounting military casualties are prompting prominent figures to start pinning the blame on Putin. 

“It is a crisis,” said Vladimir Milov, a Russian economist in exile who served as deputy minister of energy in 2002. “What we are seeing right now is an extreme acceleration of public admissions that we are in trouble.”

Russian air defenses are stretched thin, and there’s not enough manpower to operate them, analysts say, leaving open targets for Ukraine to hit.  

Russian forces are stalled, and it’s unclear if Putin is denying, unwilling to confront or misinformed about the true nature of the battlefield. 

A reportedly leaked Russian Ministry of Defense map from April showed Russian forces occupying Ukrainian towns it had failed to capture. The ISW said it had reason to believe the map was authentic and matched claims of military advances and victories from top Russian generals.

Stepanenko said it’s possible Putin is operating on misinformation.

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