UKRAINE: THE SITUATION 150 - JULY 19, 2022

The demands of Russian nationalists and war supporters on Russian President Vladimir Putin to expand Russia's war goals, fully mobilize the state for war, and drop the pretext that Russia is not at war reached a peak on July 19.

Former Russian military commander and nationalist milblogger Igor Girkin presented an extensive list of military, economic, and political measures that, in his opinion, the Kremlin must take to win the war in Ukraine; at the top of this list is abandoning the rhetoric of "special military operation" and defining the official goals of the war in Ukraine. Girkin advocates for far-reaching territorial goals beyond the Kremlin's declared ambitions in Donbass, including the reunification of the entire territory of "Novorossiya" (which, according to Girkin, includes Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk, and Luhansk, as well as Kryvyi Rih) with the Russian Federation and the creation of a state of Malorossiya (the entire Ukraine up to the Polish border), which Girkin believes should be reunited with Russia through the Union State of Russia-Belarus. Girkin also called on the Kremlin to fully reorient the Russian economy to war and to carry out comprehensive mobilization measures, including conscription and the (further) suspension of the rights of Russians. Girkin has often criticized what he sees as a lack of ambition and decisive action in the Kremlin's handling of the war in Ukraine, calling for maximalist goals and measures to support territorial gains. His latest list of demands contributes to the growing dissatisfaction within the Russian war-supporting nationalist zeitgeist.

The full Russian Offensive Update 150 is available directly from UNDERSTANDING WAR.

UNDERSTANDING WAR online