As economic despair mounts, Russian official admits the country has had enough of Putin’s war on Ukraine. ‘We can’t even take one region’

Vladimir Putin is losing the Russian people as the economy and his war machine go in reverse amid withering Ukrainian attacks. On the economic front, Putin himself recently revealed that GDP contracted in the first two months of the year. And on the Ukraine front, Russian forces suffered a net loss of territory last month for the first time since 2024. After Russia launched a sudden invasion in 2022, Putin has not only failed to defeat Ukraine, his forces have been unable to take full control of the Donetsk region. “The overall mood is that’s enough already; you’ve been fighting for long enough,” a Russian official told the Washington Post last week on condition of anonymity. “It seems to everyone that it’s been going on for longer than World War II, the Great Patriotic War — and at the same time we can’t even take one region.” With Western military aid and innovations from Ukraine’s now-thriving domestic defense industry, Kyiv has weakened Russia’s economy and military. Long-range drone strikes deep into Russian territory have damaged key oil-export hubs and “shadow fleet” tankers transporting sanctioned crude. At the same time, new drone technology is also giving Ukraine a battlefield advantage, helping to roll back Russian troops, who have also been cut off from Starlink internet connections that were vital to their own drones. In a tacit acknowledgement of the heightened threat from Ukraine’s drones, the Kremlin said Wednesday it would dramatically scale back the annual Victory Day parade in Moscow’s Red Square later this month. Putin’s approval tumbles Meanwhile, ordinary Russians have grappled with high inflation caused by military mobilizations and defense production as well as the Kremlin’s crackdown on internet access to restrict the flow of grim news on the economy and war. Even a survey from Russia’s state-owned pollster showed Putin’s approval rate has fallen to 65.6% from 77.8% at the start of the year and