The Russian government is facing an internal backlash from several key figures over its handling of the war in Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.
Ukraine has been steadily retaking territory occupied by Russia, including in the four regions it illegally annexed recently via sham refendums.
In its latest briefing, British intelligence officials have said that “diverse actors within the Russian system” have become critical of the military leadership following battlefield setbacks.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 8 October 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) October 8, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/AM0ETH3XfS
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The MoD said: “Following continued battlefield setbacks for Russia over the last two weeks, increasingly diverse actors within the Russian system have joined voices in criticism of the Russian MoD leadership.
“Critics have included Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, Wagner Group owner Yevgeny Prigozhin, state-approved TV presenters and pop star and a “vocal community of ultra-nationalistic military bloggers”, they added.
“Kadyrov and Prigozhin are likely being perceived as informal figure heads of a ‘pro-war’ bloc whose criticism hinges on arguments for greater state commitment and willingness to escalate.
“Both likely achieve some credibility based on the significant deployment of both Chechen and Wagner combat units on the ground.
“The criticism remains focused at the military high command rather than senior political leadership, but it does represent a trend of public voicing of dissent against the Russian establishment which is being at least partly tolerated and which will likely be hard to reverse.”
It comes after US President Joe Biden warned that the risk of nuclear "Armageddon" is at its highest since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Mr Biden said the Russian despot Putin was “not joking” when he spoke of using tactical nuclear weapons.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday night warned that Russian officials had started to “prepare their society” for the possible use of weapons of mass destruction.
