Russia TV Slams 'Fairy Tale' Pushed by Kremlin Pundits About Ukraine War

A Russian television pundit has criticized "clowns" who had pushed an overly optimistic narrative about Moscow's capabilities in its invasion of Ukraine as Kremlin-backed media responded to the humiliating loss of Kherson.

During a segment on the program Pravo Znat (Right to Know), journalist and political scientist Maxim Yusin described the Russian retreat from the southern Ukrainian city which sparked celebrations across Ukraine as a "sad loss."

But he said that it was ill thought-out to erect billboards in September proclaiming that the region was "with Russia forever" given "how unfavorable" the balance of forces was.

"Did these people not know how tough it would be to hold the city?" he said, as he referred to how photoshopped images in Ukrainian media of the signs, now with the words "with Russia until November," had summed up how much Russia had been embarrassed.

"It's really unpleasant when people mock you and laugh at you," he said, "it's twice as unpleasant when we ourselves are giving them an excuse to ridicule us."

"What was the point in setting ourselves up like this?" he said, describing claims of "unfounded confidence which continue to be heard often on TV in our country" as part of a "fairy tale."

"Even now, considering those recent realities, people are saying 'we'll reach the Polish border. We'll reach Berlin, the English Channel, Lisbon,'" he said, "and now across the whole world and within the country, the people who are saying (this) look like clowns."

"That clownery is just indecent now," he added as he took aim at the "elite" in the clip without mentioning President Vladimir Putin. "When will the nation, the people, the citizens of our country begin to be told the truth and as such simply respected," he said, "people don't like it when they are taken for sheep."

The video was tweeted by Francis Scarr from BBC Monitoring, who wrote on Tuesday, "The loss of Kherson has unleashed levels of discontent on [Russian] state TV that I'm yet to see in the war."

The withdrawal from Kherson last week, which was the third major retreat by Russia in the war, has prompted much soul-searching in the Russian media which is strictly controlled by the Kremlin.

The head of the Expert Council of Russia's Strategic Development Fund, Igor Shatrov, told NTV program Mesto Vstrechi (Meeting Point), "We weren't ready for the war that we started."

Meanwhile, in an op-ed for Sobesednik, Konstantin Bakanov wrote how after the start of the invasion on February 24, Russian authorities "actively silenced" those who were "outraged by events they weren't allowed to call a war."

Now following the retreat, authorities were "suppressing" those who claimed Russia had handed over territory to "the enemy" and Russian TV was "full of nervous tension right now," he wrote, citing one presenter, Ivan Trushkin, calling on citizens to curb their emotions.

But in the op-ed reported by BBC Russia editor Steve Rosenberg, Bakanov wrote that, "viewers have the right to ask, 'who was it all these months...who shouted in the TV studios about enemies?" The op-ed added, "the system has collided with the aggression it gave birth to."