Russia’s leadership will be increasingly concerned by acts of sabotage carried out against key infrastructure by its own citizens opposing the war in Ukraine.
The Kremlin will be alarmed that there is sufficient domestic opposition to the conflict that it has spilled over into acts of physical sabotage by “even a small group of citizens”, the British defence ministry said today, citing the blowing up of a train line in Russia’s Belgorod region on Monday.
It comes as Ukraine said Vladimir Putin’s forces are now digging in for the “heaviest of battles” in the strategic southern city of Kherson, which was illegally claimed by Russia in a sham referendum last month.
“The Russians are replenishing, strengthening their grouping there,” said Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky.
“It means that nobody is preparing to withdraw. On the contrary, the heaviest of battles is going to take place for Kherson.”
Earlier, Russia told the UN Security Council that Ukraine is preparing to use a “dirty bomb”, a claim widely dismissed by western and Ukrainian officials as a pretext for intensifying the war.
