Russian President’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said that the “special military operation” () had turned into a “real war.” He said that the Western countries that supported Ukraine were responsible for this.
“There is a war going on, this is a real war,” Peskov said in an interview with VGTRK correspondent Pavel Zarubin. “Do you know why the war is? Because it all started as a special military operation. It continues like a war, because behind Kiev there is Berlin, Paris, The Hague, Oslo, and, unfortunately, Washington.”
The Russian President’s press secretary said that Western allies are helping Ukraine “to target through their satellites, and to direct foreign weapons towards our targets through their entire infrastructure.”
Allied assistance, according to Peskov, does not help Ukraine stop the advance of Russian forces. As an example of Russia’s successes on the front, he repeated the statement on control of Konstantinovka. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky earlier described the statement regarding the Ukrainian armed forces losing control of this city as a “lie.” Independent monitoring projects have also not confirmed the transfer of Konstantinovka to the control of Russian forces.
According to Peskov, “No one should doubt that our army is moving systematically, and we are seeing tangible results.”
The Russian President’s press secretary also commented on Ukrainian drone strikes on targets hundreds of kilometers from the border with Russia. According to Peskov, the Ukrainian military is attacking energy installations and civilian infrastructure with drones that have nothing to do with the military-industrial complex. He said such strikes are “a completely clear terrorist manifestation of the Kiev regime.”
Russian authorities, after launching a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, used the phrase “special military operation.” Those who publicly described the major war between Russia and Ukraine as a war have been persecuted for spreading “fake news,” such as Moscow mayor Alexei Gorenov. In July 2022, Gorenov became the first person in Russia to receive a real sentence under the article on “counterfeiting.” In subsequent years, the Russian authorities actively applied this article of the Criminal Code, as well as the article on “discrediting” the military, and imposed long prison sentences.