r/worldnews • u/ArgentineBeauty • 21h ago

Russia/Ukraine ‘We Were Mistaken’: Putin Admits Russia Was Unprepared for Ukrainian Strikes on Oil Refineries

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/83674
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272

u/harijsme 21h ago

Is he ok? Admitting this doesnt sound like him.

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u/Weirdo9495 21h ago

He is obviously dishonest and this is just for internal consumption. He is saying that he did not expect Ukrainians would be so evil to bomb their oil facilities while Russia has been destroying their country. Think for a second how absurd that is. You can not possibly believe a man like Putin can have that level of naivety. Only Russians who like Putin do. With this, he is shifting responsibility from himself and his incompetence/evil to Ukraine and its "evil", and sadly, many Russians are braindead enough to buy it.

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u/Bromonster01 18h ago

That sounds like a familiar premise… I wonder where I could have heard it before…

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u/Shot-Toe-2884 17h ago edited 17h ago

You’re not wrong, and Putin is notoriously cynical about this stuff exactly as you said, but it’s worth mentioning that this kind of rhetoric was very weak for the Putin I remember from 5 years ago. I think that’s telling about how he perceives his own strength today.

Ukrainian pressure may not be yielding peace yet, but it’s pushing Russia down a road they didn’t choose either. Putin is the king of maximal threats and he’s been forced to tone down his rhetoric and shift to a new strategy, and his far right base will take notice of that. The far right speaks a simple language when it comes to strength, they won’t like this more calibrated tone.

Blame shifting doesn’t work for Putin like it used to. Russians can see the wars consequences all around them now. They know who calls the shots.

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u/traplords8n 17h ago

I wouldn't phrase it as Russians being braindead lol. They are subject to the most advanced state propaganda in the world and all of it is state-sanctioned. Their media is entirely controlled by the state.

When you're insulated from real journalism for generations, it becomes Plato's allegory of the cave.

It doesn't really matter how intelligent you are if you've only seen shadow puppets on the cave wall. That's your reality. You're never aware that reality exists outside of the cave.

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u/Orlha 12h ago

Eeeeeeh, you’re not wrong, but the world is all here. I consume all kinds of propaganda equally (a joke; am more western oriented actually, but still). Level of exposure matters.

2

u/tar625 17h ago

I'm really curious how many believe it and how many know it's bullshit but aren't willing to speak against it. I'd imagine that state run media + no public pushback can make a lot of otherwise intelligent and reasonable people believe almost anything.

2

u/Weirdo9495 17h ago

Unfortunately, it is by now deeply ingrained in Russian culture to be completely apathetic even to obvious lies. The situation where you hear a lie, you know it is a lie, the person next to you knows it is a lie, but you both say it is truth is a common stereotype there, from Soviet times.

Also, the thing with many Russians, even those who realise their government lies - they at the same time choose to believe that elsewhere it is even worse, and that West lies just as much while being evil and wanting to destroy them. So they side with Putin. But for a lot of them it is a post-hoc rationalisation, and accepting what Putin is would cause an immense breakdown in their worldview they couldn't bear with, so they prefer to stick with comfortable lies.

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u/thatjakuguy 10h ago

they’re not completely wrong on the second point…

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u/Evil-EYE-IN-DA-SKY 18h ago

FASD will do that to people.

1

u/NIPLZ 16h ago

many Russians are braindead enough to buy it

There are actual people (not bots) from my actual fucking country who are braindead enough to buy it. They have no reason to - they're not exposed solely to Russian propaganda 24/7. And they know exactly who Putin is and what he's capable of. Yet they support him anyway and trash Zelenskyy online. The mind boggles.

1

u/rd1970 16h ago

I also think this is setting up the conversation to switch from:

"Look what evil Ukraine did to us."

to

"Look what evil Ukraine did to us - we need to mobilize 400k men in response. Anyone that disagrees is on Ukraine's side and will be dealt with accordingly."

1

u/leafhog 15h ago

Did he blame Biden also?

1

u/MelangeBot 15h ago

This bully tactic of turning yourself in to the victim even before you start to mess with the victim is so evil. Eventually you have messed with the victim enough and you get a strike back and then you go around claiming "See I told everybody that my victim was dangerous, now look here is proof!"

1

u/lol-daisy325121 11h ago

You have one hell of a point

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u/PossibilityUsual6262 20h ago

He frames it as "Ukrainian terrorist attack our civilian infrastructure", the fact that they bombed all of Ukrainian one for 4 years, with specific campaigns to disable Ukrainian energy in three winters does not click in russian mind.

2

u/cenosillicaphobiac 17h ago

And it was attack not on infrastructure, but on the asset that Russia uses to generate the money to fight the war. Oil refineries.

1

u/Kazman07 17h ago

I love a great underdog story

1

u/97GeoPrizm 5h ago

Does the average Russian really know what Putin has done to Ukraine? There’s no free media and the internet keeps getting more locked down.

•

u/PossibilityUsual6262 1h ago

Ofc they know, they just dont care because it doesn't affect their life.

1

u/Sea-Original-5824 18h ago

Even if it were a terrorist attack, isn't it still his job to keep his country safe?

3

u/97GeoPrizm 5h ago

It’s a lot easier to keep your country safe if you avoid meddling in other countries’ affairs and using your military to bully smaller nations on your borders.

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u/JustChillFFS 21h ago

Yeah there’s been a bunch of “Putin says” stuff coming out the last few days. Very odd and fishy.

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u/barktwiggs 21h ago

Dude has some token elections coming up so he's a bit more chatty than usual.

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u/CloudySpace 20h ago

Elections :D

11

u/UnagioLucio 18h ago

"Elections"

2

u/abhig535 18h ago

Hahaha! Elections in Russia? That's funny

2

u/sheeb_sheeb 18h ago

Elections.. I’m screaming

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u/Nice_Muffin8689 18h ago

That’s why they said “token”

19

u/Twitch103rd 20h ago

Probably has a lot to do with that CIA visit recently and how Russia was treated at the G20 meeting.

1

u/jeffersonairmattress 10h ago

Yeah this is not Putin blaming Ukraine- I read this as a message to Trump. "We thought we had you under control."

14

u/WorstCPANA 18h ago

They're getting beat up and the population is feeling it. It may be more strategic for Vlad, he may think that if he feeds Russians bullshit about how Ukraine are still the bad guys attacking civilian infrastructure, his mass mobilization after 'elections' may land easier on the population.

I would be sooooo curious to actually have a good understanding of how the average Russian (particularly in moscow) feels about the war.

9

u/Nichiku 18h ago

I saw a video of a guy saying he is just drinking all day as theres nothing to do in rural russia. All his friends went to fight in the war so he might as well. I imagine this is a pretty common story for the average Russian soldier and citizen. They are surviving but not happy so they cling to nationalism as their only source of pride and the Putin propaganda is more than happy to provide them with more of it.

5

u/Sea-Original-5824 18h ago

Yeah he is embarrassed and is now forced to say something. He hasn't been able to address the issue of the refineries being bombed, and his people are PISSED that they are waiting in line for hours for gas.

2

u/SBELL29910 17h ago

I had a contact in Russia. He told me the youth are mostly opposed to it. The middle-aged and elderly are longing for the pride of the USSR and viewed this as an ill attempt at regaining that pride.

The people are tough because they’ve been raised in a controlled society of shortages. The West doesn’t have that toughness. We pay a couple of dollars per gallon more for petroleum and we’re complaining. I’m sure most other countries laugh at the US on that one as US gas prices have been lower than most of the rest of the world for decades.

2

u/WorstCPANA 15h ago

I agree, we appear weak because of our privilege, we have no heart for any sort of feeling the affects of a war.

I remember gas prices hitting $4/gallon 25 years ago and it was a huge deal. So it being $5/gal (in my state with a top 2 gas price in the nation) doesn't feel too bad, imo

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u/Cultural-Emotion4232 1h ago edited 1h ago

Hello I am russian in moscow. Older (40+) people believe ukrainian goverment is nazis sponsored by US and this war started by west trying to control us. When they talk about war it's never about ukraine, it's always about europe and US and ukrainian gov being their "puppet". People believe we are fighting "collective west" not just killing ukrainians

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u/Successful_Pin4808 6m ago

But ukraine is in the east lmao

2

u/big_trike 19h ago

Perhaps they're sowing a little discord so they can draft anyone who votes against him.

1

u/Rev_Glazer 18h ago

Lining up with CIA director visit?

1

u/Wuz314159 18h ago

Maybe Putin died and this is one of his doubles? ¯_(ツ)_/¯

30

u/Rocktopod 19h ago

If you read the full quote he's just trying to shame Ukraine for attacking "civilian infrastructure." He's not actually admitting to a mistake.

The "mistake" was supposedly in assuming that Ukraine was noble enough not to attack the oil refineries in the first place.

3

u/jeffersonairmattress 10h ago

And in assuming that once Trump was in control that the US would still have enough international sway to dictate targeting limits.

Time being on Ukraine's side it was inevitable that such an industrious nation would develop domestic weapons production and deploy it as strategically as possible. It's a moral imperative for Ukraine and very much a part of their nobility that they target what feeds the invading force and avoid the human-aimed terror tactics of their attacker.

3

u/Shot-Toe-2884 18h ago edited 17h ago

The reality on the battlefield has bursted his domestic illusion of strength among the Russian people.

No he’s not ok. He’s crumbling under his own expectations. He has armed his own base with a nationalistic, militaristic message against himself and that’s the biggest threat to his rule ever imo. The Russian far right can now criticize him for failing Russian nationalism: “Putin claims to be fighting for the strength of mother Russia but look: grandpa has made us weaker, exposed us to unprecedented attacks and united all of our enemies to a common cause against us. For what? We are no closer to taking the Donbas today than we were 5 years ago. The only difference now is we’ve lost and wounded a million of our men and our enemies have armed themselves.”

The inflection point we are witnessing in Moscow is a man that needs the war to continue for his own political survival colliding with Russia’s total inability to win on the battlefield. Ukrainian drones have finally burst the echo chamber and the discourse in Russia can’t avoid it now because the damage is all around them in plain sight

3

u/Money-Parfait-4358 19h ago

Believe what leaders do, not what they say. You should be asking yourself, why might it be advantageous for the Kremlin to admit these things? The propaganda may not be intended for you.

3

u/cenosillicaphobiac 17h ago

His only admission was "we didn't expect them to do exactly what we've been doing to them and attack infrastructure" and it's pure propaganda and is intended for a Russian audience.

It's not an admission of any failing on Russia's part. It's an accusation that Ukraine is "fighting dirty" by giving back in kind. Ukraine still hasn't, to my knowledge, bombed childrens hospitals, train stations, power plants in the dead of winter, schools on the first day back from summer break, or any of the other myriad atrocities that Russia has been doing for years. They bombed, very specifically, the source of Russia's resources to fund this war.

2

u/Illustrious-Math6276 18h ago

He needs to admit things that are too obvious for the Russian population. Everyone sees there is fuel shortages. How to explain it? Claim it is because we never believed Ukrainians would attack our civilian targets otherwise we of course would have been able to stop it (doubtful since it’s been going on for over a year)

2

u/BruitNoise 17h ago

Definitely going into the dementia phase early. There's old stories and fables in history books of "mad king"...

in modern days, it's just called dementia and being a delusional geriatric and thinking they still sharp as they were in their 20s.

1

u/Hevens-assassin 17h ago

He's spinning it to try and win his base back. "I thought they had morals and wouldn't attack civilians" works well for the propaganda machine.

1

u/Pleasant-Minute-1793 16h ago

He said it in a way that frames Ukraine as bad guys attacking civilian targets. “Oh I can’t believe they would do this”

Not an “uh oh these guys are tougher than we thought”

1

u/deja-roo 19h ago

He didn't admit anything. The headline is nonsense.

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u/Sinisphere 20h ago

The article is published by a Ukraine news outlet. I'll take it with a grain of salt.