Russian hardliners, angered by the Ukrainian drone strikes and disappointed by what they see as a broken promise by the United States to mediate an end to the war on terms favorable to Moscow, are calling on President Vladimir Putin to abandon diplomacy and move to escalation, Reuters reports.
Calls for tougher measures are nothing new. Nationalist voices have long called for full mobilization, the destruction of the government district in Kiev, the elimination of President Volodymyr Zelensky and strikes on European drone factories. Some of these "hawks" even calling on the Kremlin to consider using tactical nuclear weapons.
But Ukrainian strikes deep into Russian territory this month - against Moscow, St. Petersburg and Crimea, as well as what Russia described as two deadly attacks on passenger buses - have intensified and sharpened those calls.
Analysts say the increasingly harsh rhetoric reflects growing concern about the scale and effect of the Ukrainian drone attacks, as well as a broader debate about how Russia - with its vast territory - can defend itself while continuing to pursue its military objectives in a war that began in 2022.
"What more needs to happen for us to start fighting for real? War means winning at all costs. "Ukrainians are at war, so they are using everything they have," said nationalist tycoon Konstantin Malofeev after a Ukrainian strike set fire to a Moscow oil refinery last week.
"Why don't we use the nuclear weapons that our ancestors developed and amassed with all the might of the state precisely for such situations?" he asked.
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Calls to abandon peace talks
Some nationalist commentators have called on Moscow to adopt what they describe as Iran's successful military and diplomatic tactics against the United States. The blog "Obsessed with War", which has more than 650,000 followers, calls for major Ukrainian cities to be rendered uninhabitable through massive bombing. Others believe that the time has come for Russia to abandon the US-brokered peace talks and move towards the complete destruction of the Ukrainian state.
"The start of the (Ukrainian) junta's systematic air strikes against Moscow would have been impossible without a green light from Washington. And why did Trump give such a green light to Zelensky? The answer is very simple - Iran was holding Trump in check and forcing him to sign a humiliating agreement," said nationalist blogger Yuriy Baranchik, who has nearly 90,000 followers.
"Now he needs to quickly take it out on someone... So we have no choice - either we will prevail over Trump, or he will prevail over us," Baranchik wrote on Telegram.
Sources close to the Kremlin claim that Putin can afford to tolerate such rhetoric. He presides over a tightly controlled political system built over 26 years, and nationalist bloggers must abide by certain rules.
According to analysts, however, such statements could still complicate the decision-making process, stoking public sentiment and raising expectations for a larger military campaign, even though Moscow still wants to leave the door open for a possible diplomatic solution.
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For now, the Kremlin has resisted calls from hardliners to end the talks, although three senior Russian government officials said this week that talks with the United States had failed and accused Washington of not being implemented the peace proposals made at last year's Putin-Trump meeting in Alaska.
Putin has avoided supporting the nationalists' most extreme proposals, although in April the Russian Defense Ministry ostentatiously published the addresses of factories in several European countries that it claims are producing drones for Ukraine, in an apparent signal that they could become potential targets.
Last month, the Russian Foreign Ministry also signaled a possible escalation, announcing that Moscow intended to launch "systematic strikes" on military targets in Kiev. More massive airstrikes followed, including one that damaged a thousand-year-old monastery in the Ukrainian capital.
For now, Putin seems confident in the current strategy. On Tuesday, he told military academies that Russia was close to capturing the eastern Ukrainian town of Kostantynivka as part of its offensive to gain control of the Donbass region.
He also said that political forces in Europe that are hostile to Russia are likely to be replaced by their rivals, whom he believes are more reasonable.
"Those who want to restore normal relations with us and end this endless policy of seeking Russia's strategic defeat are gaining strength," Putin said. "In the end, everything will work out."