By making Russian society complicit in the war, Putin has forestalled the possibility of a dramatic break with his rule—even after he exits the political stage. And he has created a vexing problem for the United States and its allies, one that is no less challenging than the issue of how to contend with China.

The Russian leader has reportedly postponed a popular event in order to devote his attention to the ongoing war.

There is elite deadlock: they are afraid to become scapegoats for a meaningless war,” says a former Russian government advisor.

The general in charge of Russia's troops in Ukraine has briefed President Vladimir Putin on how his forces repelled a large-scale Ukrainian attack in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, one of his subordinates said on Thursday.

A mood of gloom about the war in Ukraine hangs over Russia's business and political elites, according to Bloomberg, and faith in Putin is shaken.

"Putin tried to commit a new level of aggression," Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Ukraine's occupied southern city of Melitopol, told Newsweek.

Zaporizhzhia – one of four partly occupied regions illegally annexed by the Kremlin – has long been seen as a likely point of a main Ukrainian strike, but Kyiv has worked to m