Key Takeaways:
•
Russian President Vladimir Putin attempted to use an interview with
American media personality Tucker Carlson published on February 8 to
present to a wider Western audience a long-standing Kremlin information
operation that falsely asserts that Russia is interested in a negotiated
end to its war in Ukraine. Putin illustrated throughout the interview
that Russia has no interest in meaningful or legitimate negotiations,
however, and that Putin still seeks to destroy Ukraine as a state. Putin
also displayed his overarching hostility towards the West and falsely
accused the West of forcing Russia to attack Ukraine.
•
Putin also attempted to use the interview to absurdly reframe Russia as
the wronged party and not the initiator of Russia’s unprovoked war of
conquest against Ukraine.
•
Putin continued attempts to justify Russia’s invasions of Ukraine in
2014 and 2022 as responses to Ukraine’s and the West’s actions in order
to defend his long-standing calls for regime change in Kyiv and
Ukraine’s “demilitarization” “denazification,” and “neutrality.”
• Putin continued to propagate pseudo-history in an effort to deny Ukrainian statehood and nationhood.
•
Putin also reiterated a quasi-realist world view that defines weakening
the West and dismantling NATO as pre-requisites for the Russian-led
multipolar world he desires to create.
•
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky replaced General Valerii
Zaluzhnyi with Ukrainian Ground Forces Commander Colonel General
Oleksandr Syrskyi as Ukraine’s Commander-inChief on February 8, as part
of wider military leadership changes. Such changes are normal for
states engaged in a protracted war.
•
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a
routine phone call on February 8 that underscored China’s hesitance to
support Russia’s desired bilateral RussoSino relationship while Russia
forges deeper partnerships with Iran and North Korea.
• Ukrainian and Russian forces conducted a one-to-one prisoner of war (POW) exchange on February 8.
•
The Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) reported
that it recently conducted a cyberattack against the Russian Ministry of
Defense (MoD) preventing Russian forces from automatically operating an
unspecified number of likely first-person view (FPV) drones.
•
The Russian Central Election Committee (CEC) refused to register Boris
Nadezhdin, the only anti-war Russian presidential candidate, for the
March 2024 presidential election likely due to his
larger-than-anticipated popularity.
• Some Russian and Ukrainian sources claimed that Russian forces are using Starlink in occupied Ukraine.
•
Ukrainian forces recently made confirmed advances near Kreminna and
Russian forces recently made confirmed advances near Kreminna, Avdiivka,
and Donetsk City amid continued positional fighting along the entire
line of contact on February 8.
•
The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) proposed a draft bill on February
8 to establish a single maximum age for contract service personnel
(kontraktniki) during a period of partial mobilization, martial law, or
wartime.
•
Russian authorities are likely setting conditions to falsify voting
results in occupied Ukraine in the March 2024 presidential election.
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