Kremlin prepares Russians for decade-long war with Ukraine

"Russian state news services edited the comments of Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, stating that he said the Ukrainian state would cease to exist by 2034. This is likely to support the Kremlin's efforts to prepare the Russian public for a long war in Ukraine while promising that Russia will achieve its goal of destroying Ukrainian statehood within a decade," the American Institute for the Study of War wrote in its daily report.

At the same time, the Russians are not ceasing their efforts to " create the appearance that Russia is normalizing its relations with the West." These efforts include recent meetings with diplomats or representatives of Western governments.

Let us recall that Viktor Orban recently visited Moscow, where he held talks with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. The meeting between the leaders of Hungary and Russia was recalled by Kremlin Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who on July 16 met on the sidelines of the UN summit in New York with his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto.

Lavrov and Szijjarto "reinforced the Kremlin's standard narrative on the war in Ukraine, condemned the alleged human rights violations against Ukraine's 'national minorities,' and reiterated that Russian-Hungarian relations will continue to develop despite the 'difficult international situation,'" the American think tank indicated.