On February 14, 2024, russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that while the “special military operation began as an operation against Ukraine, over time it has taken on the form of a war against the collective West, a war when the countries of the collective West, led by the United States, are directly involved in this conflict.” This is broadly consistent with a trend in russian official rhetoric that seeks to excuse the length of the war, and scale of russian losses through the depiction of the war as a direct conflict with the West, the UK Defense Intelligence reports.
Dmitry Peskov went on to acknowledge that the war “may last a bit longer, but this can’t change the course of things.” This forms part of the russian official narrative almost certainly aimed at situating the domestic population for a long-term conflict and the associated decline in domestic living standards, while providing reassurance of ultimate russian victory.
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