A former Russian prime minister has raised hopes that an end to the war may be on the horizon, saying Moscow is starting to lose the war.
Mikhail Kasyanov said that the withdrawal of Russian troops from Kharkiv and Kherson is a “demonstration that Putin is losing the war”.
“I think that within a few months there will be the final act [of the war]”, he said.
However, he said it was “clear that Putin does not want to stop” and described the Russian president as a “fanatic” but despite this, Kasyanov said “the beginning of the end has already begun”.
His statement comes on the day the Ukrainian president appeared in the city of Kherson just days after Russia’s withdrawal.
Speaking to Ukrainian troops, Volodymyr Zelensky said: “We are moving forward. We are ready for peace, peace for our whole country”.
Kherson was captured by Russian forces in the first weeks of the invasion and had been the largest Ukrainian city under Moscow’s control.
In September, Moscow illegally annexed the wider Kherson region, along with Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia – and said these areas would always be Russian.