Candidates in Putin's election avoid mentioning Ukraine as support for war plummets

Support for Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine fluctuates in Russia Photo: Mikhail Metzel/Pool via AP

Vladimir Putin's candidates in local elections in Russia avoid talking about the war in Ukraine for fear it could lose their votes, opposition media reported.

United Russia party sources in the Urals told the Verstka website that they had destroyed propaganda campaign leaflets.

“There is not a single person here who supports the war. There are no Z-cars here,” a source in Putin’s party said. “If you support the war, you will not be elected.”

The layout reported that high-profile candidates in the September 10 elections still had to support the conflict in public, but lower-profile contenders shied away from this topic.

“The reaction is too unpredictable,” said Stanislav Andreichuk, co-chairman of Golos, a Russian non-governmental organization that monitors voting.

He described how Sergei Sokol, a United Russia MP who served in a VIP battalion in occupied Ukraine, toned down his comments about the war and stopped wearing a camouflage military jacket since he was nominated as a candidate for governor of the Khakass region in Siberia.

The Nestka report gives a glimpse of how Russia's support for Putin's war in Ukraine is waning 17 months after the president ordered a full-scale invasion.

Western analysts say more than 200,000 Russians have been killed or wounded at war. This week, another Russian opposition website reported that overworked doctors at regional hospitals are quitting due to the stress of treating so many mentally and physically broken soldiers.

“There are almost no doctors left, and now the last ones are leaving for unrealistic demands on them,” a source in the Kemerovo region of Siberia told Novaya Plate.

Citizens also experience economic pain. This month, Russia's Central Bank raised interest rates for the first time in a year, warning of inflation linked to a sharp reduction in Russia's workforce.

Ozon, a Russian online retailer, said it would follow suit. car manufacturer AvtoVAZ and hire prisoners to cover the shortfall. The 500 convicts will pack the boxes in their warehouses, but Ozon insists they won't deliver the goods to customers.