Kathrine Frich
Four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, rare criticism has emerged from within Moscow’s elite circles.
A high-profile media figure with close ties to the Kremlin has publicly urged an end to the conflict.
Sobchak’s appeal
Ksenia Sobchak, often described in Russian media as Vladimir Putin’s “goddaughter”, marked the war’s fourth anniversary with a call for peace.
“For four years, my country has been living in war,” she wrote, warning that the human cost stretches far beyond what is visible in Moscow and St Petersburg.
“Russians are dying, Ukrainians are dying-sometimes quickly, sometimes in pain and agonisingly slowly. Cities on both sides are freezing without heat and light. All of this must end.”
Sobchak, a television host and former presidential candidate, is the daughter of Anatoly Sobchak, the late St Petersburg mayor who mentored Putin early in his political career.
Hidden grief
In her statement, Sobchak argued that the consequences of the war are etched into thousands of families across Russia.
“But it’s already woven into countless thousands, and thousands, and thousands of human destinies, and if we mark on a map every mother who lost a son or daughter, every wife who lost a husband, every family that lost a person killed at the front, the whole country will be burning with red dots of grief and pain,” she wrote.
“And the further the end of the war, the further away a truly peaceful and calm life for millions of people will be. Today, I wish us all that this day will come sooner.”
Mounting casualties
Her comments followed the release of an interactive project by independent Russian outlet Mediazona, which said it has verified more than 200,000 Russian military deaths since the invasion began.
“The number of deaths in our named list has now exceeded 200,000,” Mediazona stated, adding that the figure includes more than 6,800 officers and 13 generals.
The outlet arranged the photographs of the dead in the shape of a pyramid of skulls, referencing the 1871 painting The Apotheosis of War by Russian artist Vasily Vereshchagin, which depicts the devastation of conflict.
Separate estimates suggest the overall Russian death toll could be closer to 320,000, though these figures cannot be independently verified.
Sources: Mediazona, Express.
