Mick Hartley

Signs of dissent in the Russian media:

Russian state television has broadcast calls for Vladimir Putin, the country’s president, to stop his war in Ukraine during a programme in which pundits openly likened the invasion to "Afghanistan, but even worse".

Vladimir Soloviyev, usually one of the Kremlin's most reliable chief propagandists, had to interrupt guests on his prime time television talk show to stop their criticism of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking during a broadcast on Russia 1, Karen Shakhnazarov, a filmmaker and state pundit, said the conflict in Ukraine risked isolating Russia.

He told Mr Soloviyev: “I have a hard time imagining taking cities such as Kyiv. I can’t imagine how that would look.”

He went on to call for the conflict to be brought to an end, saying: “If this picture starts to transform into an absolute humanitarian disaster, even our close allies like China and India will be forced to distance themselves from us.

“This public opinion, with which they’re saturating the entire world, can play out badly for us … Ending this operation will stabilise things within the country.”

Later during the broadcast of An Evening with Vladimir Soloviyev, one of Russian television's most-watched programmes, guest Semyon Bagdasarov, an academic, said: "Do we need to get into another Afghanistan, but even worse?”

He said that in Ukraine “there are more people and they’re more advanced in their weapon handling”, adding: “We don’t need that. Enough already."

The reference to Afghanistan, a conflict that scarred the Soviet Union and still scars Russia, was particularly poignant. The Soviet Union pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989, 10 years after it invaded, humiliated….

On the Russian ministry of defence's television channel, Zvezda, a serving army officer explained to a talk show audience how Russian soldiers were dying in Ukraine. "Our guys over there, from Donetsk and Luhansk, and our special operation forces are dying and our country," he said.

"No, no, no," interrupted the presenter who gets up from his desk gesticulating and marches across the studio shouting: "Stop!"

"Our youth are still dying," the soldier continued.

By this time, the presenter had come up to him and shouted: "Can you stop now? I will tell you what our guys are doing there. Our guys are smashing the fascist snakes. It's a triumph of the Russian army. It's a Russian renaissance."

Brave people. Russia is threatening to imprison anyone who criticises the war for up to 15 years.