By Andrew Osborn
MOSCOW, June 26 (Reuters) - Seething over Ukrainian drone strikes and angered by what they see as a failed U.S. promise to broker an end to the war on favourable terms, Russian hardliners are urging President Vladimir Putin to abandon diplomacy and escalate.
Calls for tougher measures are not new. Nationalist voices have long pressed for full mobilisation, the destruction of Kyiv's government quarter, the assassination of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and strikes on European drone
factories. Some hawks have even called on the Kremlin chief to consider using tactical nuclear weapons.
But Ukraine's deep strikes this month — targeting Moscow, St Petersburg and Crimea, as well as what Russia said were two deadly attacks on passenger buses — have sharpened and intensified those demands.
Analysts say the increasingly strident rhetoric reflects growing unease over the reach and impact of Ukrainian drone attacks, and a broader debate about how Russia — with its vast territory — can defend itself while still pursuing its war aims in a conflict it launched in 2022.
"What else needs to happen before we start fighting for real? War means victory at any cost. The Ukrainians are at war, so they're fighting with everything they've got," said Konstantin Malofeyev, a nationalist tycoon, after a Ukrainian strike set fire to a Moscow oil refinery last week.
"Why are we not using nuclear weapons, which our forebears developed and stockpiled with the full might of the nation precisely for this purpose?" he asked.
CALLS TO ABANDON PEACE TALKS
Some nationalist commentators have urged Moscow to adopt what they cast as Iran's effective military and diplomatic tactics against the United States. The Obsessed by War blog, with over 650,000 followers, has called for rendering major Ukrainian cities unliveable through bombing. Others say it is time to abandon U.S.-brokered peace talks and pursue the outright destruction of the Ukrainian state.
"The start of systematic air strikes on Moscow by the (Ukrainian) junta would have been impossible without the go-ahead from Washington. And why did Trump give Zelenskiy such a green light? The answer is very simple – Iran had Trump by the balls, and he was forced to sign a humiliating agreement," said nationalist blogger Yuri Baranchik, who has nearly 90,000 followers.
"Now he needs to take it out on someone quickly ... So we've got no choice – either we'll get the better of Trump, or he'll get the better of us," Baranchik said on Telegram.
Sources close to the Kremlin say Putin can tolerate such rhetoric. He sits atop a tightly-controlled political system he has built over 26 years and nationalist bloggers need to conform to certain rules.
Analysts say, however, that such statements can still complicate decision-making by inflaming public sentiment and raising expectations of a more expansive military campaign, even as Moscow still wants to keep the door open for a potential diplomatic solution.
KREMLIN RESISTS HARDLINE PRESSURE
So far, the Kremlin has resisted the hawks' calls to abandon negotiations, even though three senior government officials said this week that talks with the U.S. had gone nowhere and accused Washington of not following through on peace proposals it made at last year's Putin-Trump summit in Alaska.
Putin has also avoided endorsing the nationalists' most extreme proposals, although the Defence Ministry in April pointedly published the addresses of factories in several European countries it alleged made drones for Ukraine, in what appeared to be a warning they could be targeted.
Russia's Foreign Ministry also signposted an escalation last month when it said Moscow intended to launch "systematic strikes" on military targets in Kyiv. Heavier bombing runs followed, including one in which a 1,000-year-old monastery in Kyiv was damaged.
For now, Putin appears confident in the current strategy. He told military academy graduates on Tuesday that Russia was close to seizing the city of Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine, as part of its push to control the Donbas region.
He also said political forces in Europe who were hostile to Russia looked likely to be eclipsed by rivals he cast as more reasonable.
"Those who want to restore normal relations with us, to stop this endless drive for a strategic defeat of Russia, are on the rise," said Putin. "It'll all work out in the end."
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn Editing by Ros Russell)
