It remains to be seen what the Ukrainian invasion of Russia will accomplish on the battlefield or how long it will even last. Nevertheless, there are some signs that the invasion is causing some Russians, and not just the ones currently being evacuated from their homes, to turn on President Putin. 

While news outlets in Russia have tried to put a more positive spin on the developments in the war, focusing on the Russian government’s humanitarian response, some Russian social media users have expressed discontent.

Many of the online postings, according to the analysis by FilterLabs AI, say Ukraine’s advance is a failure of the Russian government and, more specifically, Mr. Putin...

“Putin’s response to the incursion was seen as inadequate at best and insulting at worst,” said Jonathan Teubner, the chief executive of FilterLabs...

“If Putin’s prestige and popularity fall in these key regions (especially if Russians feel that the war is going badly), the Kremlin may find it more difficult to fill its military ranks,” the FilterLabs analysis said.

Discontent on social media is one thing but last weekend another Russian mercenary leader posted a video calling for Putin's ouster. His name is Georgy Zakrevsky and he's the founder of a mercenary group called PMC Paladin.

"Our country is not just on the brink of disaster or already right next to it, our country is already in trouble, in big trouble," he warned in the recording. "Drones are flying all over central Russia, right up to Moscow and St. Petersburg. They even attacked the Kremlin."

"Our Black Sea fleet is being pushed out. It's being pushed out as if we are not a great power with a great fleet, but some third-rate country," he continued. "Our aviation is practically not working because it is also being pushed out. We are standing in the same positions that we took more than two years ago, and partly in those to which we retreated."

From there he went on to mock "the Great Putin."

"The population is dying out, becoming impoverished, drinking itself to death - no one cares.

"All they have time to do is bring in migrants. And all this was done by the so-called 'president' - 'The Great' Putin."

The video has been extensively distributed among the Russian army and clearly presents an alarming threat to the Kremlin.

The video also includes a call to people serving in the trenches, saying they already know how bad things are. 

It's impossible to know what kind of reception this has received from other soldiers, but obviously this is all very reminiscent of Prigozhin's turn on Putin. He also criticized the conduct of the invasion for months and finally set off for Moscow, apparently with the intent of removing Putin from power. Prighozin got cold feet and, as we all know, ended up dying in a plane crash not long after pledging his allegiance to Putin.

Unlike Prigozhin, Zakrevsky only has about 300 mercenaries in his company. So he's not about to attempt any kind of military coup on his own, but he is calling for a march on Moscow. Maybe this goes nowhere or maybe we're seeing the signs that a lot of Russians have had enough of Putin and are ready for something else.

Here's a bit of Zakrevsky's video. You can have Google auto-translate it to get the gist.