'Putin will be gone soon': Exiled Russian dissident Ilya Ponomarev

Ilya Ponomarev, a former Russian lawmaker-turned-opponent of Vladimir Putin, who has lived in Ukraine since 2016, told FRANCE 24 that Putin has already lost the war in Ukraine and that his days in power are numbered. 

Ponomarev, who was the only member of the Russian Douma to vote against the annexation of Crimea back in 2014 and who joined the Ukrainian territorial defence forces at the onset of the war, warned that the Russian president will attempt to obtain a military victory by trying to carve out a Russian-controlled area from Kharkiv to Odesa, which would include the Donbas region.

>> Alleged war crimes in Ukraine: 'This is the moment of truth for international justice'

However, he said that Russia had shown its military incompetence by failing to conquer the capital Kyiv and warned that the same fate awaits Moscow in eastern and southern Ukraine. Ponomarev asserted that there would likely be "more" crimes like the ones allegedly committed in Bucha and Borodyanka, towns from which Russia recently retreated.

Ponomarev claimed that these crimes were most likely the results of "panic"  by retreating Russian forces rather than the outcome of a carefully designated scheme, noting that the Russian withdrawal was the result of a military defeat and not a planned operation like Moscow claims.

>> Can Moscow ignore the outrage? Russia rejects mounting evidence of Ukraine war crimes

The former Russian lawmaker brushed aside polls that show growing support for the war in Ukraine in Russia, stressing that Putin himself was not as popular as the so-called "special military operation" in Ukraine and that people in Russia were afraid to speak their minds.

Ponomarev claimed that Putin's days are numbered, arguing that no dictator