Russian officials have publicly called for Vladimir Putin’s resignation, issuing a statement summoning him to be tried for treason.
District councils in Russian President Vladimir Putin's home city of St Petersburg were among those who have urged the Kremlin to oust the 69-year-old warmonger.
More than 40 local elected officials across Russia signed a petition on Monday that ended with: “We demand the resignation of Vladimir Putin from the post of president of the Russian Federation!”
Dmitry Palyuga, one of the councillors, tweeted that the motion was supported by most of the district’s deputies.
"We believe that the decision made by President Putin to start the special military operation is detrimental to the security of Russia and its citizens,” he said.
Criticism of the President is creeping upwards, with Boris Nadezhdin, a former liberal politician, saying recently live on TV that Mr Putin had been misled into thinking Ukraine would capitulate if he invaded.
“We are now at the point where we have to understand that it’s absolutely impossible to defeat Ukraine using those resources and colonial methods with which Russia is trying to wage war,” he said.
Mr Nadezhdin said Russia has little chance of success while fighting a Ukrainian army backed by European weapons.
Ongoing Kremlin critics have said Russia's setbacks on the frontlines prompted them to take the risk of speaking out against Mr Putin.
“There is now hope that Ukraine will end this war,” said Ksenia Torstrem, a member of a municipal council in St. Petersburg who helped organise the petition.
Recently Russia withdrew troops from more than a thousand square miles of northeastern Ukraine, causing one senior lawmaker to say in an interview that an “urgent adjustment” to the war effort was needed.
Lawmaker Konstantin Zatulin, a senior member of Parliament in Mr Putin’s United Russia party, said the retreat has done “very serious damage to the very idea of this special military operation".
He continued: "It must be underlined that this criticism should not go overboard. Otherwise, it could spark an uncontrollable reaction.”
The Kremlin said on Monday that the invasion would “be continued until the original goals are achieved”.
Ms Torstrem said the draft petition issued on Monday was careful not to mention the war, to avoid being criminalised under the laws that outlaw criticism of it.
The petition said only that Mr Putin’s actions “do harm to the future of Russia and its citizens.”
The petition had 19 signatories when she published it on Monday morning and by the end of the day, the number had grown to more than 40.
