Official Russia took no notice of the six-month anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s decision to send troops into Ukraine.

Why draw attention to the fact that Russian troops sit in a grinding war of attrition in Donbas with the frontlines scarcely moving when the initial game plan appeared to be for Kyiv to fall in a week?

Even Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu admitted today at a conference in Uzbekistan that the operation was slowing.

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All in the name of avoiding civilian casualties, he said. All in the name of international humanitarian law.

At the international army games in Moscow, a two-week extravaganza – part military expo, part war Olympics – crowds watched as teams from a variety of “friendly” nations competed in a tank biathlon.

That involved tanks racing each other and firing off at targets, bone-shattering explosions piercing through the 32-degree heat, the kind of explosions Ukrainians are used to now.

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Children clambered over tanks. Teens posed for photos beside them. A granny tried her hand at a Kalashnikov. Russia is a heavily militarised society, this is normal.

All in what is known as Patriot’s Park an hour outside Moscow, where the army recently completed a huge cathedral in camouflage colours – a vivid symbol of the cross-germination of the church, army and state which has fused in the missionary language around Russia’s special military operation.

In one exhibition hall, groups of military men toured exhibits from the battlefield.

On display were weapons and military equipment, with flags showing which Western nations the equipment allegedly came from.

A mannequin dressed as a Ukrainian soldier clutched a captured British man pad.

On his exposed skin, the curators had drawn a collection of Nazi tattoos, presumably to drum home the endlessly repeated (and false) state narrative that this is a fight against Nazis.

In one corner, a television screen played out another motif favoured by state TV: two male Ukrainian soldiers kissing, an attempt to portray Ukraine’s army as awash with all that is antithetical to conservative Russian values.

Also on this six-month milestone far away in the city of Yekaterinburg, the opposition politician and former Mayor Yevgeny Roizman was detained.

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The charges against him now are criminal, after a succession of fines for repeated violations of Russia’s law on discrediting the armed forces.

Mr Roizman told Sky News in May that he would never leave Russia, he loved his country, but that he saw no good outcomes.

“But Ukraine is standing,” he said then. “We are witnessing the birth of a nation.”

And then another quote which stuck with me: “Propaganda is able to turn people into cattle. And this whole propaganda morass falls away when the situation changes. And it will change anyway, because it is impossible to live like this.”

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