Invasion is going “very badly”: Ultranationalist Girkin complains about Putin’s war

Kremlin opponent Girkin reports from prison. He criticizes Vladimir Putin's conduct of the war and the missing soldiers in the Ukraine war.

Moscow – Since Russia's attack on Ukraine in February 2022, the war for Russian President Vladimir Putin has gone differently than hoped. The losses on the Russian side are high, and Putin has not yet been able to make any major progress. Igor Girkin, a former colonel in the Russian secret service FSB and Putin critic, also sees this. He called Russia's invasion of Ukraine “very bad.”

Nationalist Girkin criticizes Putin's war: invasion is going “very badly”

The imprisoned former separatist Girkin criticized in a letter from his prison cell, which loudly Newsweek on Thursday (January 10) on his Telegram channel, Putin's warfare. He emphasized that the armed forces were lacking soldiers. Major attacks could not be undertaken without mobilization. “There will be no mobilization yet – certainly until the 'elections,'” Girkin said in his letter. “They will try to fill 'gaps in the ranks' and new units at the expense of prisoners and contract soldiers,” he speculated.

“This, in turn, means that in the spring we will have no one and nothing to attack with (and if the mobilization is not carried out in the spring, there will be no one in the summer),” Girkin added. It has long been known that Russia sends many poorly trained soldiers to the front in the Ukrainian war and that poor training is, among other things, one reason for the high number of Russian losses.

Despite imprisonment: Nationalist Girkin is running in the 2024 Russian presidential elections

Putin is ruling out another mobilization like in 2022, as he announced in December at his traditional question time for citizens and journalists at the end of the year. Nevertheless, fears of further mobilization are growing among the population. Just a month earlier, Putin announced that he would take part in the Russian presidential elections in March 2024. The nationalist Girkin had also announced his candidacy. However, he was arrested in July for “public calls for extremism” after several critical online posts about Putin. His trial began behind closed doors in December.

Girkin on Putin's conduct of the war: “A broad offensive is not planned”

In 2022, Girkin, also known by the pseudonym Strelkov, was convicted by the Dutch criminal court for shooting down the Malaysia Airlines passenger plane (MH17) over Ukraine. Girkin gave the order to shoot down the plane, which killed 298 people. He was not present when the verdict was announced.

“A broad offensive (judging by the rhetoric) is no longer planned – everything is aimed at 'waiting' on the defensive until Ukraine falls apart on its own or goes to negotiations,” Girkin said. During this time, Ukraine will gain strength, he wrote. “I personally have no doubt that they will 'try again,'” the Putin critic added. “And it is not a fact that it is as mediocre and unsuccessful as the first time. They still know how to learn, but here we have the same idiots at the top,” he concluded, referring to the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the summer of 2023, which failed to achieve the set goals. (vk)

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