‘We Cannot Win’ Says Top Russian Commander Alexander Khodakovsky
www.kyivpost.com
The leader of the Russian battalion defeated at liberated Urozhaine calls for “freezing the front” after his unreinforced troops were devastated in a rout.

https://archive.li/Z0m5m

The Russian commander of the “Vostok” Battalion fighting in southern Ukraine said on Thursday that Ukraine will not be defeated and suggested that Russia freeze the war along current frontlines.

Alexander Khodakovsky made the candid concession yesterday on his Telegram channel after Russian forces, including his own troops, were devastatingly defeated by Ukrainian marines earlier this week at Urozhaine in the Zaporizhzhia-Donetsk regional border area.

“Can we bring down Ukraine militarily? Now and in the near future, no,” Khodakovsky, a former official of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, said yesterday.

“When I talk to myself about our destiny in this war, I mean that we will not crawl forward, like the [Ukrainians], turning everything into [destroyed] Bakhmuts in our path. And, I do not foresee the easy occupation of cities,” he said.

  • purahna@lemmygrad.ml
    887·
    1 year ago

    this thread is wild

    can we remember, everyone:

    1. discussion on who is winning has no bearing on discussion of who is in the right, and vice versa

    2. Russia, Ukraine, and NATO can all be evil and wrong for separate and true reasons

    3. criticizing NATO does not amount to supporting Putin

    4. criticizing Putin does not amount to supporting NATO

    • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
      3114·
      1 year ago

      Can we also remember that Russia is a country and Putin is it’s head. You don’t even know the name of the top leadership of NATO. You don’t say this is Biden’s proxy war but you imagine every single decision is Putin’s.

      And also, stop psychologizing world leaders as though you have a parasocial relationship with them.

        • McCainRBGcreampie [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          296·
          1 year ago

          Um, actually, geopolitics is YA literature and marvel movies.

          Harry Potter zelensky-pain

          vs

          Thanos putin-wink

          and if you disagree, you’re a fascist communist putler-lover

          • ProfessorAdonisCnut [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
            222·
            1 year ago

            Can’t wait for people to not care anymore about the gallant people of Ukraine under Russian occupation because they got Marvel fatigue and stopped watching the war 3 seasons ago.

            • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
              161·
              1 year ago

              Haven’t most people already given up on this? I thought it was just us weird politics people who don’t get invited to parties now?

              • SoyViking [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
                121·
                1 year ago

                For what it’s worth, most of the Ukraine flags that people put up in my city when the war started has been taken down months ago.

        • Ram_The_Manparts [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          81·
          1 year ago

          Norwegian here. We are a country filled with the most mediocre people, and Jens is the most mediocre Norwegian ever.

          The fact that he holds top office in NATO tells you everything you ever needed to know about that dogshit organization.

          • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml
            52·
            1 year ago

            Norwegian here. We are a country filled with the most mediocre people, and Jens is the most mediocre Norwegian ever.

            The fact that he holds top office in NATO tells you everything you ever needed to know about that dogshit organization.

            18 brumaire moment

      • purahna@lemmygrad.ml
        106·
        1 year ago

        I don’t imagine that every decision is Putin’s, and it’s just as much Biden’s proxy war as Putin’s except that Putin has been head of government for the entire duration of the build-up whereas the build-up started 4 US heads of government ago. I’m just using the terminology most frequently used in the discourse.

        Also I will psychologize any world leader I please, any leader of a bourgeoisie state is a horrible wretched ghoul

      • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
        1614·
        1 year ago

        A democratically elected president and a dictator don’t represent their people with the same legitimacy nor do they have the same concentration of powers at their personal disposal.

        • InappropriateEmote [comrade/them, undecided]@hexbear.netEnglish
          236·
          1 year ago

          Putin’s approval in Russia consistently polls extremely high and his decisions generally supported, whereas Biden’s approval hovers around the high 30s-percentage, breaking records for lowest approval in the history of the country. And you think Putin has even a modicum of the power that the leader of the country that is world hegemon has?

          data-laughing

          • SeaJ@lemm.ee
            52·
            1 year ago

            Odd that Putin still has to stop obviously rig his elections considering how support is so high.

              • SeaJ@lemm.ee
                33·
                1 year ago

                Those western sources also agree that he rigged his election. Not saying he needed to but it was very obvious that he did.

                • InappropriateEmote [comrade/them, undecided]@hexbear.netEnglish
                  192·
                  1 year ago

                  Not saying he needed to but it was very obvious that he did.

                  picard

                  Do you hear what you’re saying?

                  Putin: “Even though I have overwhelming support, I’m going to conduct a giant conspiracy to win an election I would win anyway. It may come with very high cost and no actual benefit, but YOLO. In fact it might even undermine all that support I already have. But fuck it, I’m an evil dictator, so that’s what I’m gonna do.”

                  putin-wink

                  Those western sources also agree that he rigged his election.

                  Maybe, just maybe… no, no, hear me out… Maybe you should start questioning all the things you hear from those western sources?

            • Alaskaball [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
              183·
              1 year ago

              Like how the American democrats put their whole ass on the scale in order to get biden to win their nomination, or how the entire american media apparatus openly collaborated with the democrats in order to drag biden’s senile corpse past trump’s bloated corpse to the finish line?

              Russia is a product of American interference, and their government is but a reflection of the wretched system of governance that is the American government.

          • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
            46·
            1 year ago

            Polls are not trustworthy in a country with no freedom of press and repressed/assassinated political opposition.
            Yes, Putin over his decades of authoritarian regime has way more power over his country than Biden or any democratically elected head of state over theirs.

            • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
              232·
              1 year ago

              Christ let me go get the fucking qoute. Third time today.

              “During the cold war, the anticommunist ideological framework could transform any data about existing communist societies into hostile evidence. If the Soviets refused to negotiate a point, they were intransigent and belligerent; if they appeared willing to make concessions, this was but a skillful ploy to put us off our guard. By opposing arms limitations, they would have demonstrated their aggressive intent; but when in fact they supported most armament treaties, it was because they were mendacious and manipulative. If the churches in the USSR were empty, this demonstrated that religion was suppressed; but if the churches were full, this meant the people were rejecting the regime’s atheistic ideology. If the workers went on strike (as happened on infrequent occasions), this was evidence of their alienation from the collectivist system; if they didn’t go on strike, this was because they were intimidated and lacked freedom. A scarcity of consumer goods demonstrated the failure of the economic system; an improvement in consumer supplies meant only that the leaders were attempting to placate a restive population and so maintain a firmer hold over them. If communists in the United States played an important role struggling for the rights of workers, the poor, African-Americans, women, and others, this was only their guileful way of gathering support among disfranchised groups and gaining power for themselves. How one gained power by fighting for the rights of powerless groups was never explained. What we are dealing with is a nonfalsifiable orthodoxy, so assiduously marketed by the ruling interests that it affected people across the entire political spectrum.”

              When it good country polls good and accurate

              When it bad country polls bad lies and falsehoods

              Every fucking time.

        • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
          76·
          1 year ago

          So the Russian Federation, a republic, built in the aftermath of the dismantling of the largest bureaucratic democracy in the world built under the eye of the West for the purpose of liberty and freedom and economic capitalism, that Russian Federation is so different than the West that we can attribute nearly all bad things done by Russia to Putin, but in the West it’s such a complex and nuanced situation that it’s really the whole system to blame?

          Keep huffing cope. You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.