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.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      You know what would be even more senseless than dying in a trench? Dying in an FSB torture cellar while your family gets raped.

        • barsoap@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Stuff you don’t want to hear so didn’t hear, apparently: Russian torture cellars. Other things you might not want to hear include Russians castrating POWs.

          • 420blazeit69 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            I said the war is lost and Ukraine should negotiate. You said:

            It’s not in your hands whether they fight or not, and their motive is just, so why not help them?

            I pointed out how ridiculous it is to say “why not help them” is to someone who just said they believed the war was lost. Rather than continue this conversation, you went off on a tangent. Brilliant.

            • barsoap@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              It’s not a tangent. Even if Ukraine lost (and it didn’t, and you made no actual argument on why I should believe so) with the kind of atrocities Russia is committing in occupied territories tons of people would, and, well, do, fight against the occupiers.

              • 420blazeit69 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                1 year ago

                you made no actual argument on why I should believe so

                Would anything convince you?

                And yes, bringing up allegations of war crimes is a total non sequitur in a discussion about whether the war itself is winnable for Ukraine. No war crime is excusable, but every side of every war commits them.

                • barsoap@lemm.ee
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                  1 year ago

                  Would anything convince you?

                  Yes. It would involve military analysis.

                  • 420blazeit69 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                    1 year ago
                    • The front has not moved in most of a year, which includes the recent failed counteroffensive.
                    • Russia views this as an existential threat. NATO will pay the bills but not indefinitely. Ukraine at some point will tire of a train of body bags with nothing to show for them.
                    • Russia has much shorter supply lines than NATO.
                    • NATO pulled out its economic Trump card at the beginning of the conflict and yet here we are.