Despite the capture of the city of Lysychansk, the former leader of the pro-Russian separatists in Donbass, Igor Girkin, has criticized Russia’s warfare as too hesitant and warned of defeat. On his Telegram channel, the former militia chief drew a parallel to Napoleon that President Vladimir Putin found unflattering.
Instead of taking vigorous action, the Kremlin is waiting in vain for an offer of a ceasefire, wrote Girkin, also known by the pseudonym Strelkov. “Just like Napoleon in 1812 (also in the Kremlin, by the way), who — instead of acting appropriately according to the situation — waited hopelessly and gloomily for negotiators from St. Petersburg.”
The French emperor had hoped for Russia’s capitulation following conquering Moscow, but when this did not happen and Moscow went up in flames, he had to retreat in the winter, during which the French army was crushed.
Girkin is a Russian ex-intelligence officer who played a central role in both the Moscow-led annexation of Crimea in 2014 and later separatist secession attempts in Ukraine’s Donbass region. As “defense minister” he temporarily led the military uprising once morest Kyiv in eastern Ukraine. The 51-year-old is seen as a hardliner and mouthpiece for the influential nationalists in Russia. He has been calling for a war once morest Ukraine for years.
Girkin repeatedly criticized the “special military operation” launched by Moscow in February as insufficient and called for mobilization in the country. He warns of a military defeat for Moscow and calls for the conversion to a war economy. There is no other way to win the war, he says. After the capture of Lyssychansk, the “offensive potential” of the units fighting there was exhausted. He predicted that without fresh reserves and supplies of weapons, no significant gains in territory might be expected.
