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
    link
    81
    edit-2
    10 months 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
      link
      1710 months 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]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          2410 months 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]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            2010 months 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]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              1510 months 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]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                1110 months 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.

      • DerEwigeAtheist [she/her, comrade/them]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        1810 months ago

        Jens Stoltenberg is the Nato top guy, some Norwegian. Commited anticommunist, also I never voted for NATO membership, noone did, in fact there was never even a choice.

        • Ram_The_Manparts [he/him]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          710 months 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
            link
            fedilink
            310 months 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
        link
        410 months 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 🐆
        link
        fedilink
        010 months 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.

        • 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
            link
            fedilink
            310 months ago

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

            • It is indeed odd that US propaganda can’t make up its mind between “Putin Ebil Crazed Dictator Sole Actor Behind War” and “Russian Brainpan Predisposed to Being Big Meanies.” So Which is it? Do Russians actually not support Putin and the SMO or are all of these western sources talking about his soaring approval actually just on Putin’s payroll?

              • SeaJ
                link
                fedilink
                010 months ago

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

                • 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?

                • Ram_The_Manparts [he/him]
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  610 months ago

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

                  Come on. Take like ten seconds to think about what you typed out here.

            • Alaskaball [comrade/them]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              1510 months 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 🐆
            link
            fedilink
            -210 months 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]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              2110 months 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
          link
          1
          edit-2
          10 months 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.