Ex-separatist leader: Ukraine getting stronger while Russia weakening

The former separatist defence minister of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People’s Republic" Igor Girkin (Strelkov) has predicted Russia’s defeat on his Telegram channel and expressed concern over the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ growing combat capability. He noted that the Russian Defence Ministry does not specifically eliminate the gaps as the pre-revolutionary situation is very beneficial for the ministry.

According to Caliber.Az, Strelkov-Girkin wrote about this on his Telegram channel.

“Russia just has nothing to do,” Girkin commented on the all-Russian large-scale preparation for the celebration of “Navy Day” amid the lack of the authorities’ interest in solving the urgent tasks of the army and navy fighting in the southwestern “theatre of operations”.

“I feel that the Kremlin decided that the Russian Federation would be able to fight against Ukraine as it was involved in a war with Vietnam for several years without great damage and without mobilising the soldiers and using industry thanks to only military personnel + those mobilised in Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic ("LDNR"). Russia is doing its best to “push the Ukrainian Armed Forces out of Donbas”. Apparently, “victorious mantras”, such as “Ukrainian troops have almost left Seversk” (they have been “leaving” it every day for almost two weeks) and “Novoluhanske is partially occupied by our troops, the actions were made to occupy the territory around the Uglegorsk thermal power plant” (during a week) are sufficient for maintaining the impression among the population and (probably) the president that "everything is going according to plan, the enemy is almost defeated".

“The Russian Defence Ministry has ignored the lack of the necessary forces at the front for making any serious offensive. It is just stupidly waiting. I think that it is clear that the Ukrainian army will finally be able to inflict heavy blows to the Russian Armed Forces to provoke a "revolutionary situation" by autumn,” he said.

“I have expected such a situation since 2014. “Battle of Mukden" is not far away. Apparently, the forces of the enemy are slowly growing. Our forces are also slowly, but constantly decreasing without new soldiers (because there is nobody who may be mobilised). One day the enemy will have an advantage. It would be better not to see such an unfortunate moment,” he added.