She tried to point out that support from China and India was just as good as support from Europe, that perhaps professional soldiers were superior to conscripts and that Russia “had no choice. “, the standard Kremlin justification for its invasion by presenting Ukraine as a threat. .
Mr Khodaryonok appeared to be careful not to say anything overtly critical of the Russian side, repeatedly stressing that the whole situation was “not normal”. Regarding morale issues, for example, he went back in history and noted that Marx and Lenin had said that high morale was an important factor for success on the battlefield. He did not directly refer to recent indications that the Russian military is suffering from morale problems.
In March, Russia criminalized denunciation of its war effort, including calling it war rather than a “special military operation.”
Mr. Khodaryonok has criticized Russian military operations in the past. In an unusual column published in early February, before the invasion, he warned against this, saying it would not be the cake walk that many Russian analysts had expected and that it was not within “ national interests” of Russia.
He accurately predicted that the Ukrainians would fight hard to defend their country and that the West would provide considerable weapons. “There will be no blitzkrieg in Ukraine,” he wrote in Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, a Russian weekly supplement on military issues.
Even earlier, about a year after Russia sent its army to Syria in 2015 to support President Bashar al-Assad, he wrote a column for an internet news service, Gazeta.Ru, suggesting that the Syrian army was an unworthy ally, pointing out its lack of military success and corruption.
Regarding the war in Ukraine, however, he has already praised the Russian effort.
In comments on his Telegram channel posted just a week ago, he said military theorists for years to come would study the special operation as something “unique”. He said the Russian advances in the eastern region of Donbass were due to the discipline, training, morale of its military, as well as the effectiveness of its artillery. He also repeated the unfounded Russian claim that the Ukrainian side encouraged the Nazis.
nytimes Gt