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.

  • oce 🐆
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    210 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
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        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
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            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]
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              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]
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          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 🐆
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        -110 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]
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          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@lemmygrad.ml
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      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.