Russian President Vladimir Putin’s army is facing a catastrophic Catch-22 dilemma in Ukraine where attacking or retreating would result in further military losses, an eminent pro-Kremlin war analyst reportedly cautioned this week.
Putin’s war strategy has led to the current military impasse, Igor Stretlkov, a former FSB colonel and ex-defense minister of the self-styled Donetsk People’s Republic in Russia-occupied Ukraine, asserted in a video published by the Daily Mail on January 4.
“It is impossible to keep on defending because it quickly worsens [our] strategic position,” declared Strelkov, a long-time critic of Putin’s war strategy who enjoys support among some commanders in the army and secret services. “And it is impossible to attack since this is fraught with a quick military catastrophe.”
“Intelligent people have come to the conclusion that, in the current situation, Russia is in a complete Zugzwang,” Stretlkov said.
“Zugzwang” is German for a “compulsion to move.”
“There is not a word said about the Kremlin going for radical personnel changes and other necessary reforms,” Stretlkov pointed out. “No one believes in this anymore.”
The Russian “army does not understand what it is fighting for,” he stressed, noting that volunteer troops who knew their purpose were a “drop in the ocean compared to the overall number of soldiers and officers at the front.”
Putin’s problems lie with the army’s regular forces, Stretlkov said.
The staunchly pro-war analyst implied that Putin’s war strategy is fueling his own downfall.
Stretlkov’s assessment came to light on the same day that news surfaced of Kyrylo Budanov, the military intelligence chief in Ukraine, telling ABC News 70-year-old Putin is terminally ill and may soon succumb to cancer.
“He has been sick for a long time; I am sure he has cancer. I think he will die very quickly. I hope very soon,” Budanov proclaimed, citing unnamed sources close to the Russian leader.
Putin is pushing Russia towards revolution as it repeats the same calamitous military mistakes made in the months prior to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, which triggered seven decades of communist tyranny, Stretlkov indicated.
“The combat effectiveness and morale of the [Russian] army [in Ukraine] is strongly reminiscent of the same before the July 1917 offensive of [Alexander] Kerensky,” Strelkov said.
Kerensky reportedly served as Russian provisional government chief following the removal of the last tsar Nicholas II. He insisted on an ill-advised counter-offensive with disastrous results.
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The decision triggered a mutiny among the troops, resuling the death of thousands of soldiers and the end of the offensive, the Daily Mail noted.
Strelkov lambasted Putin’s top commanders for pushing a counteroffensive aimed at catching Ukraine and NATO supporters off guard while they remained vigilant.
This “clearly demonstrates the general level of brainlessness of our top generals,” Strelkov said.
Strelkov’s real name is Igor Girkin, the Daily Mail revealed. He was one of the essential players that made Putin’s seizure of Crimea and the Ukrainian region of Donetsk possible in 2014.
A Dutch court convicted Strelkov, 52, and two others for downing the Malaysian Airline passenger jet, killing all 298 on board in 2014.
Still, he is reportedly considered an eminent war analyst inside Russia.
