Disillusioned separatist commander Khodakovsky urges Kremlin to end ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine
After two and a half years of war, even the most fervent Russian patriots are experiencing disappointment. Alexander Khodakovsky, a field commander of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic has begun demanding an end to the so-called "Special Military Operation." Khodakovsky expressed his concerns in a bold post on his Telegram channel,.
Khodakovsky's post is filled with a sharp sense of disappointment in Russia and its Armed Forces. "Once, we eagerly awaited the fifth army… We desperately needed a fresh army… And it was somehow surprising that it was the last one in this vast, almost endless country," Khodakovsky writes. He notes that the weakness of the Russian army and the strength of the Ukrainian army were a big surprise for the Donetsk separatists.
"Advancing, we eventually ran out of steam, while they (Ukrainian Armed Forces) managed to counterattack. We still can't catch our breath," Khodakovsky lamented. He concluded that by deciding to go to war against Ukraine, Russia had false data about the strength of the opponent and their readiness to resist aggression.
Khodakovsky noted that after two and a half years of war, Russia has suffered colossal losses, and yet it hasn’t even come close to occupying all of Donbas, let alone larger territories. He urged the Kremlin to consider the enormous efforts and resources required to capture new Ukrainian cities and then make a decision to halt the "Special Military Operation." "At some point, the formula that we deplete them faster than we deplete ourselves stopped working on this front. I'll say something heretical: not losing what we have now is more important than reclaiming the ‘foreign’ that may not even want to be reclaimed," Khodakovsky stated.