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.

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[–] anewbeginning@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It was definitely not obvious that early.

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It became obvious once the EU and NATO committed to sending aid and supplies.

[–] azimir@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

Yeah... even with it's atrophied industrial muscles, you don't out-build the US and Europe combined. Worst case scenario comes when the US and Europe actually start committing to wartime production. We're still not doing that. Almost everything so far has been from old stocks and supplies.

During World War II, the US sent 1,911 locomotives, and 11,225 railcars to the Soviet Union under the lend-lease program, just as an example of the scale of production we have achieved in the past. The US has many many many flaws, but we've demonstrated a history of being able to out-build everyone once we're committed to it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease

Another phenomenal one was that the US shipyards put out an average of one Liberty Ship every TWO days (every other day....) from 1941 to 1945. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_ship

Hell, we made 270+ destroyers during WWII. It's a mind bending quantity of ships produced: https://destroyerhistory.org/fletcherclass/

We can't afford healthcare, our cities are rotting out, and our schools are being undermined by small minded bigots, but we can sure as hell build weapons. If there's a will to fight, and NATO is committed to supplying you, you'll never lack for hardware.

[–] RickyRigatoni@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Still wasn't a very long time for Russia's military to show how out of practice they were. Two weeks? A month? Amazing they lasted this long at all, crazy dictator aside.