Girkin’s remarks come more than 10 months after Putin ordered the Ukraine “special military operation” on February 24, aiming for a quick victory that has been prevented by Ukraine’s spirited defense operations, bolstered by Western military aid.
Despite the vast size of the Russian military, Putin’s soldiers have struggled to achieve substantial goals in Ukraine, which has recaptured control of key areas formerly occupied by Russia throughout the fall and winter. Facing mounting losses, the Russian leader has now pivoted to missile strikes against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure as his on-the-ground forces struggle to maintain motivated, well-trained forces.
Girkin, a Russian nationalist known by the alias Igor Ivanovich Strelkov and for his role in the 2014 annexation of Crimea, blamed Ukraine’s success on Russian military leaders’ sloppiness in a Telegram post on Sunday.
He wrote that Ukraine and Russia in recent days launched missile attacks on each other, though Ukraine has only targeted military facilities—not civilian infrastructure like Russia has. He conceded that Ukraine’s attacks were successful, and continued to offer his explanation for why Russia has floundered against its smaller Eastern European neighbor.
“Unfortunately, in some places their strikes on our military facilities turned out to be both targeted and successful. Due to the ongoing excessive profligacy of the command of units and formations of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” he wrote. “It is an impression that our command is unteachable in principle.”
Russia launched missile strikes of its own, targeting residential areas including Kyiv, Ukraine said. Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba tweeted: “This time, Russia’s mass missile attack is deliberately targeting residential areas, not even our energy infrastructure. War criminal Putin ‘celebrates’ New Year by killing people.”
Girkin added that these Russian missile strikes, which largely hit infrastructure rather than areas where civilians are living, have intensified. However, he still said the strikes will “definitely not work to force the Kiev Nazis to make peace” with Russia.
When launching the war, Putin said that his goal was to rid the Ukrainian government of Nazis. The justification has long faced scrutiny, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish.
Girkin Previously Criticized Russian Leadership
As the Ukraine war flounders, Girkin has been among the military experts who has criticized the way the Kremlin is handling the war. He condemned Russia’s military command in a Telegram post earlier in December.
“I have to state once again that our military command - according to the degree of stupid stubbornness with a complete inability to create - deserves comparison rather with representatives of Ovis arise [domestic sheep] – animals of the mammalian class, the order of artiodactyls of the polorogi family of the genus rams, than with representatives of primates (not to mention humans),” he wrote.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries for comment.
