Igor Girkin is an avowed Russian nationalist who previously served as the “supreme commander” of the separatist forces in the breakaway Donetsk region of Ukraine. Since the start of Moscow’s invasion of the Eastern European country in late February, Girkin has been prominent as a “military blogger,” being outspoken in both his support of Russia’s goals and his criticism of its military competence.

On Saturday, Girkin took to his Telegram account to discuss the Russian military’s latest movements in the Donbas region and its plan “to strike south of Artemovsk - on the front line northwest and west of Gorlovka.” The military expert offered a grim prediction for these efforts, guessing that they will result only in minor gains and huge losses for Russia.

“My prediction: this attempt to break through the enemy’s long-standing defense will be no more successful than all other similar attempts made in 10 months on the Donetsk front,” Girkin wrote, as translated by the Yandex tool. “The result of it will be minor wedges into the enemy’s defense line, the destruction of the liberated settlements to the point of complete impossibility of living in them and…the loss of the bulk of the infantry that is put into battle.”

Girkin continued, issuing a veiled jab at the Russian military leaders who craft incompetent plans yet do not participate in the battles themselves.

“I am sincerely sorry that the authors of such a wonderful strategy do not personally participate in the assault on the fortifications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” he wrote.

Girkin closed out his remarks by comparing Russian military command to sheep on account of their “stupid stubbornness,” adding that they have little in common with primates, or even humans.

“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.

In a post-script note, Girkin added that he held out hope for the “imminent liberation” of the Dzerzhinsk region, which he said to be the “small homeland” of his wife, but nevertheless dismissed the possibility, as “hope for this is ephemeral.”

Newsweek reached out to foreign policy experts for comment.