On Russian state television a military expert has viewers of a talk show with a pessimistic assessment of the Ukraine war surprised. Ukraine’s armed forces are far from disintegrating and Russia is isolated in the world by war, Mikhail Khodaryonok said – much to the presenter’s apparent displeasure – in a show aired on Monday that drew much comment on social media on Tuesday.
On the show, the former Russian general staff officer contradicted a number of claims made by Russian state propaganda, which he criticized as “information tranquilizers.” The motivation of the Ukrainians to fight for their country is quite high, said Khodaryonok – and thus positioned himself clearly against the claim, often repeated on state television, that many Ukrainians see Russia’s “special military operation” as an alleged “liberation”.
Khodaryonok also contradicted the thesis that the majority of foreign states approved of Russia’s military action and that western states could easily be replaced by allies from Asia. “The biggest problem of our military-political situation is our total geopolitical isolation‘ said the colonel. Moscow must therefore find a way out of the situation “that the whole world is against us”. Khodarjonok’s statements also met with such great interest because critical voices in Russia have been largely eliminated since the beginning of the war. A fairly new law, for example, provides for alleged “false news” about Russia’s armed forces up to 15 years imprisonment in front.