1/ Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin is, perhaps unsurprisingly, gloomy about the prospects for Russia's push into the Sumy region. He says that the war is turning into a "grand mess" which may become "tragically analogous" to the course of events in World War I. ⬇️
2/ Girkin writes on his Telegram channel: "'As of now' - apparently, our offensive on Sumy has finally stalled - the fighting is still going on in the same Yunakivka, the northern outskirts of which our stormtroopers broke into on MAY 28-29!"
3/ "This is even worse, perhaps, than last year's May-June offensive on Vovchansk-Kharkiv. Well: it's sad, but expected.
4/ "I don't know - does the Kremlin understand that the "semi-war" situation has exhausted itself so much that it is becoming completely impossible even for "stagnation" and that we are "on the eve of a grand mess"?
5/ "Perhaps - "yes", but maybe also "no" (Again - at what level is this understanding?
6/ "After all, if literally everyone knows about this, but only one person ("lulled by optimistic reports") - our National Leader - does not guess - what significance does this knowledge have for further strategic planning? - Absolutely none!).
7/ "If we are not "beaten hard anywhere" this summer, then perhaps we will somehow "hold out" until autumn in our current state, but what will happen next?
8/ "So far, the situation is too similar to the “patterns” of World War I and the result may be, if not completely, then in many ways tragically analogous. (Again, it is not a fact that understanding (knowledge of this is present among VIP officials) is not a fact.
9/ "A very alarming precedent, in fact, is the suicide (self-?) of Starovoit : when a federal minister of the “first echelon of importance” (and the connection is exactly this – “first echelon”), who has just been removed from office, shoots himself on the eve of his arrest,…
10/ …this is too unpleasant a symptom of the “shaking” of the previous “power consensus”, indicating (again) the impossibility of further maintaining the “status quo” unchanged..." /end Source: https://t.me/strelkovii/7123