“Kyiv’s armed forces have gained an upper hand over the Russian military,” one of the leaders of the Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, Igor Girkin, alias Strelkov, was quoted as saying by Serbian radio B92.
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–“The Ukrainian army already has a superiority in manpower. It will not be long before it will also have an advantage in military equipment. That is why the forces of Kyiv are not in a hurry. They are gathering troops near the (Black Sea port) Kherson and in the direction of the (southeastern) Zaporozhye region. I have information that there is movement of military forces also towards (the northern city of) Kharkiv. It is likely that Ukraine’s large-scale offensive is only a matter of time,” the pro-Russian separatist also said.
“The Russian forces lost the initiative and the possibility of active offensive actions after the capture of the cities of Lisichansk and Severodonetsk (July 4 and June 25). The quality and fighting spirit are under all criticism,” Girkin added.
“The situation borders on hopelessness. The only thing the Russian armed forces can do is repel the attacks of the Ukrainians. There is a lack of people, and the equipment is outdated,” Strelkov also said.
Igor Girkin was born in 1970 in Moscow. He was a participant on the side of the pro-Russian separatists in the so-called Transnistrian Moldavian Republic (June – September 1992) and on the side of the Serbs in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (from November 1992 to March 1993).
Girkin then left the barracks and went on to serve in the Russian army as a professional soldier. From 1998 to 2005, he worked in the special purpose units of the Federal Security Service (FSS) and visited Chechnya. Girkin retired as a colonel from the FSS in November 2013.
In 2014, Girkin was among the main commanders of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region and then took the alias Strelkov. He headed the “Ministry of Defense” of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic for several months in 2014 and then returned to his hometown.
Dutch authorities in 2019 charged him with the downing of the Malaysian Boeing that crashed in the area of hostilities between the separatists and the military under the command of Kyiv on July 17, 2014.
