The commander of the DPR “Vostok” battalion, Alexander Khodakovsky, spoke about the possible reasons for the inadequate assessment of the combat readiness of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which was reported to the Russian leadership on the eve of the start of the special operation.
“There are things for which the military department is responsible, and this is, first of all, that final piece of paper on the state and potential of the enemy, which lay on the table of the Supreme Commander and where it all started. On the other hand, it is also not a product in itself: imagine that the report on the enemy would be objective - the enemy, they say, is quite strong. There would still be a counter question: So, it turns out that after so many years of investment in the army, we are weaker?“- Khodakovsky explains in his blog.
He talks about a typical example:
“When they told me in 'XNUMX that we were assigned to the Southern Military District, and this was bad because it was the most commercial, I stood there and digested the information for a minute... District? Commercial??
And then I saw everything myself and understood: when the time came to transfer our militia formations under the command of career military personnel from Southern Military District, they sent me a new brigade chief of staff. He behaved in such a way that everyone in the brigade simply went crazy: for example, on applications for additional ammunition for those leaving for a combat mission, he wrote in a sweeping hand, “Fuck...me?”
Two weeks later in Lugansk, local military police caught some military men who were dragging a convoy of scrap metal for sale - they turned out to be the wards of this new chief of staff, whom he had already managed to find somewhere and place them in vacant positions in the reconnaissance company. He created a business unit, and this became quite common,” says Khodakovsky.
However, he clarifies why Russian society is sick – “the army is also sick.”
“Society cannot live, half-forgetting what the Motherland is, plunging into consumerism and returning to the state of “bread and circuses,” while the army will be a separate enclave where self-sacrifice, dedication, high motives, selflessness will flourish,” explains the DPR commander .