NICK MORDOWANEC
Aformer Russian commander who played a pivotal role in the 2014 annexation of Crimea said Monday that Ukraine's increased strikes inside Russia cannot be stopped.
Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, known by the alias Igor Ivanovich Strelkov, posted on his Telegram page that older Soviet Union systems are not equipped to deal with enemy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and the "massive use" of High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS). Increased military assistance from NATO countries will also lead to "more frequent" attacks on strategic Russian facilities, he added.
"By the beginning of the current war, our air defense came up 'ready for the last colonial war,'" Gurkin wrote. "And, accordingly, now the enemy has the ability to 'cheaply and cheerfully' hit strategic targets in the depths of our territory, spending disposable kamikaze attack vehicles on this with the complete or partial inability of our air defense to resist them."
His warnings come following a report by the Russian Ministry of Defense that a Ukrainian drone targeting Russia's Engels-2 air base, located more than 350 miles from the nearest Ukrainian-controlled territory, was shot down at 1:35 a.m. local time Monday.
The former defense minister of the separatist "Donetsk People's Republic" and Russian Federal Security Service Officer Igor Girkin, also known as Igor Strelkov, speaks during a press conference on September 27, 2022, in Moscow, Russia. Girkin, who played a pivotal role in the 2014 annexation of Crimea, said Monday that Ukraine's increased strikes inside Russia cannot be stopped.CONTRIBUTOR/GETTY IMAGESAlthough the drone was shot down, debris from the drone killed three Russian servicemen.
"These are the consequences of what Russia is doing on our land," Yuriy Ignat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, told Ukrainian media outlet Gazeta.ua. "If the Russians thought that the war would not affect them deep in the rear, then they were wrong."
Ignat, who previously described the Kremlin's military strategy against Ukraine as "stupid stubbornness," wrote Monday that actions on Ukraine's behalf ultimately worry him less than Russia's ability to strengthen its own military prowess in the midst of a likely long-term war.
"To expect that our military design bureaus and enterprises of the military-industrial complex 'at the pace of a waltz' will develop and launch the production of completely new air defense systems that reliably protect the sky from 'harmful trifles' is at least stupid," he wrote.
"The military-political leadership of the Russian Federation also does not demonstrate the ability and readiness to destroy the enemy 'in his lair' with a crushing combined-arms strike."
Ukrainian officials reported that Russia lost about 550 soldiers between Christmas Day and Boxing Day, in addition to five tanks. The losses come as Russian President Vladimir Putin remains steadfast in his pursuit of victory.
During a Christmas Day interview broadcast from Moscow, Putin told journalist Pavel Zarubin that 99.9 percent of Russians are "ready to sacrifice everything for the Motherland." He also called them "special people."
In Ukraine on the same evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned his nation's citizens that Russia will continue to attack before the calendar year concludes.
"Russia has lost everything possible this year," Zelensky said. "But [Putin] is trying to compensate for his losses with the cunning of his propagandists following missile strikes on our country, on our energy sector."
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