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By Brendan Cole
Senior Reporter
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Russian military blogger Igor Girkin has reiterated his criticism of Moscow's war effort in Ukraine and voiced his concerns that Vladimir Putin's forces will ultimately lose.
Igor Girkin, also known as Igor Strelkov, is a former Russian intelligence officer who played a key role in Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the conflict in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.
He has used his Telegram social media channel to criticize how Russia's forces have fought in the war and taken aim at the botched mobilization announced by Vladimir Putin.
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Girkin repeated his criticism of Russia's war effort in a clip in a video on his Telegram page that was shared by Belarusian media outlet NEXTA, which tweets about the war.
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"If our generals continue to fight like they have done over the last 10 months, we have every chance of losing this war," he said.
Earlier this month, Girkin lamented how no one had been held responsible for Russia's military setbacks, except for "scapegoats" like General Alexander Lapin, who was removed in October from his command of Russia's Central Military District.
In a post underneath the full version of the latest video, Girkin also wrote on Telegram on Friday that he was "skeptical about the possibility of success of a large offensive" of Russian forces "on any sector of the front."
This was "for the simple reasons of the unreadiness of the troops and the rear for such operations, the lack of war goals and, the motivation of the troops to persevere in achieving them."
Girkin also appeared to mock Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov for saying that Russia had made progress on the demilitarization of Ukraine, which was one of Putin's stated war aims.
Sharing an article from RIA Novosti quoting Peskov, Girkin wrote on Friday that before the war Ukraine had around "250,000 thousand military personnel" while now there was around 700,000, not including police, special services and tens of thousands of reservists.
He also noted how Ukraine had now acquired considerable military equipment such as the latest anti-tank systems and high-precision tactical missiles. "Applause for the professionalism of the presidential press secretary!" Girkin wrote.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment.
Girkin was sentenced last month in absentia by the Hague to life in prison for his role in shooting down over eastern Ukraine the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in 2014, which killed all 298 passengers.
He has previously expressed concern about what would happen to him if Russia lost the war in Ukraine, earlier this month telling a YouTube channel this would be followed by him being sent to the Hague to serve a life sentence.
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