Ukraine War: Interesting Dissenting Analysis From Retired Colonel Inside Russia

'The whole world is against us': Retired colonel gives damning assessment of Russia's war in Ukraine on state TV as he urges Putin to 'get out of' the conflict

• Mikhail Khodaryonok, a retired Soviet colonel, gave a dire assessment of Russia's war in Ukraine on state TV 
• He warned that myths of the Ukrainian army being demoralised and in disarray are 'to put it mildly, false'
• Said Ukraine may soon have 1m troops armed with western weapons who are ready to 'fight to the last man' 
• Russia is in 'full geopolitical isolation' with 'virtually the entire world against us',  Khodaryonok added, saying it is a situation that the country 'needs to get out of'

Russian state media's trumped-up narrative of Putin's glorious war in Ukraine was last night shattered by a retired colonel who gave an unusually frank and damning assessment of the situation on the frontlines and world stage.

Mikhail Khodarenok, a former air defence commander and graduate of some of the Soviet Union's top military schools, used his platform on one of Russia's most-watched talk shows to warn that the war is going badly and is likely to get worse, and that nuclear sabre-rattling - far from being threatening - actually 'looks quite amusing'.

Ukraine, he said, will soon have mobilised more than a million soldiers who will be trained by the West and equipped with modern weapons, ready to fight and die to protect their homeland against Russia.

Batting aside repeated interruption from propagandist Olga Skabeyeva that the army will be mostly made of conscripts, Khodarenok insisted that how an army is recruited is irrelevant - what really matters is willingness to fight, and Ukraine 'intends to fight to the last man.'

Russia's position on the world stage is no better, he added, pointing out that 'we are in full geopolitical isolation, and that, however much we would hate to admit this, virtually the entire world is against us. And it's that situation that we need to get out of.'

Khodarenok's remarks, broadcast to millions of Russians who until now have been spoon-fed a narrative of their military's prowess and Ukraine's weakness, mark a stunning break with the state-sanctioned narrative and puts him at extreme odds with the Kremlin stooges stood to either side of him.

Mikhail Khodarenok, a former Soviet air defence commander, has given a full and frank assessment of Russia's military failings on state TV - warning that 'the whole world is against us'

Speaking on Skabeyeva's evening talk show - which toes the Kremlin line so tightly that she has become known as the 'iron doll of Putin TV' - Khodarenok urged his fellow panellist to wean themselves off of 'information tranquilisers' and look objectively at the situation.

First of all, he said, rumours of a 'moral and psychological breakdown in the Ukrainian armed forces which are allegedly on the verge of some kind of crisis in morale' are 'to put it mildly, is false'.

'The situation... is that the Ukrainian armed forces are able to arm a million people,' he added, who will be equipped with western weapons and trained how to use them by armies that are part of NATO. 'So a million armed Ukrainian soldiers needs to be viewed as a reality of the very near future,' he said.

Batting aside objections from Skabayeva that most of those men will be conscripts, he insisted that what really matters isn't how an army is recruited but its willingness to fight.

'A desire to protect one's homeland, in the sense that it exists in Ukraine, it really does exist there, they intend to fight to the last man,' he said. 'Ultimately victory on the battlefield is determined by a high level of morale among personnel, which sheds blood for the ideas which it's prepared to fight for.'

On the world stage, Khodarenok added, things hardly look better. 'We are in full geopolitical isolation,' he said, adding that: 'However much we would hate to admit this, virtually the entire world is against us.'

Nuclear sabre-rattling, he insisted, will do little to deter Russia's enemies and in fact 'actually looks quite amusing' when the whole world is arrayed against the Kremlin.

Urging those around him to 'maintain a sense of realism', he warned that 'sooner or later the reality of history will hit you so hard that you'll regret it.'

It is hardly the first time that Khodarenok has voiced concerns. Even before the war started, he wrote that Ukrainians would fight like hell to defend their country and that Russia was walking into a longer, bloodier, and far more costly conflict than it was preparing for.

It is not even the first time he has spoken out on state TV. Ahead of Putin's Victory Day speech on May 9, he warned that a rumoured mass mobilisation of troops would not solve the problems Russia's military is facing.

But his latest remarks are the lengthiest, most in-depth analysis of the corner that Moscow has backed itself into and seems intended to spark a conversation about how exactly the country gets itself out again. 

What remains unclear - however - is whether anyone, and in particularly those in the Kremlin, are listening to him.

He spoke out after repeated briefings from western intelligence agencies said that Russia's offensive in the Donbass has stalled and that a path to Ukrainian victory is now emerging.