Former Russian commander Igor Girkin allegedly warned about Russia breaking out into a civil war. Last Sunday, advisor to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs Anton Gerashchenko tweeted a carefully edited video clip of Girkin appearing with an unnamed man.
In the portion of the exchange tweeted by Gerashchenko, Girkin is heard warning that if Russia doesn’t want to “collapse into a civil war with millions of casualties,” but is cut off by the man appearing in the video with him who dismissed the idea that Russia could face a civil war.
Ultimately, Gerashchenko’s video did not include enough context to understand Girkin’s comments or what he was specifically responding to.
It was reported over the weekend, the speaker of Russia’s parliament warned that western nations are risking their own destruction by supplying Ukraine with more powerful offensive weapons.
Vyacheslav Volodin issues warning to allies giving weapons to Ukraine (nypost.com)
In remarks on Sunday, State Duma chairman Vyacheslav Volodin warned that sending offensive weapons to Ukraine “would lead to a global catastrophe.” He said if the US and NATO provide weapons that could be used to strike Russian cities or to seize Russian territory, “it would trigger a retaliation with more powerful weapons.”
Volodin blamed assistance from the United States and NATO for turning Ukraine into a “terrible war.” While western supporters pledged billions in military aid to Ukraine last Friday during a meeting in Ramstein, Germany, the new commitments were overshadowed by their failure to agree to Kyiv’s urgent request for German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks.
Berlin has been tentative about giving the green light to the transfer of Leopard 2 tanks, drawing heavy criticism from Poland and the Baltic states. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said if Germany does not give its consent to transfer the tanks to Ukraine, Poland was prepared to build a “smaller coalition” of nations that would send their Leopards to Ukraine anyway.
In an interview with the Polish state news agency PAP on Sunday, Morawiecki said Berlin shouldn’t be weakening or sabotaging “the activities of other countries.”
