Retired Russian Colonel Admits War Not Going Well for Russia on State TV – Then Backtracks

The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
American Liberty News
- June 5, 2026
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Six House Republicans broke with GOP leadership on Wednesday, joining Democrats to advance legislation that would provide billions of dollars in additional support to Ukraine despite ongoing opposition from President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson.

The House voted 218-204 in favor of a discharge petition that forces consideration of the Ukraine Support Act, a measure that had remained stalled for more than a year after Republican leaders declined to bring it to the floor.

The vote marks one of the most significant bipartisan challenges to Republican leadership on foreign.

Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
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Urging Russians not to take ‘information sedatives,’ Mikhail M. Khodaryonok, a retired colonel and columnist on military affairs, noted on a popular Russian TV talk show Monday that the war in Ukraine was not going well for Russia. (RELATED: Russia Warns Sweden and Finland Over NATO)

The rare frank assessment left his fellow panelists in stunned silence, except for Olga Skabeyeva, the host, a Putin parrot who religiously follows the Kremlin line.

She interrupted Khodaryonok with official talking points in sometimes tense exchanges.

The clip was first highlighted by Francis Scarr of BBC Monitoring, which tracks Russian broadcasts.

According to The New York Times:

The problems that Mr. Khodaryonok referred to, sometimes obliquely, included low morale, the array of Western countries aligned against Russia and the amount of fighters and matériel that Ukraine was assembling.

While carefully avoiding any criticism of Russian aims or operations, he noted, according to The Times that:

“We are in total geopolitical isolation and the whole world is against us, even if we don’t want to admit it,” said Mr. Khodaryonok, noting that Russia’s “resources, military-political and military-technical, are limited.”

He repeatedly stressed that the entire situation was “not normal.” 

What is worse, Khodaryonok noted that Ukraine appeared to have momentum, saying that: “The situation for us will clearly get worse.”

The retired colonel was also prescient when in an unusually candid column published just before the invasion he cautioned against it, saying that it would not be a quick and easy ‘blitzkrieg’ as many Russian analysts claimed. He added that invading Ukraine was not in Russia’s “national interests.”

Russia has since criminalized denouncing its war effort, even prohibiting referring to it as a war rather than a “special military operation.” (RELATED: CIA Shows Dissident Russian Officials How to Send the Agency Their Secrets)

Not too surprisingly, reports Business Insider, by Thursday, Khodaryonok had backtracked.

Instead of criticizing Russian logistical failures, he bragged about Russia’s military might and condemned Western-made weapons which he amusingly claimed would fail in mid-battle, something far more descriptive of the Russian military gear. (RELATED: Why Russian Tanks Are Getting Their Turrets Blown Clean Off in Ukraine)

He was likely set straight by friends from the Russian security service, the FSB.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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Paul Crespo is the Managing Editor of American Liberty Defense News. As a Marine Corps officer, he led Marines, served aboard ships in the Pacific and jumped from helicopters and airplanes. He was also a military attaché with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at U.S. embassies worldwide. He later ran for state and federal office, taught political science, wrote for the editorial board of a major newspaper and had his own radio show. A graduate of Georgetown, London and Cambridge universities, he brings decades of experience and insight to the issues that most threaten our American liberty – at home and from abroad. To read more go to: paulcrespo.com.

Picture of Paul Crespo

Paul Crespo

Paul Crespo is the Managing Editor of American Liberty Defense News. As a Marine Corps officer, he led Marines, served aboard ships in the Pacific and jumped from helicopters and airplanes. He was also a military attaché with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at U.S. embassies worldwide. He later ran for state and federal office, taught political science, wrote for the editorial board of a major newspaper and had his own radio show. A graduate of Georgetown, London and Cambridge universities, he brings decades of experience and insight to the issues that most threaten our American liberty – at home and from abroad. To read more go to: paulcrespo.com.

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