A military officer who served in occupied Ukraine said he was fired after venting his anger at Russia’s Defense Ministry. At the same time, the newspaper points out that the Kremlin has been purging military personnel after the rebellion.
(DW) A Russian general in charge of forces in southern Ukraine has been sacked after publicly addressing problems facing his troops, in a new episode that reflects fresh fissures in Russia’s military command following the rebellion of mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Major General Ivan Popov, commander of the 58th Army in the occupied region of Zaporijia (south), a key point in the counter-offensive being carried out by Ukraine, said in an audio message to his troops released on Wednesday evening (12/07) that he was dismissed after a meeting with the military high command.
According to Popov, the military leadership was irritated by his frank talk about the challenges facing his forces, particularly the lack of equipment to counter enemy artillery, which has been resulting in high Russian casualties.
“Senior officials apparently saw me as a source of threat and quickly issued an order to get rid of me, which was signed by the defense minister in just one day,” she said, noting that despite this, the Ukrainian military had failed attempts to break through the Russian army’s defenses.
“But the main commander hit us from behind, beheading the army in a treacherous and cowardly way at this very difficult moment,” he said.
Popov called his troops his “gladiators” in the audio message, released by retired general Andrei Gurulev, who commanded the 58th Army in the past and is currently a member of parliament. Popov, 48, even encouraged his soldiers to come to him directly if they have any problems – a laid-back approach that contrasts sharply with the Russian military’s formal, rigid command style.
“I faced a difficult situation with the top leadership when I had to keep quiet and act like a coward, saying what they wanted to hear, or call a spade a spade,” Popov said.
In a sign that some members of the Russian government share Popov’s criticism of the military leadership, Andrei Turchak, the first deputy speaker of the upper house of parliament and head of the main Kremlin party, United Russia, strongly backed the general, saying that “the Fatherland can be proud of these commanders”.
Andrei Kartapolov, a retired general who heads the defense committee in the lower house, also said the Defense Ministry should deal with the issues raised by Popov.
The news of Popov’s resignation added to the blow Russian troops received when another senior officer, Lieutenant General Oleg Tsokov, was killed on Tuesday in a Ukrainian attack.
Popov’s comments about the need for a rotation of his exhausted troops who have been fighting in the Ukrainian counteroffensive since early June upset the chief of the General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, who regarded them as an example of panic and promptly ordered his dismissal. Gerasimov and Defense Minister General Sergei Shoigu were precisely the two main targets of the Wagner rebellion, which was sparked after accusations of incompetence and betrayal by Prigozhin against the country’s military leadership.
Military arrested
Also on Thursday (13/07), a report by the American newspaper Wall Street Journal (WSJ) pointed out that several senior Russian military officers, including General Sergei Surovikin, former commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, were arrested as part of the Wagner Group rebellion.
The general, who commanded Russian forces in Syria and then in the invasion of Ukraine, was detained and questioned, the newspaper’s sources said, joining other senior officials who have been arrested, suspended or dismissed.
Surovikin has not been formally charged with any crime, but is suspected of being privy to plans for rebellion by the leader of the Wagner mercenary group.
Officially, the Kremlin would not confirm Surovikin’s arrest, but according to the WSJ, it was part of a Kremlin campaign to remove officers suspected of disloyalty. Along with the general, the WSJ said, at least 13 senior officials were detained for questioning, some of whom were later released, and about 15 were suspended or dismissed. According to one of the newspaper’s sources, Colonel General Andrey Yudin and Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev were also detained and then released, after being suspended and their movements restricted and under observation.
Among other detained figures, according to the newspaper, is former Deputy Defense Minister Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, known as “the butcher of Mariupol” and who joined Prigozhin’s Wagner Group. Surovikin was last seen in a video released on June 23 looking distressed as he asked Prigozhin and his mercenaries to abort their rebellion.
jps (Lusa, ots)