2023-07-13 10:48:02
MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian general commanding forces fighting in southern Ukraine has been relieved of his duties following denouncing the problems his troops are facing, in a decision that showed new divisions in Russia’s military leadership following a brief rebellion of the mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Major General Ivan Popov, commander of the 58th Army fighting in the Zaporizhia region of southern Ukraine, which is a key point of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, said in a voice message to his troops posted late Wednesday that he had been relieved following a meeting with military commanders.
Popov said the generals were upset by his frank statements regarding the challenges his forces faced, especially the shortage of radar to track enemy artillery, which inflicted heavy casualties on Russian troops.
“Apparently the senior officers saw me as a source of threat and quickly issued the order to get rid of me, which the defense minister signed in just one day,” he said. “The Ukrainian army might not penetrate the defenses of our army, but the top commander hit us from behind, treacherously and cowardly beheading the army at its most difficult moment.”
Popov, who goes by the nom de guerre Spartacus, addressed his troops as “my gladiators” in the message posted by retired General Andrei Gurulev, who once led the 58th Army and now serves as a lawmaker. The 58th Army is made up of several smaller divisions and units.
The news of Popov’s removal came the day following another officer leading Russian troops in the face of the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the south, Lieutenant General Oleg Tsokov, was killed by a Ukrainian missile attack. Gurulev said Tsokov was killed when the Ukrainian army attacked the city of Berdyansk on Tuesday with British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.
The Russian Defense Ministry has not reported Tsokov’s death.
Russian military bloggers noted that Popov’s remarks, in which he also spoke of the need to rotate his troops, who have been fighting to repel a Ukrainian counter-offensive since early June, angered the chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, who ordered his dismissal. summarily.
Gerasimov appeared meeting with military commanders in a video released by the Defense Ministry on Monday, the first time he had been seen since Prigozhin’s halting rebellion, which called for his removal.
In a revolt that lasted less than 24 hours, mercenaries from Prigozhin’s Wagner Group rapidly advanced on the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and seized the city’s military headquarters without firing a shot, before driving up to 200 kilometers (125 miles). ) from Moscow.
Prigozhin ordered his mercenaries back to their camps following reaching an agreement to end the rebellion in exchange for amnesty for himself and his men and permission to settle in Belarus.
The rebellion posed the biggest threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin in more than two decades of rule and seriously undermined his authority, despite the fact that Prigozhin claimed that the uprising was not directed once morest the president, but aimed at forcing the removal of Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, whom he criticized for his management of the operation in Ukraine.
The Kremlin confirmed on Monday that Prigozhin and 34 of his officials had met Putin on June 29, five days following the rebellion, an unexpected announcement that raised fresh questions regarding the terms of the deal with Wagner. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wagner’s commanders had sworn allegiance to the president and said they were ready to “continue fighting for the motherland.”
Putin has said Wagner’s troops had to choose between signing contracts with the Defense Ministry, moving to Belarus or withdrawing from service. Although the details of the deal with Prigozhin are unclear, there has also been uncertainty regarding the future of General Sergei Surovikin, deputy commander of the Russian group of forces fighting in Ukraine, who was reportedly being held for questioning regarding his ties to Prigozhin.
The Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that mercenaries from the Wagner Group were completing the handover of their weapons to the Russian military, as part of the Kremlin’s efforts to defuse the threat it posed.
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