Unlike in Ukraine, where top generals, including the commander in chief, Valery Zaluzhny, and Oleksandr Sirsky, who led the last Kharkiv offensive, became respected figures now, it was often difficult to tell who was running the war in Russia. Staff changes are often made with little public announcement and pour into the Russian media with little or no explanation.
On Friday, RBC reported that the commander of Russia’s Eastern Military District, Colonel Alexander Cheko, had been replaced by Lieutenant General Rustam Muradov. No explanation was provided for this switch.
Criticism has been mounting for Sergei Shoigu (left) while Dmitriy Bulgakov (right) was recently eliminated.attributed to him:AP
In a rare public announcement of staffing changes, the Russian Defense Ministry said late last month it had removed the general responsible for “logistical support of the Armed Forces,” Dmitry Bulgakov, and replaced him with Colonel Mikhail Mezintsev.
Mizintsev was an obscure figure before the Ukraine war, but earned the gruesome nickname “The Butcher of Mariupol” after Ukrainian officials and activists accused him of orchestrating a brutal siege of a port city in southern Ukraine that killed thousands of civilians and demolished apartment buildings.
On Friday, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet admitted after weeks of speculation that it had replaced its commander, Admiral Igor Osipov, with Vice Admiral Viktor Sokolov, who pledged to “increase the fleet’s combat readiness.”
In late April, Ukraine sank the main ship of the fleet, the cruiser Moskva, with a daring but successful strike using two Neptune anti-ship missiles. On Navy Day, in July, the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet was attacked by a combat drone that dropped an explosive device on its surface, a symbolic attack symbolizing Ukraine’s ability to strike deep into Russian positions.
Recent public statements about dismissals may reflect the growing need to meet demands for censure and accountability. Such calls and criticism of the war effort in general have ballooned since Putin announced a partial military mobilization last month, which has sent more than 200,000 combat-age men fleeing the country, and prompted angry complaints that the men were wrongly recalled. For service and conscripts poorly treated, including minimal food and rusty weapons.
After a long string of failures and a few significant victories, knives now appear to be available to Russian generals, amid criticism from prominent Russian military correspondents, state television propagandists and even normally obedient members of parliament.
Two Russian lawmakers – the Chairman of the Defense Committee Andrei Kartapolov and the Anti-Corruption Committee Vasily Piskarev – are holding closed meetings in the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, to review “the situation with the supply of the Russian army” .
Kartapolov and Piskarev also sent a written request to the Prosecutor General, asking him to investigate “how to waste funding in depth” – alleging that the commanders plunder the military budget.
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The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, who sent his fighters to Ukraine, criticized the commander of the Central Military District, Alexander Lapin, calling him “untalented” and a product of “nepotism” in the command of the General Staff, for having deployed fighters from one of the self-declared pro-Russian separatist regions Without proper support or preparation.
Kadyrov wrote in a scathing letter: “The colonel-general deployed mobilized fighters from the Luhansk People’s Republic and other units on all the borders of the Lyman direction, but did not provide them with communications, did not ensure proper coordination and supply of ammunition.” last Saturday.
Critics, including Kadyrov, accused senior officers of lying about what was happening at the front.
“It is necessary to stop lying,” said Kartapolov, head of the Defense Committee, attacking Soloviev Live, an Internet channel run by the chief state TV propagandist Vladimir Soloviev. “Almost all border villages in the Belgorod region were destroyed, but we learn this from anyone: governors, Telegram channels, military correspondents. But not the Ministry of Defense, said Kartapolov.
On a different show this week, Soloviev said that “lying at every level should be severely punished.”
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“I don’t pretend to know the art of war, but what is the genius idea behind the plans of the General Staff now?” Soloviev asked rhetorically. Do you think time is on our side? [Ukrainians] You have amassed weapons and mercenaries… and what did you do at that time? “
According to the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), an independent group that has monitored Russian military activities in Ukraine since 2014, Colonel-General Gennady Zhidko took over from Dvornikov in May as commander-in-chief of the Russian War.
Dvornikov’s dismissal may be related to the destruction of the 58th Combined Arms Army, usually stationed south of Vladikavkaz, which was hailed as one of Russia’s most combat-ready armies and key to the invasion of Georgia in 2008. BBC Russian service reported.
But Zhidko, who also had the title of Deputy Defense Minister, in what appears to be a damned tendency of the generals in Ukraine, was in charge for about a month before more problems arose, and was demoted to the head of the Eastern Military District. .
It is not clear which general is currently directing the overall Russian wartime operation.
Washington Post
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Originally published at Melbourne News Vine
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