Russian general attacks ‘senior bosses’ after being fired

Get free Russian Uprising updates

we will send you one myFT Daily Digest Latest Email Rounding Russian rebellion News every morning.

A Russian general has said he has been sacked for challenging top army officers over their handling of the invasion of Ukraine and accusing them of betraying troops amid Kiev’s retaliatory strike.

The unusually public criticism is a sign that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, commander of Russia’s assault force, have been the target of anger from parts of the military establishment after the Wagner group launched a failed coup last month to oust them. are made.

In an audio recording posted by a prominent Russian lawmaker on the social media app Telegram on Wednesday, Ivan Popov, a former commander of Russia’s 58th Army, said senior army leaders had fired him after a critical assessment of the situation at the front . ,

Popov’s four-minute message to his troops shows tensions are still high over Vladimir Putin’s disastrous offensive, even as the Russian president reaches an eleventh-hour agreement to end Wagner’s rebellion And even after retaining Shoigu and Gerasimov in their posts.

The general said he had asked army leaders to rotate frontline units, which he said were suffering heavy losses due to a lack of counter-artillery systems and artillery reconnaissance.

Popov said that unnamed “senior bosses” had “obviously sensed some sort of mortal danger in me” and fired him.

Popov said, “As many regimental commanders said today, the Armed Forces of Ukraine could not break through our front line, but our senior boss at the most difficult and tense moment treacherously hit us in the back by beheading the army.”

It was not immediately clear whether Popov was referring to his dismissal or the fate of other senior Russian commanders who are believed to have held similar complaints against Shoigu and Gerasimov for months, some of whom allegedly He lost his job for questioning the strategy of the military.

The MP who posted the recording, Andrei Gurlyov, himself a former commander of the 58th Army, who has said he is close to Russia’s armed forces, publicly confirmed the death of a lieutenant general earlier this week.

Andrei Turchak, secretary of Putin’s United Russia party, said Popov’s message was posted in a private chat for the men of the 58th Army and was not meant for publication.

Turchak wrote on a telegram, “Let it rest on their conscience that the ‘legislator’ Gurlyov somehow got it and turned it into a political show.” “Ivan’s conscience is clear. Motherland can be proud of commanders like him.”

Kartopolov said in an audio message that Popov’s message “has been heard and seen, and those who need to do so will take measures”.

Before Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin ousted the army from control in the spring, Sardar said several prominent generals expressed sympathy for the paramilitaries and publicly thanked them for supplying the group.

The most senior of them, Deputy Assault Commander Sergei Surovikin, was detained last month in the wake of Prigozhin’s mutiny and has not been seen since. Another senior lawmaker, Andrei Kartapolov, said on Wednesday that Surovikin was “resting” and “not available right now,” without elaborating.

Gray Zone, a channel on Telegram affiliated with Wagner, was the first to report on Popov’s dismissal before Gurulov posted the audio recording.

It said that Gerasimov accused Popov of “spreading disinformation and panic” and sacked him after the general threatened to attempt to “reach out to the president”.

The Kremlin and Russia’s Defense Ministry have not commented on Popov’s apparent dismissal.