A high Russian normal in Ukraine has lashed out at his bosses after being fired from his command, accusing them of undermining the battle effort with dishonesty and politicking, within the newest signal of turmoil throughout the Kremlin’s navy management.
In a four-minute recording launched late Wednesday evening, Maj. Gen. Ivan Popov addressed his troops, accusing his superiors of inflicting a blow on his forces by eradicating him from his submit in retaliation for voicing the reality about battlefield issues to senior management behind closed doorways. His firing, and the weird public airing of his grievances, mirrored the disarray that has roiled Russia’s navy command since a failed mutiny three weeks in the past.
While the 58th Combined Arms Army he commanded has been holding off a Ukrainian counteroffensive within the Zaporizhzhia area, “we were hit in the rear by our senior commander, who treacherously and vilely decapitated our army at the most difficult and tense moment,” General Popov mentioned — an obvious reference to Gen. Valery V. Gerasimov, chief of the armed forces.
Since the mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group and its boss, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, a number of senior officers have been detained or pushed out of their posts, in accordance with an individual near the Russian navy, who spoke on situation of anonymity for safety causes.
Speculation has swirled specifically concerning the destiny of Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the top of the air pressure and a former chief of forces in Ukraine, who hasn’t been seen publicly because the insurrection, and was mentioned this week by a high Russian lawmaker to be “taking a rest.”
The individual near the Russian navy mentioned General Surovikin, a Prigozhin ally who reportedly knew upfront of the mutiny, was being detained. In January, the Kremlin eliminated General Surovikin from overseeing Russian forces in Ukraine and put General Gerasimov in direct management of conducting the battle, whilst he stays chief of the Russian General Staff, an unconventional conflation of duties for a navy at battle.
Adding to this week’s upheaval, one other high Russian commander in Ukraine, Lt. Gen. Oleg Tsokov, deputy commander of the Southern Military District, was killed in a Ukrainian airstrike on Tuesday within the occupied metropolis of Berdiansk — one of many highest-level Russian losses because the battle started.
The recording of General Popov supplied an exceedingly uncommon public glimpse into what a high Russian officer thinks about how President Vladimir V. Putin’s pricey battle is being waged. Western governments are anticipating that type of intelligence, however U.S. officers say they’ve restricted perception into the views of Russian navy leaders or the recriminations in opposition to them.
Also murky is the standing of Wagner troops and their chief, Mr. Prigozhin — who, as of final week, was reported to be in Russia and roaming free, regardless of having mounted a insurrection that he mentioned was aimed toward eradicating inept navy leaders, not Mr. Putin.
“We’re not even sure where he is and what relationship he has,” President Biden advised reporters in Helsinki on Thursday. “If I were he I’d be careful what I ate.”
Until his short-lived rebellion, Mr. Prigozhin, a civilian, incessantly denounced Russia’s navy command publicly, accusing it of incompetence and back-stabbing, which he mentioned led to the revolt. General Popov’s feedback counsel that related discontent exists excessive throughout the uniformed ranks.
But to date there’s little indication that the fallout from the mutiny has harm Russian forces’ potential to defend in opposition to the Ukrainian counteroffensive, which started final month and has made solely incremental progress.
General Popov mentioned that he ended up in a “difficult situation” with the Russian navy’s management, through which he had to decide on whether or not he could be a coward, who would inform his superiors solely what they needed to listen to, or would “call a spade a spade.” He advised his troops he had no proper to lie of their identify, or within the names of those that had died, and due to this fact “outlined all the problematic issues that exist in the army in the current day in terms of combat work and support.”
Specifically, he mentioned he had reported the dearth of counter-battery and artillery reconnaissance capabilities, and the extreme deaths and accidents that Russian troops had been struggling on the battlefield.
“Apparently, in connection with this, the senior commanders felt some kind of danger in me and swiftly, in a single day’s light, concocted an order from the Minister of Defense that removed me from the deployment and got rid of me,” General Popov mentioned.
It wasn’t clear whether or not he supposed his farewell speech to his troops to be made public.
In an interview with state news channel Rossiya 24, Mr. Putin mentioned Thursday that the weapons and tanks the West had equipped to Ukraine weren’t having the specified impact. He reiterated Moscow’s opposition to NATO membership for Ukraine, saying it could pose a safety menace to Russia.
It was not instantly clear whether or not General Popov’s firing was linked to the Wagner rebellion, however the elimination of a high-level normal whose forces seemed to be performing efficiently, on probably the most essential stretches of the entrance line, left many Russian observers shocked.
“The removal of Popov is a monstrous act of terrorism against army morale,” the navy blogger Roman Saponkov wrote on Telegram, saying that Wagner’s failure had emboldened the Russian navy management to purge its ranks.
The Telegram channel Rybar, run by the pro-war navy blogger Mikhail Zvinchuk, mentioned General Popov enjoys colossal assist among the many rank-and-file within the Russian navy, who discovered the news of his firing vastly demoralizing.
“The conflict between Popov and Gerasimov highlights the main thing: the absence of unity” within the Russian armed forces, Rybar wrote. “The enemy will surely take advantage of this.”
Alexander Sladkov, a battle correspondent for Russian state tv, mentioned that General Popov was not an insurrectionist and would most definitely reappear in a unique place on the entrance. He warned that the Russian navy needs to be preserving each soldier and normal in fight as a result of “we have great trials ahead of us.” General Popov mentioned he was nonetheless ready to listen to from navy leaders about how he might proceed his service.
Tension over the navy turmoil was palpable within the Telegram posts of Russian politicians and commentators.
The recording of General Popov was launched on social media by Andrei Gurulyov, a lawmaker and former normal who as soon as commanded the identical 58th Combined Arms Army that General Popov headed.
Andrei Turchak, the secretary normal of the ruling United Russia get together, assailed Mr. Gurulyov for publicizing the recording. He mentioned on Telegram that the remarks had been non-public and accused Mr. Gurulyov of “making a political show” of the affair, including: “The army was and remains outside of politics.”
Oleg Tsaryov, a pro-Moscow former Ukrainian official, as soon as seen by American intelligence officers as a potential puppet chief the Kremlin would possibly attempt to set up in Kyiv, shot again on the identical platform: “Andrei Turchak is right, the army should be outside of politics. But politics should also be outside of the army.” He added: “If the system inside the army were really effective, we wouldn’t see more and more spillage on the outside.”
Julian E. Barnes contributed reporting from Washington.
Source: www.nytimes.com