Commander incites soldiers
Moscow fires critical Ukraine general
7/13/2023 1:47 am
The Russian commander-in-chief of the 58th Army dealt a treacherous blow from behind, Major General Popov explained in a voice message. What is meant is Russia’s Chief of Staff Gerasimov. He is said to have dismissed Popov for criticizing the Ukraine mission too loudly.
Russia has fired the commander in chief of its 58th army, Ivan Popov. In a voice message, which was published on Wednesday in Duma deputy Andrei Gurulev’s Telegram channel, the major general addressed the soldiers and explained that he had been relieved of his post because of his criticism of inefficient warfare: “I have my attention on the greatest tragedy of modern war,” says Popow: “To the lack of artillery reconnaissance and combat and the multiple deaths and injuries caused by enemy artillery.” After that, the Ministry of Defense got rid of him.
Other Telegram channels had previously reported on the dismissal. Accordingly, the Russian chief of staff Valery Gerasimov is said to have described Popov as a “panic monger” and replaced him.
The 58th Army is stationed in southern Ukraine and is involved in fighting in the Zaporizhia region. According to Popov, his dismissal made the situation at the front worse: “The soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces could not break through our front, but the Commander-in-Chief dealt us a treacherous blow from behind, beheading the army at the most difficult moment of the greatest tension .”
Popov’s dismissal and criticism fits into the picture that military experts are painting of the Russian army a good 16 months after the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine ordered by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. According to this, large parts of the Russian armed forces are dissatisfied with their own military leadership and their embellished situation reports. The unsuccessful uprising of Wagner’s private army, which had been fighting for Moscow for a long time, was also explicitly directed against Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin accused them of corruption and incompetence.