Putin’s top commanders ‘scapegoated and fired’ for Ukraine war failures
SOME of Vladimir Putin’s top commanders have been “fired” after failures in his invasion of Ukraine, British defence chiefs said today.
They believe that a culture of “cover-ups and scapegoating” is now rife within Russia’s military and security services, hampering Mr Putin’s war.
In its intelligence update, the Ministry of Defence in London said: “In recent weeks, Russia has fired senior commanders who are considered to have performed poorly during the opening stages of its invasion of Ukraine.”
They named three top ranking officers and claimed:
• Lieutenant General Serhiy Kisel, who commanded the elite 1st Guards Tank Army, has been suspended for his failure to capture Kharkiv.
• Vice Admiral Igor Osipov, who commanded Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, has also likely been suspended following the sinking of the cruiser Moskva (the flagship of Russia’s navy) in April.
• General Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s most senior military chief, likely remains in post, but it is unclear whether he retains the confidence of President Putin.
General Gerasimov, chief of the general staff, was recently reported to have been injured after coming forward towards the war zone to try to inject fresh momentum in Russia’s military campaign in the Donbas region, though this has not been confirmed.
After a string of setbacks for Mr Putin’s forces, the UK defence chiefs added in their intelligence update: “A culture of cover-ups and scapegoating is probably prevalent within the Russian military and security system. Many officials involved in the invasion of Ukraine will likely be increasingly distracted by efforts to avoid personal culpability for Russia’s operational set-backs.”
President Putin abandoned his plans to seize Kyiv, switching his troops’ focus from northern Ukraine to Donbas in the east. But Russia’s military campaign is believed to be making slow advances. Ukraine’s defence chiefs claimed students in the Donetsk area may be drafted into Russian units due to the “absence of mobilisation resources”.
In his nightly television address Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky hit out at officials in Moscow for forcing young, inexperienced conscripted soldiers onto the front line and throwing them “into battle like cannon fodder”.
Meanwhile, Moscow said nearly
700 more Ukrainian fighters had surrendered from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.
Ukraine has ordered its garrison in Mariupol to stand down but officials have declined to comment publicly on the fate of the fighters.