‘Purge’ by Kremlin

Top general ‘fired’ as forces flounder

Speculation is swirling that Russian President Vladimir Putin has sacked his top commander in the Ukraine invasion — the latest ouster in a rumored Kremlin purge.

Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in an interview with Russian dissident lawyer Mark Feygin on Wednesday that “preliminary information” indicated that Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, had been fired.

The reported sacking could not be independently verified, and the Kremlin has not given any indications of an ouster in the upper echelons.

However, Gerasimov — who was famously seen briefing Putin alongside Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu from the other end of a long table during the lead-up to the war — was notably absent from Monday’s Victory Day parade in Moscow.

Gerasimov is widely seen as one of the architects of the Kremlin’s floundering Ukraine strategy.

The rumors flew as other leaders of the failed invasion have also been reportedly sidelined over the past month, including the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Adm. Igor Osipov.

And several Russian Army commanders are rumored to have also been bounced in recent weeks, including Lt. Gen. Vladislav Ershov,

Lt. Gen. Sergei Kisel and Maj. Gen. Arkady Marzoev.

In other news:

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke by telephone to Shoigu on Friday for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and called for an immediate cease-fire, the Pentagon said.

Ukraine’s defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said Kyiv hopes to arm a million people as the country prepares for a “new, long phase of war.”

The UK has issued sanctions against a dozen members of Vladimir Putin’s family and inner circle, including his long-rumored mistress Alina Kabaeva. The European Union is also considering sanctions against Kabaeva.

Russia will suspend electricity supplies to Finland on Saturday, the supplier RAO Nordic said, amid rising tensions over Helsinki’s bid to join NATO.

Meanwhile, fighting continued in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

In the Donetsk oblast — one of the two provinces that make up the Donbas — regional authorities said one civilian had been killed and twelve injured by Russian shelling in Avdiivka, an industrial town just north of the city of Donetsk.

In the Luhansk oblast, Ukrainian and Russian forces clashed in the city of Rubizhne, just outside of Severodonetsk, where Russianbacked forces claimed to take the Zarya chemical plant. With Wires