Yesterday, in Helsinki, President Biden asserted that "Putin's already lost the war" in Ukraine. Nothing could illustrate that better than one of war criminal Putin's top generals getting fired from his command, then lashing out at his superiors:
A top Russian general in Ukraine has lashed out at his bosses after being fired from his command, accusing them of undermining the war effort with dishonesty and politicking, in the latest sign of turmoil within the Kremlin’s military leadership.
In a four-minute recording released late Wednesday night, Maj. Gen. Ivan Popov addressed his troops, accusing his superiors of inflicting a blow on his forces by removing him from his post in retaliation for voicing the truth about battlefield problems to senior leadership behind closed doors. His firing, and the unusual public airing of his grievances, reflected the disarray that has roiled Russia’s military command since a failed mutiny three weeks ago.
While the 58th Combined Arms Army he commanded has been holding off a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Zaporizhzhia region, “we were hit in the rear by our senior commander, who treacherously and vilely decapitated our army at the most difficult and tense moment,” Popov said — an apparent reference to Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the armed forces.
Since the mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group and its boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, several senior officers have been detained or pushed out of their posts, according to a person close to the Russian military, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
Speculation has swirled in particular about the fate of Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the head of the air force and a former chief of forces in Ukraine, who hasn’t been seen publicly since the rebellion and was said this week by a top Russian lawmaker to be “taking a rest.” [Ed.: As in "rest in peace"?]
The person close to the Russian military said Surovikin, a Prigozhin ally who reportedly knew in advance of the mutiny, was being detained. In January, the Kremlin removed Surovikin from overseeing Russian forces in Ukraine and put Gerasimov in direct control of conducting the war, even as he remains chief of the Russian General Staff, an unconventional conflation of duties for a military at war.
Adding to this week’s upheaval, another top Russian commander in Ukraine, Lt. Gen. Oleg Tsokov, deputy commander of the Southern Military District, was killed in a Ukrainian airstrike Tuesday in the occupied city of Berdiansk — one of the highest-level Russian losses since the war began... (our emphasis)
If it weren't for low morale, the Russian invaders would have no morale at all.
Keep in mind, this turmoil at the highest levels in the Russian military (which preceded the Wagner militia mutiny) is taking place during the counteroffensive by Ukraine. When your chain of command is at war with itself rather than the enemy, you're essentially in collapse mode. This is vaguely reminiscent of Stalin's purges in 1937, which weakened the military command structure to the point that it emboldened Hitler to attack the USSR in 1941.
Ukraine is fighting for its life, and is further advantaged by advanced Western arms that are highly effective against Russian tactics and weaponry. With NATO's strengthened commitment to supporting Ukraine's fight, and Putin's command structure in disarray, time is not on the war criminal's side.
(Image: Russian Gens. Tsokov, Surovikin, and Popov/ CNN)
