Ukrainian service members on a BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle near the front line city of Vuhledar on 22 February. Photograph: Reuters
Kremlin: Russian independent news media referred to a recently deposed Russian commander as a “crazy idiot” for the botched assault on the Ukrainian town of Vuhledar in the eastern Donetsk area.
Colonel-General Rustam Muradov, 50, who led the recent offensive in eastern Ukraine, has been suspended, according to The Moscow Times, an independent English- and Russian-language online newspaper with offices in Amsterdam that is currently outlawed in Russia.
One of the sources told the online daily, “Muradov was suspended because he was a crazy idiot who could command soldiers to die. Many complained about him.”
The disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh is the focal point of a territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Muradov, a former leader of Russian forces in Syria, later worked as a peacekeeper there.
According to reports, he has been the leader in Ukraine since October 5, 2022, leading Russia’s Eastern Military District. Muradov attacked Vuhledar in February when he sent his soldiers into minefields, right under the artillery fire of the Ukrainians.
Two elite marine brigades–one of which is presumably the much-discussed 155th Naval Infantry Brigade–and 103 pieces of equipment were reportedly lost by the army in just three days.
A website that tracks military casualties in the Russia-Ukraine war, Oryx, reports that the Russian army lost 36 tanks altogether during the attack on Vuhledar.
Only 20 pieces of equipment, or one-fifth of all the losses incurred by Russia during that time period, were thought to have been lost by the Ukrainian Armed Forces during that same era.
The Moscow Times received criticism for Muradov from more numerous people including the two sources who talked to them voluntarily on the basis of anonymity.
Igor Girkin, a far-right patriot and former Federal Security Service agent, described the attackers of Vuhledar as “complete cretins.”
According to a new estimate from the British Ministry of Defense, 500 Russian soldiers per day perished in the failed attack on the town in eastern Ukraine in February.
The ministry claimed that Moscow is currently conducting a “deliberate information operation” to repair the image of its elite units, particularly the 155th Naval Infantry brigade, which were badly damaged during the unsuccessful assault.
“The Russian MOD’s effort to restore the brigade’s reputation probably reflects concern about how its failures were coming to be more closely associated with senior Russian military leaders,” according to the report.
The Russian force is actively seeking to grow, rather than merely changing its leadership. Vladimir Putin will be hiring 400,000 more military members, according to the British MoD, because of the high death toll in Ukraine.
However, it’s doubtful that these will be “genuine volunteers,” despite the Kremlin’s efforts to portray them as such in order to quell domestic uproar.
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.