A furious Vladimir Putin has purged a number of governors from five Russian regions in a new political shake-up.
The sweeping move has seen the Kremlin boss oust five regional heads.
Some suggested the drastic move could be an effort to open up positions to oust out-of-favour officials from Moscow.
It comes after a number of reports Putin was increasingly angry at some of the military and security personnel for failures during the ongoing invasion.
Speculation suggests he is ready to fire those he feels has let him down on the ongoing invasion.
The worst offenders in Putin’s eyes are reportedly already under arrest.
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The shock of the simultaneous resignations of five governors was reportedly indicative of pressure put on them by the Kremlin to go.
Valery Radayev, 61, quit as governor of Saratov region to "focus on another area of work”.
Tomsk region governor Sergey Zhvachkin, 65, said it was time “to give way to youth”.
Ryazan region governor 50-year-old Nikolay Lyubimov announced he would not seek another term in September.
Igor Vasilyev, 60, Kirov region governor, also quit, as did Alexander Yevstifeyev, 64, head of the Mari El Republic.
In the past, Putin has parachuted ex-bodyguards or other favourites into such governships
This all comes as Putin’s invasion of Ukraine comes into its third month, after beginning on February 24.
In the 75 days since Russia ’s “special operation” began tens of thousands have died and nearly ten million people have been displaced.
Whilst official death tolls are hard to come by for both sides, it is widely believed that Russia has suffered considerably worse losses than Ukraine has.
Over the weekend, Ukraine’s official death toll stood at 3,381 however, Matilda Bogner, head of the human rights monitoring mission for the United Nations in Ukraine said the actual toll may be “thousands” higher.
This was largely because of cities like Mariupol, which has seen some of the worst Russian air raids and bombings, is like a “black hole” for gathering information.
In Russia, Moscow quickly stopped releasing its own official death count early on in the war.
Since then, the Kremlin has remained silent on the losses it has suffered during the war but Ukraine recently said that it has lost 25,000 troops, and other estimates come in around 20,000 dead as well.
Alongside that, reports suggest that Vladimir Putin has grown frustrated with some of the military and security personnel close to him.
This includes parts of the infamous security service, the FSB, who reportedly provided faulty intelligence in the early periods of the war.
In the last few days, Putin used his speech at his country’s Victory Day parade to brazenly claim that the West was preparing to invade Russia.
He claimed his invasion was a “preventative” strike and hypocritically went on to claim the “horror” of World War Two should never be repeated as his troops massacred innocent civilians.
