A senior Russian general who was fighting in Ukraine has said he was suddenly dismissed from his position after he accused the military’s leadership of betraying his troops with a lack of support.
General Ivan Popov, who was leading the Russian assault in the Zaporizhzhia region, says Vladimir Putin’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu signed the order to “get rid of me”.
In a Telegram post published late last night, Popov said he had raised questions about “the lack of counter-battery combat, the absence of artillery reconnaissance stations and the mass deaths and injuries of our brothers from enemy artillery”.
“I also raised a number of other problems and expressed it all at the highest level frankly and extremely harshly,” he said in the audio message.
It comes after another senior Russian general was killed by a Ukrainian airstrike using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles, according to reports from both sides of the conflict.
Russia struck Kyiv with an overnight bombardment for the third night in a row, with Ukraine saying its air defences shot down all 20 Shahed drones and two Kalibr missiles.
