Russian general fired, says top military brass betrayed soldiers in Ukraine

It was unclear when the message was recorded and Popov's current whereabouts were not known. The defence ministry has not said anything about his dismissal.

A Russian general said he had been dismissed as a commander after telling the military leadership about the dire situation at the front in Ukraine, where he said Russian soldiers had been stabbed in the back by the failings of the top military brass.

After the June 24 mutiny by Wagner mercenaries, the biggest domestic challenge to the Russian state in decades, President Vladimir Putin has so far kept Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov in their jobs.

Major General Ivan Popov, who commanded the 58th Combined Arms Army, said in a voice message published by Russian lawmaker Andrei Gurulyov that he had been dismissed after telling the truth to the top brass about the situation at the front.

“The Ukrainian army could not break through our ranks at the front but our senior chief hit us from the rear, viciously beheading the army at the most difficult and intense moment,” Popov said.

Popov, whose military call sign was “Spartacus” and who commanded Russian units in southern Ukraine, explicitly raised the deaths of Russian soldiers from Ukrainian artillery and said the army lacked proper counter artillery systems and reconnaissance of enemy artillery.

There was no immediate comment from the defence ministry and Reuters was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the voice message. Lawmaker Gurulyov is a hardline former army commander who regularly appears on state television.

It was unclear when the message was recorded and Popov’s current whereabouts were not known. The defence ministry has not said anything about his dismissal.

Such public criticism of Russia’s military leadership from a battle-hardened general less than three weeks since the Wagner mutiny, if authentic, would indicate continued discontent within the Russian army as it fights the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two.