Vladimir Putin has fired certainly one of his top military men over among the bloodiest and most ‘pointless’ losses of soldiers in Ukraine.
Lieutenant General Sukhrob Akhmedov, 51, has been stripped of his post as Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Navy for Coastal and Land Force.
It comes months after Putin personally awarded the commander Russia’s highest military honour – Hero of Russia – apparently for successes within the Kursk region.
But now he has been axed amid public criticism of his catastrophic losses around Pokrovsk in occupied Ukraine.
The commander has been blamed for among the bloodiest and most pointless losses of the war.
He’s been openly accused of the failed marine assault near Pokrovsk late last yr — a mechanised charge that Ukrainian forces shredded in minutes.
Tanks burned, armoured vehicles were destroyed, and survivors filmed the aftermath.
The Putin favourite was also blamed for a deadly 2023 incident near Kremenna, where soldiers were left standing in formation within the open for hours while awaiting his ‘motivational speech.’
Ukrainian artillery spotted the gathering and killed dozens of the Russian soldiers.
Russian Telegram channel Rybar wrote: ‘Akhmedov and company are responsible for the mass deaths of personnel during certainly one of the formations near Kremenna in June 2023.
‘But given the nepotism that was flourishing within the court-based Western Military District at the moment, this matter was swept under the rug.’
For a lot of Russian soldiers, the ‘Hero of Russia’ award has develop into an emblem of every part rotten within the system: loyalty rewarded, incompetence promoted, casualties ignored.
Putin’s forces are continuing to struggle of their bid to annex more of Ukraine, facing heavy losses and increasing attacks on Russian soil.
The governor of Belgorod, Russia, which borders Ukraine, told his residents to arrange to flee as Ukrainian strikes proceed.
Ukrainian strikes have left greater than half 1,000,000 people without electricity and nearly 200,000 without water and sewerage, in response to officials.
Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov admitted this was the primary time the Belgorod region had faced problems on such a scale.
Even mobile networks partially collapsed. Authorities admitted over 60% degradation in cellular service, despite regulations requiring backup power.
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