Russia's Military Incompetent Disarray

"The top officers apparently saw me as a source of threat and rapidly issued an order to get rid of me, which was signed by the defence minister in just one day."

"The Ukrainian military has failed to break through our army's defences, but the top commander hit us in the rear, treacherously and cowardly beheading the army at this most difficult moment."

"I faced a difficult situation with the top leadership when I had to either keep silent and act like a coward, saying what they wanted to hear, or call things by their names."

"I didn't have the right to lie for the sake of you [his troops] and our fallen comrades."

Major General Ivan Popov, commander, 58th army, Zaporizhzhia region

General Ivan Popov has been commanding forces in the Zaporizhzhia region  Andrei Gurulyov

Now, that has a familiar ring to it, doesn't it? General Popov accusing the higher command of treason, claiming they withheld direly needed weaponry from his forces, placing them in danger, ignoring his appeals. Haven't we heard all that before, repeatedly, from yet another source? Wasn't that exactly what mercenary Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was going on about? And didn't Prigozhin psych his mercenaries up to a march on Moscow, insisting that Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu and the head of Russia's armed forces, Gen Valery Gerasimov be fired?

 

Oh, and taken before a military court to stand trial for treason. Prigozhin swore that his troops were abandoned, never provided with the necessary equipment they needed to deliver a more forcefully lethal argument to the Ukrainian counteroffensive; more, that while his troops were facing the Ukrainian military, the Russian military behind his troops were actually firing on Wagner. General Popov, while singing from the same outraged hymnal, stopped right there, deigning not to lead an insurrection of his own, faithful to the core.

 

Ukrainian soldiers prepare to fire the Grad multiple rocket launcher, pounding Russian positions.

Now, relieved of his duties in defence of his troops' survival. The "treacherous" stab in the back he detailed to his troops fighting the Ukrainian counteroffensive earned him the recognition of dismissal for angering the military leadership. And all for the inconsequential details of a shortage of radars to track enemy artillery, resulting in massive Russian casualties. General Popov addressed an audio message to his troops under the call name "Spartacus", addressing his men as "my gladiators", a dramaturgy certain to appeal to those loyal to a leader who cared for their safety. 

 

At 48, General Popov rose from platoon commander to become leader of a large group of forces, encouraging his soldiers' appreciation and loyalty with an easygoing, approachable attitude -- in sharp contrast to the stiff formality of command usually in practise in the Russian military. According to Russian military bloggers, he is recognized for the avoidance of unnecessary losses whereas other commanders were more inclined to risk their men's lives in the greater interests of achieving campaign successes. 

His dismissal, the bloggers predict, will have a morale-damping effect on the footsoldiers of the Russian military with one describing the situation as a "monstrous terror attack against the army's morale", augmenting another's declaration that the situation dealt a "terrible blow to the entire army". The first deputy speaker of the upper house of parliament, head of the main Kremlin party United Russia, backed the general, claiming "the Motherland can be proud of such commanders".

 

A Ukrainian artillery crew fires a Grad multiple rocket launcher toward Russian positions near Bakhmut on July 12.

 

Another senior officer -- Lt.-Gen. Oleg Tsokov -- was dispatched by a Ukrainian missile strike just days earlier. Senior command in the Russian military have altogether from the first weeks of the invasion, fared extremely poorly; losses at that level and in those numbers are hugely unusual. General Staff chief Gen. Valery Gerasimov evidently shrugged off the charges when Popov remarked on the need to rotate his exhausted troops fighting the Ukrainian counteroffensive since early June. The original cause of Popov's dismissal.

General Gerasimov was seen in a video released by the Defence Ministry meeting with military officers, marking the first time he has been seen since Prigozhin demanded  his ouster last month during the uprising. Gerasimov has been broadly criticized for his role during the fighting in Ukraine. And it was he who considered Popov's complaints panicky in nature. While he is not first in line for popularity awards among the military or the political class, nothing much has been revealed about the man behind the desk where the buck stops.

 

Ukrainian artillerymen load missiles onto a self-propelled multiple rocket launcher near Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, amid the war with Russia. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images