Russian General Accuses Shoigu Of Betrayal And Addresses His 'Gladiators'

Is there a new military mutiny?

The Russian Ministry of Defense has dismissed Major General Ivan Popov, who goes by the name "Spartak", from his post as commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army of the Southern Military District.

The serviceman told about it in an appeal to his subordinates, which was published by the deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Andrei Gurulev.

Popov said that he was relieved of command after he "at the very top" expressed his complaints and "outlined all the problematic issues" of the army. According to Popov, Sergei Shoigu's order to suspend him was "concocted in a daylight hour."

"Good night, my dear gladiators... I have got my bearings, a lot of things have happened in the last two days. It is safe to say now. I have been relieved of my post, Lieutenant General Lyamin has arrived and taken command. I am waiting for my further military fate, for its change, for some proposal on further service.

From the very beginning I was honest. I have shortened all distances with all gladiators of the army - from a soldier to a marshal. In our case, up to the Chief of General Staff, Major General Medvedev, because we all perish equally, we all fight equally, we all feel fear, pain and burden equally. I made no distinction. That's why I'm telling you honestly - there was a difficult situation with the top commanders, when it was necessary either to keep silent and lose heart and hide what they didn't want to hear, or to call a spade a spade. I had no right to lie in your name, in the name of all our friends who died in combat, so I outlined all the toxic problems that exist in the army today in terms of combat work and support. I called a spade a spade. I focused on the greatest tragedy of modern warfare - the lack of counter-battery warfare, the lack 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 them at the highest level - frankly, extremely harshly. In this regard, apparently, the senior chiefs felt some danger in me and promptly made up an order of the Minister of Defense to remove me from my post. As many regimental commanders of the division said today - our army could not be penetrated from the front by AFU soldiers, we were hit from the rear by our senior chief, who treacherously and meanly decapitated the army at the most difficult and tense moment".

The day before, on July 11, a Storm Shadow missile flew into the Dyuna Hotel in Berdyansk, allegedly the headquarters of the Russian 58th Army, killing Lieutenant General Oleg Tsokov. A number of Telegram channels reported that Tsokov was killed accidentally and that Major General Ivan Popov was the real target - allegedly, this is how the Russian Armed Forces command gets rid of disfavorites. Tsokov was "in the wrong place at the wrong time".

At the same time, the ISW Institute for the Study of War reported that Popov was removed from his post as commander of the 58th Army because he reported to Valery Gerasimov on the need to rotate among the units of his unit that had been on the front line for a long time (it was the positions of the 58th Army, in particular the 42nd Motorized Rifle Division, that had been storming the AFU forces in the direction of Zaporizhzhia for more than a month). Gerasimov, however, reportedly became angry and accused Popov of blackmail (for threatening to appeal directly to Putin) and scaremongering.

"The mutiny continues," political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky responded to General Popov's appeal. "Major General Ivan Popov, just dismissed from the command of the 58th Army by S.K. Shoigu, accuses the leadership of the Russian Defense Ministry/General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces of treason at the highest level. Another former commander of the 58th Army, Lieutenant-General Andrei Gurulev, a deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, has made this case public. We are watching and following," he wrote on his Telegram channel.