Outrage over many victims pressures Kremlin to investigate French cardinal after confessing to abuse

It is not the first battle in this war that has cost Russia many casualties, but not even the Kremlin can let the events of Pavlivka just pass by. The Russian army is said to have lost 300 soldiers in four days in attacks on the village in southeastern Ukraine. A letter of complaint from the stricken 155th Marine Infantry Brigade, which has become public, is putting increasing pressure on the Russian leadership.

“As a result of the ‘carefully’ planned offensive by the ‘grand commanders’, we had about 300 killed, wounded and missing in four days and lost 50 percent of the equipment. And that’s just our brigade,” the unit’s letter to the governor of the eastern Russian home region of Primorye, Oleg Koshemyako, reads with a sarcastic undertone. These images from a Ukrainian drone are said to show two Russian tanks coming under fire. to lie in Pavlivka:

Kremlin sends rare denials

The authors of the serious letter-level accusations against their commanders Muradov and Akhmetov, as well as the Chief of the Russian General Staff, Putin confidant Valery Gerasimov: “We were again involved in incredible attacks by General Muradov and his brother-in-arms Akhmetov so that Muradov would get bonuses get from Gerasimov and Akhmetov becomes the hero of Russia.” To cover up their failures, Muradov and Akhmetov are said to have falsified casualty numbers and military reports.

The addressed governor Koschemjako responded to the allegations in his telegram channel. There were losses in Pavliwka, but not nearly as high as stated, he wrote Monday morning. But Koshemyako’s denials apparently weren’t enough for the Kremlin. On Monday afternoon, the Russian Defense Ministry released its own statement about the allegations about the Ria propaganda agency.

“Tensions will continue to rise”

“As a result of the competent actions of the unit commanders, the losses of the Marines during this period amount to no more than 1 percent of the combat personnel and 7 percent of the wounded, a significant number of whom have already returned to service,” he said. the spokesman. statement said. Instead, their own troops advanced three miles behind Ukrainian lines: “Enemy casualties along the brigade’s line of contact averaged seven to one and in some areas nine to one in men and equipment.” But with the seemingly helpless lies of the Russian leadership, the Pavlivka problem is not over.

“The debate about the failure of military leadership has left the sphere of war bloggers and is stirring up more and more movement in Russian society,” writes the US think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in its latest report on the war in Ukraine. “Since the mobilization began at the end of September, the ISW has seen more and more mothers and wives of military personnel contact the military, local authorities or well-known war bloggers with complaints,” it said. “If the Department of Defense fails to address these systemic grievances and their underlying causes, societal tensions will continue to mount as the war progresses.”

Pavlivka fuels power struggle in Moscow

Recently, social media reports have piled up about catastrophic conditions among the Russian invasion forces. Recently mobilized soldiers are apparently often herded into Ukrainian positions without preparation, without the proper equipment and weapons as “cannon fodder”. Videos document not only the training disaster of the Russian army, but also the resistance of ordinary Russian soldiers against their commanders. The reports match Ukrainian data that Kiev troops are currently killing hundreds of Russian soldiers every day, often in seemingly pointless attacks on well-fortified positions such as Pavlivka.

Growing dissatisfaction with the warfare of the Russian army is now also fueling the power struggle within the Russian elites. It is noteworthy that the letter from the 155th Marines Brigade to Governor Kozhemyako was first made public through the Gray Zone telegram channel. It is believed that “Grey Zone” is operated by members of the mercenary group “Wagner”. Their boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been criticizing the Russian military leadership for weeks, often in harmony with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who also has a private army with his “Kadyrovites”.

Prigozhin as «coming man»?

In early October, Prigozhin and Kadyrov saw Russia’s defeat at Lyman as an opportunity to launch a media campaign against the then Supreme Commander in Ukraine, General Alexander Lapin, whose recall they demanded. Soon after, the Kremlin dropped Lapin and replaced him with “General Armageddon” Sergey Surovikin, who had “earned” his nickname as a war criminal in Syria and was considered Prigozhin and Kadyrov’s preferred candidate. According to the ISW, Prigozhin and Kadyrov want their attacks to weaken Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Gerasimov.

Shoigu and Gerasimov are close confidants of Kremlin chief Putin, which is also reflected in the fact that they have two of the three Russian nuclear briefcases. Many Russian war bloggers, who openly criticize the military leadership in their Telegram channels, blame the two for the war debacle in Ukraine. By putting themselves at the forefront of these critics, Prigozhin and Kadyrov can present themselves as determined opponents of the established military leadership without opposing the Kremlin chief. The ISW writes that it accepts Prigozhin and Kadyrov’s quest for power because he is dependent on their fighters in Ukraine.

Prigozhin was also long considered a close confidant of Putin. The Kremlin’s orders from his catering company earned Prigozhin the nickname “Putin’s cook”. Now the 61-year-old is allowed to position himself for higher tasks. “Russian journalists often ask Prigozhin about his ambitions as the future head of the Kremlin,” the latest ISW status report says. “Even if Prigozhin regularly rejects such ambitions, questions about it show that he has created a public image of himself as a ‘man to come’. This debate alone undermines the image of the only imaginable Russian ruler Vladimir Putin has over the decades. built of itself.”

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(t-online,mk)