Comment RIGA, Latvia — Steep Russian losses in key battles in eastern Ukraine have sparked an unusual public outcry — and sharp criticism of military commanders — from surviving soldiers and family members of newly enlisted fighters, who say their units were massacred in a poorly planned businesses. The uproar over casualties on the battlefield near Vuhledar in the Donetsk region prompted an official statement from the Russian Defense Ministry, which sought to downplay the alleged high death toll among soldiers of the 155th Separate Guards Marine Brigade, which led the offensive of Moscow in the region. It was the first time since Russia’s invasion began that the ministry formally responded to reports of mass casualties and criticism of commanders on Telegram, the main platform used by officials as well as journalists and bloggers covering the Russian war. Criticizing the war – or even calling the war instead a “special military operation” – is illegal in Russia. But the Kremlin in recent months has endured criticism of the military’s poor performance from pro-war hawks who support the invasion, including some calling for even more brutal tactics in Ukraine. On Sunday, pro-Kremlin military correspondents published the text of a letter sent by members of the 155th Brigade, which is normally based in Russia’s Far East, denouncing the order that sent them on an “incomprehensible attack” on the village. of Pavlivka, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. “As a result of the ‘carefully’ planned attack by the ‘great generals,’ we lost about 300 dead, wounded and missing as well as half our equipment in four days,” the letter said. He addressed the governor Oleg Kozhemyako of the Primorsky region, which is located on the coast of the Sea of Japan. Nearly 6,000 miles away in eastern Ukraine, the weather had worsened in Pavlivka, with rain muddying the roads and making the reinforcement of troops in the area even more difficult, wrote the commander of the pro-Russian Vostok battalion, Alexander Khodakovsky. on Telegram over the weekend. “My fears about Pavlivka were justified,” Khodakovsky said, adding that he considered the advance in the area initiated by Russian commanders to be “premature.” The letter also specifically criticized Rustam Muradov, the commander of Russia’s Eastern Military District, who was appointed in October. Earlier in the war, Muradov led the Vostok force group, which was responsible for operations in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Officially, the army did not give the reason for the redeployment, but it came after the defeat of the Russian army in Liman, a key logistics and supply hub in the Donetsk region. The humiliating defeat came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Donetsk and three other Ukrainian regions to be annexed by Russia — a violation of international law. The Russian chain of command appears to have been in constant disarray throughout the war, as Moscow repeatedly changed commanders-in-chief and replaced top generals in all four of its military districts. More recently, Russian media reported that Colonel Alexander Lapin is no longer in command of the Central Military District after being repeatedly hit by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and Yevgeniy Prigozhin, a Putin ally and financier of the Wagner mercenary group, for strategic mistakes and the poor people. performance of his troops. The governor, Kozemiako, initially dismissed the letter as “potentially fake planted” by Ukrainians, but later issued a video message saying he had contacted officers on the front lines who confirmed there had been heavy fighting and casualties, but, he said: “The number is not as high as this letter says.’ “Due to the competent actions of the commanders, the losses among the marines during this period did not exceed 1 percent of the combat personnel and 7 percent of the wounded, a significant part of which has already returned to service,” said the Russian Ministry of Defense. it said in a statement issued on Monday. The ministry added that the 155th Brigade had been fighting near the regional hub of Vuhledar for more than 10 days and advanced “five kilometers deep into Ukrainian positions”. Many pro-war commentators in Russia are urging the ministry to be more transparent about its defeats. But instead of mollifying these critics, the statement only fueled their anger by minimizing the extent of the losses. “So far it seems that the military, having noticed another impending wave of discontent, has decided to quickly assign the local authorities to their side and marginalize the whole situation, once again pretending that nothing is happening,” wrote one popular blogger. writes under the pseudonym Military Informer. “We hope that this situation will change.” Moscow’s top officials are now trying to fend off another public scandal after residents of Voronezh, a city in Russia’s strategic region near the Ukrainian border, complained that newly recruited men from the region had been sent unprepared to Svatove, a town in Luhansk. area that has been the site of fierce battles. Hundreds may have died, according to Russian magazine Verstka. “For three days they were bombarded, they tried to survive as best they could … they had no food and no sleep, they endured three days and did not run away, unlike their commanders,” Ina Popova, the wife of a soldier, said in a speech video recorded by the soldiers’ family members and published by Verstka. “Please help us save our movers [men] and take them away from the front line of defense,” Popova said, adding that her husband had been mobilized on Oct. 12 and sent to Ukraine soon after. Russian officials have repeatedly argued that the new conscripts, called up amid an unpopular mobilization effort launched by Putin to replenish his army after several setbacks, would be tasked primarily with controlling already occupied areas and supporting the rear rather than serve as the main propulsive force. Moscow took control of the Luhansk region early in the war, but its territory is under threat after Russian troops were defeated near Kharkiv in September and lost Liman, in the area that Colonel Lapin is responsible for, according to Russians. media. If Russia loses Svatove, Ukrainian forces will likely be able to advance further into Luhansk, reclaiming much of the territory that Putin has claimed was annexed and absorbed into Russia. Verstka, citing family members, said men mobilized in Voronezh ended up on the front lines after just a few days of training, possibly a decision by their commanders to close gaps in the defense lines and rotate depleted troops. Two soldiers from the Voronezh region told Verstka that only a few dozen men out of more than 500 soldiers in their unit have been accounted for after intense shelling last week. The pro-Kremlin Telegram channel “War on Fakes”, which is often cited by the Ministry of Defense, dismissed the reports as false. The governor of the Voronezh region, Alexander Gusev, said on Sunday that he had met with the family members who recorded the video address. Gusev’s press service did not deny reports of mass casualties, and a local news outlet deleted a report calling the information false. “The situation is quite difficult in terms of finding objectivity, so we do not take responsibility to make such statements and discuss facts and facts,” the press service told reporters at the local pool, according to a snapshot posted by a reporter at the pool. Russia has officially sent a reinforcement of 50,000 mobilized men to Ukraine in recent weeks with at least another 250,000 troops still in training, Putin said Monday during a cabinet meeting. Russian and Ukrainian forces are each bracing for a bitter winter that will complicate nearly every aspect of the war, from logistics to morale to the physical health of troops. For Ukraine, the approaching cold will be increasingly difficult to deal with after weeks of Russian attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure. In Kyiv, the capital, Monday passed in relative quiet with no air raid sirens or damage from Russian missiles – a welcome change for residents accustomed to Monday morning strikes over the past month. However, the attacks forced authorities to plan blackouts in the capital and other parts of the country to relieve pressure on the energy grid, and millions in the capital and surrounding areas were left without power overnight.
