Russian President Vladimir Putin has fired five general, including a Major General who was responsible for the logistics and medical support for the military, as his invasion of Ukraine drags on in into its fourth month, Newsweek reports.
Putin also fired the Major General in charge of the domestic police force under Putin’s direction. While the Kremlin has described this as a normal rotation of staff officers, no new assignments for the officers have been announced.
Those fired were: Major General of Police Vasily Kukushkin, who was head of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Vladimir region; Major General Alexander Laas, deputy head of the Main Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Altai Territory; Major General Andrey Lipilin, head of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Yaroslavl Region; Major General Alexander Udovenko of the Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; and Major General Yuri Instrankin, deputy head of the Department for Logistics and Medical Support of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
These dismissals come less than two weeks after Putin fired Lieutenant General Serhiy Kisel, who had commanded the 1st Guards Tank Army, and Vice Admiral Igor Osipov of the Black Sea Fleet, which suffered the loss of its flagship due to Ukrainian missiles. General Valery Gerasimov, the Russian equivalent of the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was absent without explanation from Victory Day celebrations in May.