The Russian military announced on Sunday the appointment of a new head of military rear support, General Oleksiy Kuzmenkov, to replace another senior officer, General Mykhailo Mizintsev, as Kyiv says it has completed preparations for a counteroffensive, AFP reported.

“General Oleksiy Kuzmenkov has been appointed Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia for logistical support of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” the military department said in a statement.

Who is Oleksiy Kuzmenkov?

Until now, Kuzmenkov was the deputy chief of the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardiya), holding this position since 2019, according to the press release.

Thus, Oleksiy Kuzmenkov replaced Mykhailo Mizintsev, who was appointed to this position only in September last year.

The former head of the National Defense Management Center, Mizintsev, dubbed the “Butcher of Mariupol” by the Western press, has been sanctioned by the West for his role in the siege of Mariupol, a port city in southeastern Ukraine devastated by bombing.

However, neither the Russian military nor the media officially announced his release.

Russian logistics have often failed since the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, which began in February 2022.

This was put to the test, in particular, by President Vladimir Putin’s decision to mobilize several hundred thousand men last September in an attempt to stem the setbacks suffered by the Russian army in the face of Western-provided Ukrainian forces and weapons.

On Friday afternoon, the Ukrainian army reacted ironically to the information that the Russian colonel-general Mykhailo Mizintsev, nicknamed the “Butcher of Mariupol”, was dismissed from his position in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

“Colonel General Mizintev has been dismissed from the post of Deputy Minister of Defense for Logistics. He is not only a skilled thief, but also a skilled killer of tens of thousands of Mariupol residents. His future as a defendant and convicted war criminal will suit him perfectly,” he said in a post on Twitter Ministry of Defense in Kyiv.

The comments from the command in Moscow came after Reuters reported earlier on Friday, citing informed sources in Russia, that Mizintsev had been fired from the post of deputy defense minister responsible for logistics and supply, to which he had been appointed. in September.

“Butcher of Mariupol” fired because of “Putin’s cook”?

Oleksandr Sladkov, one of the most famous Russian military bloggers, and RBC, Russia’s largest financial channel, announced his removal from the post on Tuesday. However, neither Sladkov nor RBC explained the reason for the general’s dismissal.

One possibility is that he was fired because of problems reported by Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Wagner’s mercenaries, regarding the supply of ammunition to his units.

Prigozhin sharply blamed the situation, even suggesting that they would be guilty of treason against the Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu and the Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov, but Mizintsev was hierarchically responsible for organizing supplies for the Russian military forces.

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