​Kyril Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-appointed regional administration in Kherson, spoke disparagingly of Moscow generals and suggested that Russia’s defense minister shoot himself over failures in the Ukrainian conflict, in an extremely rare rebuke to Kremlin leaders, Reuters reports.

After more than seven months of war in Ukraine, Russia’s main military objectives have yet to be achieved, and Russian forces have suffered a series of battlefield defeats in recent months, prompting Putin to announce a partial mobilization.

The withdrawal of Russian troops from a strategically important city in eastern Ukraine this week prompted two of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most powerful allies to publicly mock the leaders of the war machine.

In a four-minute video message, Kyrylo Stremousov, deputy head of the Kherson region annexed by Russia, followed Kadyrov’s example, publicly scolding “generals and ministers” in Moscow for not understanding the problems at the front.

“Indeed, many say: if the Minister of Defense allowed this state of affairs, he could, like the officers, shoot himself,” Stremousov said. – But you know that the word “officer” is incomprehensible to many.

Such public – and offensive – criticism of Putin’s leadership from within the system is extremely rare in modern Russia.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, one of Putin’s closest allies, was appointed in 2012. Their relationship was so close that they regularly vacationed together in the forests and mountains of their native republic of Tuva Shoigu.

The Ministry of Defense declined to comment.

Instead, Stremousov praised the soldiers who fought to the death in defense of their country, contrasting their heroism with that of the “incompetent military leaders” in Moscow.

“Let’s put it this way: the Ministry of Defense consists not only of ministers, generals, corrupt people and various other scoundrels, but of all those heroes who gave their lives today, who stood to the end,” Stremousov said.

Stremousov praised the leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, who publicly reprimanded Russian military leaders.

“I agree with Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov, who raised this issue. Well done,” he said.

Criticism of Kadyrov

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has been close to Putin since his father and former Chechen president Akhmat was killed in a 2004 bombing in Grozny that also killed a Reuters photographer, has suggested Russia consider using tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine in retaliation . to the victims

His nuclear warning did not just attract the attention of the international media. His public disdain for senior Russian generals is significant in a context where public criticism of the war effort in the upper echelons of the elite has been taboo.

“Nepotism in the army will not lead to anything good,” Kadyrov said, adding that the people who commanded the Russian troops in Lyman should be stripped of their medals and sent to the front lines with weapons to wash away their shame with blood.

Such public disdain for the generals running Russia’s war is significant because it indicates the level of disillusionment among Putin’s elite with the conduct of the war, and because it permeates the Kremlin’s carefully controlled narrative.

Returning to the deputy chief in Kherson, Stremousov’s intervention comes after he appears to deny Ukraine’s progress on the front.

“Going back to all those counterattacks, as some people call them, you know, it’s like a broken record. Practice shows that all such counterattacks end in complete disorder and the deadly destruction of those who attack. That’s why we don’t panic,” says Kyrylo Stremousov.

“But you know, the most interesting thing, I said in the TV program, I reminded our enemies, who are now speaking Ukrainian, not to speak Russian: enemies, remember our tactical maneuver. When we retreat, it means we are moving forward,” Stremousov explains.

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