Vladimir Putin has “very likely” sacked six generals for going too slow in the war in Ukraine, Britain’s defense chiefs said on Friday. They dismissed as “deliberate disinformation” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s claim that the pace of the military campaign had been deliberately slackened. They also pointed out that a missile attack on a train on Wednesday in Chaplyne, eastern Ukraine, highlighted the Russian military’s “willingness to cause collateral damage when it perceives a military advantage” in an attack. In its latest intelligence briefing, the Ministry of Defense in London said: “On 24 August 2022, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told the Shanghai Cooperation Organization that Russia is deliberately slowing down the pace of its military campaign in Ukraine, due to the need to reduce casualties civilians. “This is almost certainly deliberate misinformation. Russia’s offensive has stalled due to poor Russian military performance and stiff Ukrainian resistance. Under Shoigu’s command, forces operating in Ukraine have repeatedly missed planned operational schedules.
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“It is very likely that Shoigu and President Putin have fired at least six generals for not moving fast enough.” The update added: “On the day Shoigu was speaking, a Russian SS-26 Iskander short-range ballistic missile struck a train in the town of Chaplyne, reportedly killing at least two children. “This underscores Russia’s willingness to inflict collateral damage when it perceives a military advantage in launching missile or artillery bombardments.” Russia’s ground campaign has stalled in recent months after its troops were pushed out of the capital Kyiv in the first weeks of the invasion, but fighting continues along front lines to the south and east, which are largely in deadlock. Russian forces control a swath of land along Ukraine’s Black Sea and Sea of Azov coasts, while the conflict has turned into a war of attrition in the eastern Donbass region. Russia said its forces struck a train station in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, killing 200 Ukrainian servicemen, confirming an attack that Kyiv said killed 25 civilians as the nation celebrated its Independence Day. The Russian Defense Ministry said an Iskander missile hit a military train at the Chaplyne station that it claimed was to deliver weapons to Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbas region. Ukrainian officials said civilians were killed when a house and station were hit and five train cars were engulfed in flames. Moscow denies targeting civilians. But many of the Kremlin’s claims of information warfare are countered by numerous reports from the front lines. The British, US and Ukrainian updates should also be treated with caution as they are engaged in an information war with Russia, which they are widely believed to be winning. The Ukrainian military announced on Friday that its air force had launched raids on troop and weapons concentration areas in two different locations. The report came a day after the Russian Defense Ministry said Russian forces had destroyed eight Ukrainian warplanes in raids on air bases in the Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk regions. This would be one of the heaviest losses for Ukraine’s air force in recent weeks. Ukraine’s operational command “South” said its artillery hit ammunition depots and enemy personnel in the Kherson region, while launching airstrikes against enemy air defenses. In the Donbass region, Russia’s TASS news agency reported that Ukrainian forces using a US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launcher targeted the city of Stakhanov, with about ten rockets hitting the city before dawn on Friday, according to officials from the breakaway region of Moscow. Luhansk. In its morning summary of battlefield developments from across the country on Friday, the Ukrainian military also said its forces repelled Russian attacks on the towns of Bakhmut and Soledar in the Donetsk region. Kyiv has repeatedly asked for more, high-quality Western military equipment it says it needs to repel Russian attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday spoke by phone with US President Joe Biden, who reiterated US support for Ukraine against Russia, the White House said. Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kyiv on Wednesday in a show of solidarity from the British government, announcing a new weapons package for Ukraine that includes dozens of micro-drones. Potentially lending further credence to Western estimates of heavy Russian casualties during the war, Mr Putin signed a decree on Thursday increasing the size of Russia’s armed forces to 2.04 million from 1.9 million. Britain’s defense chiefs believe around 80,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, wounded, missing or deserted since Putin launched his invasion on February 24. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers were killed or wounded. Thousands of civilians have also been killed in Russian bombing, airstrikes and other attacks, according to reports, including hundreds of children.
