A general that Vladimir Putin recently hailed the ‘Hero of Russia’ has reportedly been removed from his position as Moscow’s invasion faces embarrassing setbacks.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said General Alexander Lapin had been sacked from the role, the fourth senior commander to have been pushed aside since the war began.
It follows a pattern of senior military officials copping the blame for Mr Putin’s floundering war to “deflect blame from Russian senior leadership at home”.
“If confirmed, this follows a series of dismissals of senior Russian military commanders since the onset of the invasion in February,” the UK intelligence said.
“Lapin has been widely criticised for poor performance on the battlefield in Ukraine.
“These dismissals represent a pattern of blame against senior Russian military commanders for failures to achieve Russian objectives on the battlefield.”
Just four months ago Vladimir Putin hailed General Alexander Lapin as the ‘Hero of Russia’. Photo: Getty
It comes as Mr Putin publicly endorsed the evacuation of parts of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region in the latest sign of Russia’s retreat from one of the most hotly contested areas in Ukraine.
“Now, of course, those who live in Kherson should be removed from the zone of the most dangerous actions because the civilian population should not suffer,” Mr Putin told pro-Kremlin activists as he marked Russia’s Day of National Unity.
Freezing Kyiv faces evacuations
Meanwhile Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko warned residents should be prepared to leave the capital city because of blackouts and cuts to its water supply and heating network caused by Russian strikes on the power grid.
Average winter temperatures in Ukraine are below freezing during the day, but about 40 per cent of the country’s power network has been damaged or destroyed.
The BBC reports that a city official warned a total blackout would also affect the water supply and sewage.
“Our enemies are doing all they can to leave this city without heating, without electricity and without water supply – in short so that we all die,” Mr Klitschko said.
He said evacuations would be a worst-case scenario and “we are doing all we can to ensure that things do not come to this”.
The mayor put the number of residents in the city at about three million, including 350,000 internally displaced persons.
Many of the lights are out in Kyiv. Photo: Getty
Kyiv is attempting to stabilise its power grid by phased blackouts that leave parts of the city in darkness for a number of hours and is setting up 1000 communal warm facilities in case the district heating network goes down.
Klitschko, famous as a former heavyweight world boxing champion, accused Mr Putin of aiming to destroy Ukraine.
“Putin does not need us Ukrainians. He needs the region, he needs a Ukraine without us.”
-with AAP
