Russian general who faked victories ‘sacked by Putin’

The Telegraph: A senior Russian general has been sacked for faking reports of battlefield successes in Ukraine, according to Russian media and war bloggers.

Colonel General Gennady Anashkin had been the commander of the Russian Army’s “Southern Group” which is fighting around Siversk, near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.

“Very recently, false reports about supposedly deep successful breakthroughs began to come from Siversk,” said Military Informant, a Russian military blogging channel, after reporting the sacking.

Rybar, another prominent pro-Kremlin Telegram channel, said that as well as providing inaccurate reports, Col Gen Anashkin had thrown poorly prepared and ill-equipped units into battle, unnecessarily killing hundreds of men for little apparent tactical gain.

Neither the Kremlin nor the Russian Army has officially confirmed the sacking of Gen. Anashkin.

Russian state outlet RBK reported that a source in the Russian ministry of defence acknowledged Col Gen Anashkin’s dismissal but claimed that it was due to a “planned rotation”.

Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with the ministry of defence leadership, representatives of the defence industry and missile systems developers, in Moscow - Gavriil Grigorov/Reuters

Ahead of winter, Russian forces advanced at the fastest rate in Ukraine since the start of the 2022 invasion, though progress was much slower in some areas – particularly around Siversk in the war-battered Donetsk region.

The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think tank, said the Russian defence ministry had falsely claimed that its forces near Siversk had seized the villages of Bilohorivka on May 20 and Serebryanka in late October 2024.

Russian military bloggers widely applauded Col Gen Anashkin’s removal, saying it was likely to lead to improvements in military operations and place increased value on soldiers’ lives at the front.

However, Rybar said it was disappointed to learn that Col Gen Anashkin was being reassigned to a military training centre. It called the move part of a “harmful policy” of “sending generals who have committed offences to organise the training process”.

Col Gen Anashkin was only appointed commander of the Russian Army’s Southern Group in May. He was made a Hero of Russia, the highest honorary title of the Russian Federation, after leading airborne units during Russia’s five-day war in Georgia in 2008.

His sacking comes two days after Andrei Belousov, Russia’s defence minister, made a rare trip to view front-line Russian troops in Ukraine.

Putin installed Mr Belousov as his defence minister in May to improve the efficiency and performance of his army.

In his reports on the change of command, prominent pro-Russian war blogger Yuri Podolyaka quoted Mr Belousov as saying that “you can make mistakes but you cannot lie”.

Another Russian military blogger, the Two Majors, said the incident shows Mr Belousov was now taking a personal interest in the army, rather than just administrative reforms, by trying to root out poor commanders.

“Not all of Belousov’s visits to the front are made just to boost the morale of the fighters and the status of the commanders. Some of them are actually inspections,” it said.

Vladimir Putin has previously sacked senior generals for failures on the battlefield and for insubordination.

The section of the frontline around Siversk is considered vital. If Russian forces capture the town, analysts have said that they could then launch attacks on the larger Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, a major supply hub in the region.

Andrei Belousov (L), the defence minister, gives an award to a Russian serviceman - AP

On the front lines, Russian forces continue to push forward, with Russian sources suggesting the Kremlin’s forces had scored battlefield successes across the northern sector towards the Ukrainian city of Kupyansk.

Ukrainian intelligence has also reported that North Korean “technical advisers” have been spotted in Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov in occupied Ukraine.

Western intelligence had said that up to 12,000 North Korean soldiers were being thrown into battle in Russia’s southern border region of Kursk, which the Kremlin is attempting to recapture from Kyiv.

However, Ukrainian intelligence now suggests that they may play a wider role in the conflict as they move into Russian-held Ukrainian territories.

The Kremlin is also accused of recruiting hundreds of men from Yemen to fight in its war in Ukraine, according to the Financial Times.

The men were allegedly tricked into travelling to Russia with promises of work and citizenship but were instead forced into the army and sent to the front line.

A company linked to Iran-backed Houthi rebels, with whom Moscow has been building ties in recent years, is said to have helped organise the men’s transfer to Russia.

Overnight, Russia launched another major wave of drone attacks against Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelensky called on his Western allies to supply better air defences after voicing concern that 23 of the 73 drones launched by Russia managed to break through Ukraine’s defensive shield.

“An air alert has been sounded almost daily across Ukraine,” the Ukrainian president said, after a week in which Moscow’s forces launched more than 20 missiles, 800 guided aerial bombs, and 460 attack drones.

“Ukraine is not a testing ground for weapons,” he added.